Yesterday’s post about the old Lily Pond in City Park sparked a debate as to which pond was actually the one with all the lilies on it…the big one that is still there or the smaller one that was taken out many years ago. I set out to do some research on Roger Mackey’s page. Roger is a fine historian on West Virginia, and Parkersburg in particular. He has pages and pages of historic photos of everything from the old movie theaters to natural disasters…from the society elite to skid row…and all things in between. I can get lost for hours looking through his old photos. It’s like going into an antique store for me.

As I browsed through the titles of the different pages, looking for City Park, I saw the page for Greiner’s Bakery and clicked on it. My paternal grandmother decorated cakes for Greiner’s for many, many years. The Bakery sat near the corner of my high school campus and every afternoon the smell of fresh baked bread wafted in through the open windows of my classroom, drawing my attention quickly away from the dry lectures my chemistry teacher gave.

I could hardly wait till school was out each afternoon. I would meet my cousin Mike and walk up the alley to Grandmother’s house. She always had a dozen raised glazed donuts and a galling of ice cold milk waiting for us. We made quick work of those delicious treats. She called them “seconds”, which meant they were accidentally dropped in the glaze twice! Their loss was definitely our gain!

As I scrolled down the old photos and read the descriptions, I stumbled across two special ones that caused a rush of memories and a great big smile. First, there was this photo of the company Christmas Party. I scanned the faces, and there…to the left…is my grandmother, smiling broadly into the camera! My relationship with my dad’s mother was complicated by her dislike for my father. I never quite understood my standing in her world, but I do have many fond memories of her. She baked and decorated wonderful cakes. She instilled her loved of seeing and crafting in me. She made the best chicken and dumplings I ever ate. She also forced me to drink unsweetened sage tea as she believed my pale skin was secondary to intestinal parasites. To this day, I cannot stomach sage.

I remember the house she lived in on Avery Street. Avery was one of the old brick streets in town. Grandmother’s house was a half block from a huge cemetery and just two blocks from my high school. She rented the lower level of a two story house. The landlady lived upstairs with her cocker spaniel, Honey. Honey would cry and howl every time her mama would leave the house and it made me so sad. The front porch was large and covered. There was a swing and room for several chairs.

The interior of the house was dark and quiet. The mahogany hardwood floors were covered with thick oriental rugs. The mantel in the front room had a clock that chimed the hour. The dining room was set up as her sewing room…an old, low, armless rocker sat in the corner. The bedroom was comfortable. A silver ladies dresser set was on the top with a brush, a comb, a mirror, a small cup for bobby pins, and a covered powder container filled with the pale grey webbing of hair nets. The tines of the comb were blue from the rinse my grandmother religiously put on her hair. The bathroom had doors to the bedroom and the kitchen. I loved the claw foot tub. I received many Toni home perms in that bathroom. The kitchen had tall, white painted cabinets and a long, deep farm sink. It was the brightest room in the house. The counters were covered with African violets growing in every possible container…including teacups. The backdoor let out to a postage stamp yard with a huge holly tree. A dogwood graced the front yard. Bits of slate tiles lay here and there around the perimeter of the house. I was lucky and found a whole one once that crash landed in the flower bed. I used it as a blackboard when I played school.

As I scrolled past the picture with my grandmother in it, I came to a shot of the display windows in one of the newer stores. There in the left is a doll cake. Oh, my…I coveted that cake every year, begging my grandmother for one for my birthday. When I finally got one, I was elated…especially when I found out the doll’s legs were embedded in rich, buttercream frosting! The “dress” was decorated with loops and swags and flowers and I thought it was the prettiest thing I had ever seen.

Complicated family relationships can lead to a lifetime of resentment and hurt feelings. The other day, my post was all about forgiveness setting you free. Forgiveness hasn’t rewritten history, per se. But it has allowed me to focus on the good memories I have of my father and his family. And as an adult, I have had the utmost good fortune of getting to know my cousins from that side of the family and I have been greatly blessed by that. It is never too late to change your focus and see the good parts of your past. Yesterday’s treasured finds have reminded me of that. ❤️

“So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”
‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭10:31‬ ‭NIV‬‬