Grandparent memories 3 from 4 on SBC 15

Hello Hello to all Hivians, Silver Bloggers and anyone else reading this.

Grandparent memories 3 from 4 on SBC 15.png

This week's The Silver Bloggers Chronicles - Prompt 15 is ....

Fond memories with your grandparents

Do you have fond memories of your grandparents? Share some of your favourites.

3 from 4

I only knew three of my grandparents and sadly they have all passed away.

My father's father I never knew as he died when my father was 12. Sir Edward Blount was my great great grandfather and I have the Blount nose but thankfully I have a head full of hair!

He was a character and started and owned banks in France, he built quite a few of the first railways in France, was an avid horse racing fan and led a fascinating life. He died in his 90s which was pretty cool.

The chain smoking wee Granny!

I did know my paternal grandmother or granny though. When my parents moved from Edinburgh to the Orkney Islands, I stayed at this school in Edinburgh and switched from being a day boy to a boarder.

My granny was my only relative living in Edinburgh. And once a week, usually on a Thursday afternoon, I would catch the number 23 bus from school up to her flat in Morningside.

It would go past Prince St and the Mound where they always had great floral displays.

I must have know this prompt was coming because in the Summer I took Mrs T to see where she lived. I have no idea why, even when we lived in Edinburgh for many years I never took her here!

4 Spring Valley Gardens was her flat and that is it there. Morningside is where JK Rowling used to live and was women from there were often known as the "all fur coat and nae knickers" brigade lol!

So when I visited her and mind I would have been about 12 or 13, I would go get her messages, these would be a packet of Benson & Hedges cigarettes (it was for my granny so the shopkeeper let me have them lol), two bits of smoked Finnan haddock from the fishmonger as well as some baby potatoes.

She would then cook the fish in milk, and damn it was delicious. I used to sneak a couple of cigarettes as my reward 🤣

To this day, whenever I see fish in milk or Benson & Hedges cigarettes I think of her.

Maternal grandparent memories!!!

Whilst my granny stayed in Edinburgh and I used to visit after school. Mum's parents lived across the water in Fife.

I would cross the Firth of Forth sometimes at weekends to visit them.

Grandma would come to meet me Kirkcaldy train station...

Kirkcaldy is where we live now, how strange life is.

They used to have Rover cars which back in the day where big and expensive.

Grandma was about four foot two in high heels, no I am joking she was not that small, but she was teeny and had to sit on a cushion so she could see over the steering wheel!

Kirkcaldy was also where the funeral of my grandpa was.

He was a big freemason and a bank manager and JP. He became the treasurer of the Scottish masons which at that time was a big thing. His funeral that had to move to Kirkcaldy to cope with the crowds. I went and was amazed at all these people lining the streets as his coffin went past.

He was a hard but fair man.

I remember two fond memories of him. When I was 12 I first got hit with my arthritis and could not move my groin and left leg. At the time I was a Scottish Rugby Under 13 player so loved my sport and was a fast runner.

My school master knew there was something wrong and so did grandpa. All the doctors said I was either lying or fell out of a tree or nothing to worry about it's just growing pains.

He on the other hand could see there was something wrong. Isobel look at yer laddie, he can't walk properly, there is something seriously wrong. I was in the hallway and heard him, I was so happy somebody believed me. So I went and thanked him.

The other fond memory was when I was at school. It was Easter holidays and my parents had come down from Orkney Islands for a break. I was there too. I had also been caught drinking at school again🤣

My best friend at school was in the same boarding house as me and ironically lived in the next Fife town to my grandparents so they had a soft spot for him.

He and I were both 14 and over six foot and a pair of rascals. We used to buy the drink for the guys in our dorm. One Saturday we had been in the park drinking vodka and beer and smoking as usual. It was late and so we sauntered back to the boarding house at 2am. Our dorm was on the second floor. No problem we climbed up the drain pipe and one of the boys in the dorm opened the window and in we came.

Some bastard ratted us out. We were suspended and as it was not the first time, about to be expelled.

My parents were discussing it with grandpa and grandma. I remember him saying to mum ... Isobel boys will be boys, and they let off steam. Where was the harm?

He was a big bear of a man, and never went to hospital. Cancer got him and he died at home. It was in the summer holidays and I was staying with my friend in Anstruther. One morning the phone rang, and I remember my friend's mother speaking on the phone, she was saying "Oh dear, I will tell him". I was cooking fried eggs to put in white rolls. I just knew grandpa had passed away. Yep sure enough, so know when I cook a fried egg and put it in a roll I always think of him!

After he died, grandma moved from the big house in Elie to this small bungalow in Pittenweem, another fishing village on the coast in Fife.

Isn't it bizarre as I took these pictures this summer along with granny's flat, neither place I have not seen for decades!

The tennis club was where I would play tennis as I had a delightful girl friend there. So when Mrs T and I walked past it I said oh look that is where Lorraine and I played tennis.

Of course this was ammo for her to tease.