Happy birthday, Lucile Fox Osgood!

Today is my Grandma Osgood's birthday. She was born in 1921 in Saffordville, Kansas. She died a little over 5 years ago. I miss her!

Lucile was one of ten children born to William and Lillie Pearl Fox. Only seven daughters survived childhood. Grandma was the third oldest. After high school graduation i n1939, she spent 2 years at the State Teacher's college in Emporia, Kansas. She taught in a one room school house in Florence Kansas. That is where she met a handsome young farmer by the name of Everett Osgood. From what Grandma told my sister and I, Everett would go out of his way to go pick up the daily mail--a route that would take him right by the little schoolhouse. The kids would see him coming and singsong to their teacher, "Here comes Mr. Osgood!" Here is a photo of "Lucie and her kids" in front of the schoolhouse in the early 1940's,

Lucile and Everett were married on April 30, 1944 at the home of her sister in Elmdale, Kansas. They spent their young married life in Florence, but moved to Idaho in about 1953. (I'm sure my mom or uncle Milt can be more specific about this date).

Grandma gave birth to seven babies. Her second, Anita Rae, died at birth. If memory serves me correctly from conversations I had with her and my mom about the event, the baby was breech. The doctors told her that the baby was stillborn, but Grandma heard Anita cry. After that, Grandma had her next baby, my mom, at home.

Grandma was a beautiful, strong lady, yet very gentle at the same time. She had a great sense of humor and she loved the Lord. Even though I miss her, I know that one day we will see each other again.

Here Grandma meets her newest great grandson, Olivier. This was taken in about 2000.

Monday Memory-Grandma Osgood's collections

Ever since I can remember, my Grandma Osgood (my mom's mom) was a collector. I don't know if she was earlier in her life, but I sure do remember her enjoying her collectibles. But I have many memories of Grandma's various collections. This is a photo of Grandma on Christmas in 1976. You can see a gift on her lap that she is getting ready to open. Perhaps it is going to add to one of her collections?

For a long time, it was understood that Grandma collected frogs. All kinds of frogs. Wind up frogs that would hop across the table, frogs that would swim in your bathtub, glass frogs, stuffed frogs, you name it. I don't know why she liked to collect them, but she did. I remember going through her frog collection with her when we were visiting in the summer. So whenever we would see a frog item, it had Grandma's name written all over it. At some point as I got older, somehow word got out that Grandma was kind of tired of frogs.

The next collection I remember was her collection of cartoon glasses. Hanna Barbera cartoons, to be exact. I seem to vaguely recall that there was some kind of promotion at a local store or fast food place that got this collection going. Mom told me over the Thanksgiving holiday it was in soap boxes. They were great glasses, perfect for that one soda we were allowed each day from her vending machine in the back. She had all the characters: Bugs Buggy; Daffy Duck; Pepe LePeu; Speedy Gonzales; Elmer Fudd; and that rooster whose name escapes me now. After Grandma died the brothers and sisters (my aunts and uncles) got together and divided up some of the personal property. Mom came home with a couple of these glasses. Sometimes when I'm at her house and I'm helping myself to a drink, I see them in the cupboard and a flash of memory of grandma goes up. It's nice. Without even knowing about this post, Mom had them out on Thanksgiving for us to use.

The collection I most identify with was Grandma's doll collection. I have a bit of one of these myself. ;-) I remember in the early 1980's being enchanted with her Prince Charles/Lady Diana wedding set. Jr. High girls like me were enthralled with Lady Di and her story of becoming a princess. Another one that jumps to my mind is Scarlett O'Hara. It was around Jr. High that I became a history buff, and the Civil War was one of my favorite subjects. The glamour of the Southern Belles, of course, was enchanting to me as well. So once I saw the movie, "Gone With the Wind" I fell in love with Grandma's Scarlett doll. (I fell in love with the movie too, its probably my all time favorite picture.) Scarlett was dressed as she was when she is going to the Wilkes' barbecue/ball. Grandma told me that "Gone With the Wind" was a movie that she and Grandpa went out to see on a date. That made it even more special to me.

She had other dolls too. I remember mom getting her a Madame Alexander doll that looked like Betsy Ross. When I went to the Provence region of France for the first time, I got her a local doll called a Santon. Grandma kept most of the smaller dolls in a cupboard with some wavy glass over it. So you couldn't really see the dolls unless she would open up the case and show you. It was a highlight of a trip to Idaho to have Grandma display her dolls for us.

There probably were other collections too, but these were the ones I most remember.

Monday Memory - Spending the night at the Osgoods

As I've described in previous posts. on our family vacations we would usually stay at Grandma & Grandpa Graham's. As I got older, once in awhile I got the opportunity to go by myself and spend the night with Grandma & Grandpa Osgood. The picture to the right is of Grandma Osgood on Christmas Day in 1976. She's in the living room of their home in Fruitland. The walls were turquoise. How neat was that?

If it was just me alone with Grandma & Grandpa, we would have the evening meal on a little table in the kitchen. The table had fold out sides that would make it big enough for us. I was fascinated with a bug zapper Grandma & Grandpa had that was right outside the window. Mosquitoes were an issue with me...I always seemed to get eaten alive on vacation. That juicy California skin, I guess. In the evening, Grandpa would watch the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. It seemed like we were staying up really late, because at home in California, Johnny Carson came on at 11:30 p.m. In Idaho's mountain time zone, it was 10:30 p.m. Grandpa would sit in his easy chair and have a cigarette while he watched. The room always had a faint smell of cigarette smoke. It's strange now--that smell is such a turn off, but as a kid, I barely noticed. It was there, sure. But it wasn't as off-putting as it is now.

Where would I sleep? I remember a few times sleeping in the upstairs bedroom that used to be my Aunt's. (My mom's too when she was younger). I remember once when I was a little older, maybe 12 or so, when my cousin came that night too. She was just a year older than me and we always had a great time together. We slept in sleeping bags on Grandma's dining room floor and talked about all kinds of things pre-teen girls talk about. It was great. When I was older, I remember sleeping on the sofa hide a bed. By then, Grandma had a thing about protecting pillows and mattresses. So they all would be covered with plastic. Every time you rolled over, the crinkly sound would wake you up. Plus, it would get kind of hot in the summer. But it was worth it.

The mornings bring special memories of a very special breakfast. Grandma always had Froot Loops on hand just for me. I don't know when I told her I liked them--I was too young to remember. But Grandma always remembered. There was never a time when I was there that she did not have this yummy breakfast treat for me. It was extra special because mom never bought the sugary cereals. It was all business, healthy stuff. Mom stuff. But Grandmas are different. They remember what you like, and don't mind indulging your sweet tooth.

Grandpa died in September 1996. Grandma followed him in January 2004. Since then, the house has been vacant. It looks like my aunts and uncles are going to finally sell the place and finalize the estate issues. A part of me hopes that the place does not sell until late next summer. I expect to be in Boise in June, and would love to be able to go back inside the house one last time. Here is how it looks on Google maps street view:

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Monday Memory-The Osgood house

A word of disclaimer: The facts and assumptions that follow may not be 100% accurate. They are the memories of a little girl and there are most likely innocent or misunderstood things in this post. Please excuse any of these, and I bet your indulgence for a short while....

On our trips to Idaho, we would sleep at the Graham's, but we would spend days at Grandma & Grandpa Osgood's house. I loved the look of the outside of the house with its turquoise accents. They had land that went far back as well. At one point when I was small, I remember Grandpa having cows! I also remember chickens and geese. Grandma also had a lot of farm cats. They stayed outside and did their thing, but it was always fun to see kitties running around.

As a young girl, I called Grandma Osgood my "pink" Grandma. I don't remember why-perhaps she wore a pair of pink slacks that impressed me once when I was young. But pink being a rosy and cheerful kind of color, it fit with my Grandma Osgood perfectly.

We would have to go down a long driveway to get to their house. There was a ditch that ran along the road that the driveway went over. My mom told me of times as a kid when asparagus grew wild along the ditch bank. I was always afraid we would fall in it! The driveway bordered a huge front yard. When I was small, there were huge apricot trees in the front yard. I remember eating my first apricots at Grandma Osgood's. The driveway ended at a garage. I was always kind of wary of this area, because they had two boxes with BEES in them hooked onto the building. I was told they weren't the stinging kind, but I still didn't want to be near them.

In between the driveway and the house was a contraption with a big stone wheel and a seat on it. It was kind of like a bike without wheels. I'm pretty sure now that it was a sharpening stone. If I'm wrong, I hope one of my Osgood relatives will comment here and correct me. Here is a picture of me when I was about 2 on it with my Grandpa holding me on the seat.

Grandma had a large kitchen garden in the back. There was also a good sized yard with trees. Grandma was a great gardener. Mom told me recently that there were times when she was young that Grandma's garden fed the family. I remember her making big "dinners" for the noon time meal. It was strange for us to have "dinner" at lunch time. I particularly remember some delicious rasberries that were partially frozen and sprinkled with sugar. I've never had raspberries like that since!

I remember summer days out on the back porch visiting. There were these funny chairs made out of tractor seats for everyone to sit on. Grandma & Grandpa had an old-fashioned Coke machine that took dimes. Grandma was a Pepsi drinker. No Coke for her. There was a difference, and you couldn't fool her. (Or was it the other way around?) The sodas (or "pops") came in glass bottles. We would drink them right out of the bottle, or pour them into one of Grandma's "Loony Tunes" glasses. She had a collection of glasses with all the Loony Tunes characters on them: Bugs Bunny; Elmer Fudd; Daffy Duck; Speedy Gonzales; Pepe le Pew; the Tasmanian Devil; etc. Mom let us kids have one soda per day. It was always kind of hard to decide when to take it. If you took it too early, you were done for the day.

I don't remember much of the house before they added some rooms onto the back. We would enter the house through the back, up a ramp built for my uncle who uses a wheelchair to have access to the house. The first room you would enter was the kitchen. There was a small room off to the side that had an old hospital bed and other stuff in it. The kitchen had a blue and white short carpet. Grandma's kitchen was a busy place. Her refrigerator was an old one...I think it said "Coldspot" on it. It had these complicated ice cube trays that I never did figure out how to use. This picture is from our trip during the summer of 1976.

The next room was the dining room. There was a huge table that we all would sit around and chat or play Uno on. It had claw feet on it. My mom now has this table at her house. The bathroom was off to the left and it would be freaky sometimes at night or in the morning to go in and see a pair of teeth or two in a glass by the sink! Both Grandma & Grandpa wore dentures and that took some getting used to. Grandpa used to play around with my brother by popping his teeth out of place, yet keeping them in his mouth and chasing him around. It was funny to watch...I was just glad he wasn't chasing me!!

Past the dining room and through some accordion doors was the original part of the house. There was an old living room that smelled of old cigarette smoke. Grandpa was a long time smoker. It didn't bother me as a kid. It was before the days where there was any stigma attached to it. I remember a big velvet painting on one wall of a matador fighting a bull. There was a window air conditioning unit on the opposite wall. There was a downstairs bedroom that my uncle used. Like my Grandpa Graham, Grandpa Osgood had his chair. There were two couches for the rest of us.

I was always fascinated with the doorknobs in this room. They were so pretty to me--like jewels-chiseled diamonds. One door led to the upstairs. When you would start up the creaky stairs, it would feel like an older house. At the top was my aunt's room. I'm told that at one time my mom and 2 of her sisters all shared this room. When I was a kid, my aunt still lived there. She was a high school cheerleader and her pom poms would be tossed to the side of the room. She would go out on dates and was just so stylish to me. She had these pretty shoes in a size 5. She was only 10 years my senior, so I looked up to her a lot. Kind of like a living Barbie doll!

There was a very short and narrow hall way with a bookshelf packed with books and old Archie comics. I remember the high school senior portraits of my mom and her brothers and sisters in 8x10 frames on top. I was so impressed by these pictures! The girls all got to wear these pink or blue boas--they all looked like movie stars. The boys were in suits and looked so handsome!

At the end of the hall was Grandma & Grandpa's room. I rarely went in there. It just didn't seem right. All I can remember of it was their being a lot of "stuff" in there.

Sometimes, we would spend a night with my mom's parents too. But this post is getting pretty long, so I think I'll save that for another Monday.