Today while at work, I had to go on EBAY to look for an old printer for parts for my company. In my travels on EBAY, I came across a picture of an old perculator coffee pot and it instantly brought me back in time.
From the time I was about 5 until I was about 15, my brother, my sister and I would go to our grandparent's house every Saturday Morning without fail. My parents were in the retail industry and had to work on Saturdays. Each Saturday, our parents would drop us off REALLY early at my grandparent's house. Certain times of the year it would still be dark outside, that's how early!
Upon our arrival, my grandparents would be up waiting for us. Every Saturday we had the same breakfast, toasted bagels with cream cheese, orange juice, and my grandparents would have their coffee. My Grandmother would plug in the perculator and it had this distinctive sound. The smell of the fresh brewed coffee filled the entire house. Only a slight hint of the bagel aroma toasting in the oven would challenge that coffee aroma. While breakfast was cooking, me and my siblings would sneak into the living room and where there was always a huge glass candy dish overflowing with candy. We would try to take the top off and take candy out of it without Grandma hearing it. I know that she knew we were in that candy at 7am, but she never said a word.
At breakfast, we would all sit in the same seats weekly. My grandfather to my right, then my brother, then my grandma, then my sister. It was a circular, white marble table with white wrought iron chairs with white cushiony seats. My grandparents would have the radio on each week which was built into the wall directly behind where I sat. It was an in-house intercom/radio system. At the time, we did not appreciate what they played, big band music, jazz, Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, etc. We would always beg, and my grandma would finally give in and let us put on "our" station after breakfast.
Breakfast was followed by a Saturday Morning filled with cartoon watching. My Grandpa loved watching The Smurfs, The Flintstones, Scooby-Doo and all the great cartoons from back in the day. While we did that, my grandma would clean up the kitchen, start cooking for later that day, and make it a great day for all of us.
After cartoons, I would head out in the yard with my Grandpa while my brother and sister stayed in with Grandma. My Grandpa always had a "project" to do outside and I would always help him out.
By afternoon, my Grandpa and I would drop my Grandma, my brother and my sister off at the supermarket where my parents worked when my Mom's shift was over, where they would do the weekkly food shopping. My Grandpa and I would then go shopping at the mall for tools, toys, or head back to the house where we would just chat about when he was a kid and things like that.
It's amazing how a picture of a coffee pot could bring back so many memories.
5 comments:
As soon as I saw that picture I too thought of my grandparents. We used to go there every Sunday and that electric perk coffee smelled so good you could taste it. I was about 12 when I asked my mother if I could have some and with a little persuasion they gave in,hence started my coffee drinking. They didn't want to let me have it but being the "baby" I knew how to get my way.
I have great memories of my grandparents. We used to sleep over every so often and around Halloween my gandfather who worked for Ideal Toys would bring us flashlights with lighted pumpkin heads and we would shut off all the lights and play hide and seek with our flashlights,and then my grandfather always carve a pumpkin for us and put a candle in it to bring home. So many memories so little space.
Smells do make you nostalgic. It's pancakes for me. It seemed like whenever we woke up at my grandma's, it smelled like pancakes. Yankee use to make a candle that smelled just the same, but they discontinued it. Grandparents are the greatest!
That picture reminds me of my grandparents house too. They had one just like that. I used to spend a couple of weeks during the summer with my grandparents, because both sets lived in the same town, so I would go back and forth. SO many memories of that I wish I could give to my children, but those days are LONG gone.
This is such a wonderful post about your grandparents. :) I imagine you with your grandfather doing those projects and it makes me smile.
My mom actually had a coffee pot like that! Took her years to buy a coffee maker! I think she still might have that old perk somewhere in the basement! She drinks her coffee black and when I was little I would always have a cup to dip my chocolate chip cookies into it!!!
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