Grandma's Glass

It's time again for Vintage Thingie Thursday! I haven't participated in a while, but thought I'd jump back in this week with a couple pieces of pink glass that belonged to my grandmother on my dad's side.

Grandma Frieda would have been 101 years old on May 1. Every year on her birthday, we kids would cut some pretty tulips from our garden and deliver them to Grandma, who lived about a mile away on the other side of our small town.

Grandma was a soft-spoken woman of few words, but she was always there with a warm, soft hug and a listening ear. She enjoyed the simple things--tending her vegetable garden and flowers, baking a pie or kuchen for Sunday visitors, and enjoying the cool evening breeze on her front porch after a long day of household chores.

Quick with a smile and a perpetual twinkle in her eye, Grandma was good company. Her home was an oasis from whatever chaos or drama may have been happening at our house, and I would often steal away and pedal my bike across town to visit with her for a while. Things were uncomplicated at Grandma's, and peaceful. That is, except for holidays and other family gatherings when everyone descended on her little house. Then it was a free-for-all, with lots of laughter, beer drinking, cigar smoke, Shafskopf playing, and table pounding--and that was just in the kitchen! We girls would play tag and other games, and my brothers and their cousin cohorts would wrestle until some kid came up crying.

Grandma was of German ancestry, and although she grew up speaking English, she attended a German Lutheran church and was "confirmed in German," meaning she had a fair understanding of it growing up. She had a few odd expressions that made us chuckle, including, "Ach, yay-o-yay!" which was the equivalent of "OMG" today. "Yoish!" meant something along the lines of, "Jeez!" or "Crap!" with a hint of "Whaddaya gonna do?" Her answer in the affirmative was never "Yes" but "Yah," based on the German "Ja," as well as being standard Wisconsinese for that generation. Her word for toast was "toast-bread," and to remove something was to get it "offen" there. If she wanted you to hang on, she'd say, "Wait, once." (How would a person wait twice, anyway?)

Grandma & Dad

When Grandma passed away, the few possessions she had were divvied up, and I came by these two pieces.

The covered dish had held Grandma's dusting powder on her dresser. The puff smelled like Lily of the Valley.

Love that little dog on the lid.

The other piece is--well, I don't know what you would call that kind of glass. Maybe you know? I'm not even sure what it was for. It's pretty, though. I like the way the glass is pleated and folded.

The doily didn't come from Grandma but was crocheted by her sister-in-law probably in the 1930s or '40s. The pink and white colors remind me of the voluptuous peony bushes Grandma had alongside her house.

These pieces, while neither expensive nor rare, are treasured because of the memories they hold of my gentle and genial Grandma Frieda.

Thanks so much for stopping by to visit today! Be sure to check out more vintage goodies listed and linked at Colorado Lady.