It’s Leap Day! Or as we always called it in my family: Grandma’s birthday. This would have been her 24th birthday and her 96th year of life; she died two years ago.
I loved Grandma but I was also a bit scared of her–I think we all were. She was a commanding woman who had opinions. Oh, did she ever. She loved gardening, bowling, and there were always cookies in the dishwasher.
Okay, the dishwasher thing: the water is super hard at my grandparents’ house: well water, no softener, northern Michigan. At some point they had a dishwasher installed but I never saw it used because, apparently, it didn’t wash the dishes to Grandma’s very exacting specifications. So that’s where the cookies were kept.
But really, I just wanted an excuse to post this picture:
Carl and Lucille Luhrs, Late 1940s
Isn’t it great? They look like they have a secret.
In the notes that came with the picture it was revealed that my grandfather was a professional roller skater at some point in his life. I find this to be completely amazing and wish I knew more.
I love everything about this post, picture included.
Awesome picture (I like that she’s wearing glasses and her polka-dot dress, too), cool mystery about the roller skating.
I used to keep big rubber koi in my dishwasher (I didn’t used to run it). Freaked out one party guest (I’d forgotten about them) when they were going to helpfully load the dishwasher.