I have always thought my Gram,
Florence Eames Jones,
wore the perfume "Emeraude" but now, with a little more experience, I think, perhaps, it was "Shalimar". I used to sometimes sit in her closet and just breath in the scent of her.
She usually kept the sheer curtains closed and the old orangey blind pulled in her bedroom so it was a dimly lit space with a kind of "firelight glow". The closet was set back in an archway with textured drapes over the entry to it. I think part of those drapes later hung over my closet door in Almo for years. They probably still do (kind of orange, cream, and black woven threads)
She also had a blue musical Powder box in there that I loved to play. I have found a similar one that I love now because of these memories.
She lived in a pink one bedroom apartment in Burley Idaho. Mr Manning, the landlord, lived next door. We used to think he had a crush on her.
There was a spring loaded door over the laundry shoot to the basement. I bet I don't have to explain its draw to any red-blooded Grandkid.
The bathroom sink had a plug on a chain with the hot and cold coming out of two separate faucets and "singing" pipes. I thought Grams' pipes would sing because she always did.
There was a red and white vinyl and chrome dinette set and a cookie jar that was always full in that sunny kitchen. It was wonderful. I got my first haircut sitting in there. Gram and my mom cut off my pony tail.
Gram always wore nylon stockings with a dress, jewelry, and heels.
She was always cleaning and when she did she wore an apron and would sing and hum.
She was a small woman. I think under 5 ft tall? -round and soft too. One of her brothers, Crandle, was a successful jockey.
There was a beautiful weeping willow in the lot next door and a huge Bleeding Heart bush outside her back door with spring bulbs and roses.
My Gram taught me how Snapdragons snapped and tree seeds whirled and spun when you threw them in the air.
It was there I learned to slide down a stair railing and hula hoop,and play a peg solitaire game. My cousin Sherma and I would sit at Gram's Piano and Sherma would show me all the songs she had learned at lessons. Hence it was also there I learned to play "Chopsticks" and "Heart and Soul" and to sing "Under the Willows."
Gram raised 8 kids and was widowed when the youngest was 3. The twins were 5 at the time(my dad and his brother). Grandpa Jesse died of a ruptured appendix, after coming home on horse back one noon from his mothers house where he had been helping with the cattle. June, her second daughter, was killed in a car crash coming home from a Naf dance not long after Jess' death in SLC. As far as I know, none of her children nor grandchildren(me for one anyway) were ever allowed to go to a Naf dance after that.
I have always said that Gram is where Rachel gets her height, and maybe a lot more too.
