I had a nice conversation with my Grandma St. Laurent this afternoon. She will be turning 100 years old on January 2nd, and I still find it really hard to fathom living that long, seeing that much change, even in this day and age of advanced healthcare and longevity of life. After
my first interview with her, I chatted with her again about her life's recollections, but I unfortunately lost the notes and figured that waiting to document this kind of stuff is not advisable, so I am wasting no time. Grandma doesn't really want a party or anything, but I think there is a lot to celebrate in her life!
What I learned today:
- Grandma didn't ever really celebrate Christmas or birthdays growing up. She said that sometimes her sisters (the ones who lived in the same house with her) would save up and buy her a new coat.
-When Grandma was around 12 she would take her sisters' kids out in the buggy so her sisters could do the housework during the day. When she was a little older she would hang out at the park with other kids.
- I asked Grandma if her mother or father liked to sing (wondering if they ever sang music from their respective countries of origin). She said her father loved music, and he had some cousins, also from Armenia, he would get together with and listen to music with them. She went with him a few times, and said she tried to learn a little bit of Armenian but never really did.
- I wondered how her parents learned English. While she didn't know, as they spoke English throughout her memory, she did say that her father may have taught -she did say "taught" more than once - lessons at night sometimes, though if they were language lessons or not was unclear. I asked her about her mother speaking French, but come to find out she spoke German. Well, Grandma never heard her speaking German, but she did know that when her mother was a child the Germans who had taken over that part of France took away all of their French books from the schools and they had to learn German. Her mother had a cousin in Braintree (I think) that she would visit, and they may have spoken German to each other. Grandma remembers taking the train for the visit. Her mother also had cousins still in France that she would write to in German.
- Was her mother a good cook? Yes, she was a great cook! The meal Grandma talked about was her mother's spaghetti. She would make a huge pot of it, and her sister's kids would come over and eat it all up. She used strained tomatoes but not a meat sauce. Her mother would fry the leftovers in butter (then Grandma did...then Mom did...now we do!).
- Another favorite was her mother's apple pie. She repeated multiple times how she could still smell her mother's pie - the cinnamon, the brown sugar, and she would put butter on the top of the crust. Grandma would climb to the top of the apple tree in their yard (she kept saying what a tomboy she was) and pick the apples. She would bring baskets of them over to the firefighters at the engine house across the street - they would call out for her to bring them apples. She was not afraid of falling, and she never did. She would hang upside down from the branches. There was a pear tree too. Grandma doesn't remember her mom making jam, but Grandma did once. She said the pear jam was delicious and she brought some to her sisters and her mother. Great Grandma didn't make cookies, from what Grammy remembered. She did make a yellow cake - her own recipe - but Grammy didn't like it as much as the boxed mixes. She can't remember why, but she liked those better than her mother's cake.
- As I wrote last time, her father worked for the city repairing roads during the Depression when the factory jobs were dwindling. Her brother did too. He had also worked at the shoe factory with her father but had bad allergic reactions to the chemicals used at the factory, so he got a job at a grocery store, and also worked repairing roads when economic times were bad. Her mother would watch the grandchildren and clean the house and do dishes for everyone during this time because her sister's were also doing some kind of work. Grandma got a job during the Depression sewing baby rompers because there were no other jobs to do. It too was a government job, and she got paid $8 a week. They worked from 8:30 to 4 pm sewing. Grandma really liked it and liked to sew a lot. The job didn't last long though; it was cut. She learned to cook and sew in middle school. She remembers making aprons and such.
- Her love of sewing continued though. After she got married, Grandpa bought her a sewing machine. She made pant suits for herself - "one in every color." Their kitchen was cold, so Grandpa brought home a kerosene oil heater. Even though the suits were in the closet, the smoke from the heater ruined all of her suits. She was heartbroken because she had worked so hard on them.
- I asked her her thoughts about WWII, when it started, etc. or if her mother felt any animosity toward the Germans. Grammy couldn't remember and asked me when it started. She didn't add anything, so I let it go.
- Grandma doesn't remember when exactly her family got electricity, but her family was still using gas lamps into her early teens.
Grandma isn't able to do a whole lot anymore, and I know she fears the day her license will be taken away from her. She is very aware of all of her great grandchildren, and looks at their pictures often because she commented on a lot of them. I wish I were there to sit with her, take her out on drives, and just be around so I would know more of this without having to do stealthy interviews (not that Grammy minds, but I feel like it is very deliberate). She really only has her cat to keep her company most of the time. I guess I am kind of a loner too like her, but I know it is a lot different for Grandma.
I used to think that all old people were the same and didn't understand when Grandma wouldn't go to the community center anymore because there wasn't really anyone there for her to socialize with. Then it dawned on me - while a 70 or 80 year old may look the same to a lot of people (especially to young people), a lot of the other people in her community are from a different generation than she is - those 20 or 30 years separating them are pretty big, and it clicked how isolating it can be to be as old as Grandma is. I wish she knew how interesting she is, how valued she is, and how loved she is.
