Boxing, Tea and Cookies

Like most people, my memories start around age 4. My parents liked to party on the weekends, so I was shipped off to my grandmother's house. It was a big old house with wide painted boards on the floors and shear curtains and shades on the large windows. It was built around 1900 and had the drafty windows and poor insulation.

I can still remember the smell. The heat was coal, with a delivery chute on the side of the house. Eventually, they would upgrade to oil, which also smelled. A large grandfather clock stood at the foot of the stairs and it chimed on the hour. At night when all was quiet, you could clearly hear the ticking in the upstairs bedrooms.

The house was located near the fire station and at noon and 7pm  every day a loud horn would blow. I don't know if it was to test the horn or not, but it was extremely loud! It was enough to start your heart a racing and make your hair stand on end over your goose bumps! It was so loud, that it would still startle you even though you knew it was coming!

The house was one block over from the Guilford Green. Being in the East, most towns were built in a square pattern. The Green was the hub of the town with stores and churches bordering it. I guess out west, you would call it a park of sorts. There was no playground equipment, just sidewalks, statues and benches. A place of gathering and reflection with plenty of trees for shade. In earlier years, my great great grandfather, Burton Sperry, lit the gas lights that burned through the night to illuminate the area.

On one end of the Green, there was the Congregation Church that my great grandma attended. Everything was within walking distance of the house. I would often attend church with her and my parents were married there. She grew up in the town of Guilford, CT and loved to tell the tale of how she and her husband met. Back in those days, it was horse and buggy and church socials that brought people together and not the internet! After one of these socials, Burton Sperry Jr. asked if he could escort my g. grandma home in the buggy. It was the thrill of her lifetime! He bundled her up in blankets and furs and they snuggled together to keep warm. They were smitten from the start.

I loved being in that great big old house! My experiences there were always of days of old with the flavor of the new. It was quite the contrast. On Saturday evenings, my grandmother and great grandmother would settle into their chairs in the living room and watch TV. I chuckle now as to their choice of programs. The TV was small by today's standards,  had a rabbit ear antenna and would only get the local channels....at the time there were three!

The first program we watched was "Boxing"! Just two old ladies and me cheering on the boxers! Boxing back then was very graphic and was only in black and white! After an hour of boxing to get the blood flowing, Lawrence Welk came on! Oh, how they loved that show! Both of them loved to sing. My grandma, Marguerite, even played piano. Watching Lawrence Welk, ingrained all the old tunes in my curly topped head at a very early age! When I went home, the next week, my girlfriend, Ann and I would take turns pretending we were Lawrence's Champagne Lady!

Sometimes during the show, my grandma would play TicTacToe  with me. She didn't let me win too often, either! After a long night of watching TV (two hours), we would head out to the kitchen for our tea and cookies! My g. Grandmother(Nana), would fill the kettle with water and put it on the stove. Remember, there were no microwaves back then or even electric coffee pots!

We would hear the Church Clock tower chime 10:00pm, have our tea with milk and sugar and yummy shortbread cookies! I would listen to the two of them talk about the Boxing and what songs they liked best on the show. Thinking back, it was a very strange conversation for two ladies to have Boxing/Showtunes and with tea and cookies! I Loved Every Minute Of It!

It was then off to bed for my back scratch! Both of my grandmas had beautiful nails. No matter whose bed I slept in that night....I always got a nice back scratch to send me off to pleasant dreams!

They are both gone now, but the memory of those times are with me, always, The moonlight streaming through the sheer curtains, the church clock tower and grandfather clock chiming, Nana's comforting snores and the Boxing, tea and cookies! Love, safe and secure!