LaVerne

You know that smell you get when you walk into your Grandma's house (if you're lucky enough to still have a living grandparent, like I am?) What is that smell? Moth balls? Memories? Well-cooked pasta? The 1950s? Whatever it is, it's distinctive. And I have that smell in the stairwell of my new apartment.

Everytime I take out the trash or the recycling (wine bottles, too many to admit...) down the back stairs, I get a whiff of the past. I'm instantly taken back to Easter morning at Grandma's when she spoiled us with too much candy in our Easter basket, too many gifts and silver coins. It also smells like Christmas lunch, when Grandma spoiled us with stockings filled with goodies (different from the "Santa"-filled stockings we got at home) and the elaborate lunch or "dinner," as she called it, meal Grandma swore she had forgotten how to cook (meaning, she no longer LIKED to cook...) and was the finest dining we'd had since breakfast! 

My grandma is getting old now. She's 89 year's old and as sassy and quirky as she was in 1950, I'm imagining! Her quirky personality and odd sense of humor are what influenced my mom, and in turn, what influenced my sisters and me. This woman, my grandma, raised (with the help of her mom and sister - I'm recognizing a theme among our clan) two feisty boys and a feisty girl (my mom.) For that, she deserves every bit of praise.

So, everytime I venture down those back stairs and smell that "smell," I'll remember Grandma Hall.

In recent months, Betty White has become the thing, her fame exploding into sitcoms and "Saturday Night Live." Granted, she outlived all the other "Golden Girls" and embraced her senior standing in the world of celebrity and stardom. However, I firmly believe that my grandma rivals any comedic quips of Ms. White. What's more, my grandma comes by it honestly! No script writers, no director to make her sound "funnier" than she is, she actually IS funny!

So, I have to thank my grandma, LaVerne, for her inspiration as a comedienne before her time, her delicious sense of humor and her patience in raising my mother, another understated comedienne.