Meet my Grams. Isn't she beautiful? A women of great strength, character, love and gentleness. And she has the driving abilities of an Indy 500 race car driver. Yeah, she's a "lead foot."When my little sister and I were younger - I was maybe eight and my sister, Kristin, was about five, we would stay over at Grams house all the time. We loved it there ~ the smell of Grampa's pipe tobacco and the sound of his jolly ol' laughter. One afternoon, Kristin and I rode along with Grams as she ran errands around town. She and Grampa had this crazy long Cadillac, they aptly called "the Caddy." The seats were slippery vinyl or leather, can't recall exactly, I just knew that in the baking California sun they were hotter than hot and burnt the backs of my little girl legs.
There was this tiny liquor shop at the base of "Miracle Mile" ~ which was a mile long hill, straight up out of the Sacramento river valley. After Grams purchased what she needed we rolled out of the parking lot and waited to pull out onto the road. Traffic was (and still is) very heavy along this stretch of the highway. I was sitting in the front passengers seat, which was a long bench seat. My sister was in the backseat behind me. My Grams revved up the big V8 (or larger?) Cadillac engine, anxiously awaiting an opportunity to bolt out into traffic. With her hands in the correct 11 and 2 o'clock positions on the skinny over sized steering wheel, she said, "Okay, girls, hold on!" then she gunned it! That Caddy took off like it was fueled by rockets! The force blasted me against the smooth pleather seat! My sister, not wearing a seat belt because who did way back then, had forcefully slid all the way across the back seat and landed behind my Grams. I turned around and looked at Kristin and we both busted out laughing! "Grams! You are a speed racer!" She replied, "well honey, sometimes you have to use all the ponies under the hood."
In 2005, my two boys and I traveled to California to visit my Grams - at that time, she was ninety two years old. I grew up feeding the deer at Shasta Dam. My boys, then Ty was 13 and Evan was 10, had never been to Shasta Lake and I couldn't wait to share a treasured childhood memory with them. Grams said that they started giving tours of the dam and that the boys may find it of interest. Of course, my Grams offered to drive us up there ~ Ty and Evan were thrilled as they heard how she has quite the lead foot. But I reassured them that she's mellowed out now that she's in her 90's.
Well, I was wrong. This time seat belts mandatory, and that's a good thing, we headed towards the lake. Not only is she fast from the get go - she motors right along even on the twisty tight two lane road that leads up to the dam. The boys were in the back seat giggling and mumbling that she still is a speed racer. From the front seat, joined them in their quiet giggle with intense eye contact.
After the tour, Evan was so thrilled with the experience, "That was one awesome dam tour!" Tyler filled in, "and that dam tour guide really knew what he was talking about." Evan continued, "I really liked riding in that dam elevator." "Yeah, but walking in the rain across that dam road was a bummer," Tyler pipped in. Evan finished, "I'm dam hungry, can we go to A & W for lunch?"
The photo above was taken on our trip in 2005, me and my Grams. I called her on Mother's day earlier this month ~ she's doing great! She proceeded to tell me that she was recently in the local newspaper. My cousin's son celebrated his birthday at an indoor race track called "Need4Speed." And guess, what... Grams was in the mini Indy race car - showing everyone how to drive like a pro.
Grams is my hero...
