Grandmother

Tonight at dinner Jimmy said I needed a raise because I had been cooking such good meals this week. He said to Granny, "Granny, you did a good job teaching Joanne how to cook." Truth is Granny never taught me to cook. Grandmother ruled the kitchen.
Grandmother RULED everything!
I let Gina spend two weeks in Albany Ga. with my Aunt Doris and Grandmother, and made the fatal mistake of asking Grandmother to make sure Gina brushed her teeth after each meal. Gina had just gotten her braces and the dentist stressed the importance of brushing, and not eating anything hard or sticky. Poor Gina, Grandmother almost drove her crazy inspecting her mouth after each brushing as well as constantly checking to see what she was eating.Grandmother would say, "Gina, come on over here and let me look at your teeth." Whenever Grandmother addressed you it was with real authority. You felt fear run up your spine. Mama said when she was a child if Grandmother was angry with her she would say, "Dorothy, come over here and let me slap your jaws." I ask mama if she always obeyed. She said, "Yes." Grandmother took her job as teeth inspector very seriously. When Gina returned home she told me she was NEVER going to visit Grandmother again until she had her braces removed.
I remember when I was little how Grandmother always did a once over of me before I left for school or church. Our appearance was important to her. She once said to me that "we may be poor, but that's no excuse for being dirty." As children I know we aggravated the living day lights out of her. Many a time she would say, "You Jarrett's can't do anything without making a spectacle out of yourselves." I never understood what she was talking about. I thought she was the one who made a spectacle out of everything. She was so dramatic. I guess we Jarrett's must have picked up some of that tendency to make a drama out of the ordinary things in life.
When I was twelve Grandmother went to work as a private nurses aide. She worked the night shift at a ladies home here in town. White uniform, white shoes...she was in her element. Because she worked from 8pm to 8am she had to sleep during the day. I came home from school one day to find Grandmother waiting on me in the kitchen. She looked at me with those serious blue eyes and said, "Here's the cookbook, you have to cook supper from now on." That was my first cooking lesson.