We now have three posters with grandparents who escaped Russia during the revolution. The bizarre thing is my grandparents didn't know each other in Russia, both escaped to London, then New York and then Brunswick, Maine where they met. They became the classic immigrant story where they started with the general store, worked hard and ended up owning half of Main Street. They bought it ten cents on the dollar during the Depression. I remember giving my grandmother (this is the other one) a ride once and getting chewed out badly for leaving pennies on the floor of my car. Pennies turn into dollars!
This is the grandmother who reminds me of my two favorite Jewish jokes: 1) What's the difference between a Jewish mother/grandmother and a vulture? The vulture lets you die before it eats your heart out. 2) What's the Jewish stance on abortion? It's a living fetus until it finishes grad school.
The other grandmother spoiled me. This one hounded me to success. She told me money doesn't buy happiness or real friends, but it's empowering. Both were positive influences. My grandfather would walk me down Main Street showing me off to all his business tenants when I was little. Then he would take me into JJ Newberry's (the first mall hadn't been built yet) to buy some toys. When we got home my grandmother would freak it he bought me toys instead of books.
Talk about disparity in parent's families! My mother is first generation American. My father is sixth generation. He was the preppy BMOC, 6th generation college DEKE, football player. My mother and her siblings were the first to attend college. On my father's side everyone (men) went since the late 18th century.
My mother being a WASP wannabe, (I say it affectionately/she admits to it/second husband also a preppy WASP) went right after my dad. She said when anyone walked into a room it was obvious who was in charge. She said he was very Clintonesque in his charm (also his faults too, but we won't go there).
There aren't any out of nowhere stories here growing up. There were homes on the lake in Maine and the Cape in Mass. There was a big brick house. But never assume when you see big houses and nice cars it's all smiles behind the doors. I was exposed to a lot of positives due to the options provided, but there were plenty of negatives I could have done without. Without getting into it, I made it a long term positive experience by using the negatives as a model "how not to" for parenting and personal relationships.
Going back to the penny thing, does anyone remember when finding a penny meant you could run to the corner store and buy two mint julips? Summertime was for playing baseball and having water fights when we got hot, not going inside in the AC to play Playstation due to breaking a sweat. AC is the worst thing that ever happened to kids.