SOME RECOLLECTIONS OF MY GRANDPARENTS
         
by Dorothy Beck Cressman
         
I used to love to go to Grandpa and Grandma Crom's house.  My first recollections
were while they lived North of Elsie.  I stayed with them often, and I slept 
up stairs with Aunt Opal.  Every morning the train would go through and blow 
its whistle about 5:00 A.M., and wake me up.  Aunt Opal would try to get me 
to go back to sleep, but that train signaled the beginning of a wonderful 
new day's adventure for me, so I wanted to get right up and at it.
         
I often went to Elsie with Aunt Opal or Grandpa in the Overland.  Of course 
going up town meant "ice-keem" and "tanny" to me.  One morning Grandma missed me
and she asked Aunt Opal where I was.  Aunt Opal didn't know, so they started 
looking and calling.  Finally Aunt Opal spotted me way down the road, and she 
ran after me.  When she got me back, Grandma said, "Dorothy, where did you 
think you were going?"  I said, "I was going up town to see the _girls_".  
That was what I always heard Aunt Opal say.  I got a good paddling for that.
         
Aunt Opal was keeping company with Clifford Dunham, and Grandpa thought it would 
be cute to get me to call him "Uncle Clifford".  So he set me up to do it next 
time Clifford came.  But I couldn't talk very plain yet, and it came out 
"Uncle Kissard".  My how Grandpa did laugh!  But then it was several years 
before I said "Uncle Clifford" correctly.  Grandpa used to like to get the
grandchildren to try his tongue twisters.  One I remember was, Grandpa would say,
"Dorothy, can you say, *Right Slap Cap Cadabis*?"  Then Grandma would scold and 
say, "George, why don't you try to teach her to say something that makes sense, 
instead of that nonsense?"  I think Grandpa tried that tongue twister on all 
of the grandchildren.  "Vinegar" was another word I had trouble pronouncing.  
It came out "Win-ja-der".  So Grandpa would try all sorts of ways to get me 
to say "Win-ja-der" every time he could.
         
Another time I remember well was after Grandma and Grandpa moved south of Elsie.
I didn't like eggs, and my mother had tried every possible way she could think of
to get me to eat them, but I just wouldn't.  Grandma used to make very good 
beet pickles, and I would coax for them, so Grandma thought she'd fool me.  
She put some hard boiled eggs in the red beet juice and let them set until 
they were red, then she had me eat one.  I thought it was good.  Grandma said, 
"Dorothy, did you know that you just ate an egg?"  I said, "No I didn't".  
But Grandma said, "Oh yes you did".  Then I replied very firmly, "Now Grandma, 
I know better than that because eggs are yellow".  Then I pointed to a dandelion 
I picked, and I said, "See Grandma, eggs are that color".  Well Grandma fooled me
that time, but not again.
         
THE NELSON REUNION
         
I remember numerous trips to Ohio to the Nelson Reunion.  The first trip 
I remember was on the train.  Mother wanted me to look especially nice, 
so she took her wedding dress, which was white chiffon, and dyed it red.  
Then she made me two dresses out of it.  I thought those silk dresses were 
very nice, and I was pretty proud of them.  Of course Mother and Grandma were
dressed in their best for the train trip too.  Everyone in those days dressed up
when they went places.  I thought riding the train was absolutely great fun.  
At first I was a little awed, and sat very still beside my mother, but then
after we got going, I got a little braver, and discovered that it was lots of 
fun to walk up and down the aisles.  I sure didn't like having to go to the 
toilet on the train, it was very hard for Mother to convince me to even try.
         
However, most of our trips to Ohio were made in the car.  After Maynard and 
Gaylord were old enough to drive, one of them would drive Grandpa's car, and 
one would take turns driving with my father.  Sometimes Whitlocks and Dunhams 
drove too.  Then some of the Nelsons from Ashley always went.  The women would
fill jugs of water and cold tea, and pack huge baskets of food to eat on the way.
We would look for a country schoo yard to eat our picnic lunch, and there 
we could use the outside toilets.  I don't think Roadside Rest Areas had been 
thought of then.

Usually we would arrive at the home of some relative in late afternoon, and 
we would spend the night, and then go to the reunion the next day.  Oh! the 
excitement of greeting, hugging, and kissing all the relatives.  [Inevitably]
someone would say, "Edna, is this your daughter?"  Mother would reply, "Yes 
this is my baby."  Then they would say, "Well I remembered you had twin boys, 
but I guess I never knew you had a girl."  Of course that did a lot to destroy 
my ego, and if I suffer from an inferiority complex, that's probably why.  
It was surely a big challenge to try to keep all those Ohio cousins straight,
but I had lots of fun with them after I got acquainted.  Generally the Reunion 
was held in the Bowling Green Park, and there were lots of things there to play 
with and on.  Often there would be games and contests planned too.  The Picnic 
tables would be just loaded down with good food to eat.  Then the Ohio relatives
would start dividing up the Michigan ones, to see who would stay with whom.  
We would make the rounds, visiting as many people as time would permit.  About 
the third day there I would get diarrhea, probably from the change in water.  
Then some old auntie would boil up some ginger tea for me, but I usually didn't
get over it until I got home.  But I do have very fond memories of those trips 
to Ohio.
         
I remember Grandma and Aunt Pearl always raised such pretty daffodils, tulips, 
and narcissus, and if these were in bloom at Decoration time, they would pick 
lots of them, wrap them in wet clothes and then paper, and pack them in big boxes.
Grandpa would take them to the depot, and with lots of instructions, send them 
by train to Ohio.  Some of the relatives there would pick them up and take them 
to the cemeteries there, and place them on the different graves.  I always 
questioned the wisdom of this, as I didn't see how they could arrive very fresh,
but Grandma said they did.  I remember going to the Union Hill Cemetery in 
Bowling green, with my parents and grandparents.  Of course it meant little 
to me then, but since writing this paper, I surely wish I had paid better 
attention.  Perhaps I can visit that cemetery again in the future.