This beautiful woman did not have a blahg. I don’t think she even kept a diary although she was an intelligent, literate woman with a high school diploma and maybe a year of business college? Somebody keep me honest here! At any rate, she was well educated for someone born in the late 19th century in some little town in Ontario to parents who were probably scrabbling their way to a good life in the new world. I never met my great grandparents but Grandma Margaret created a good life for herself, as you can see by the smile in the pic.

I remember her picking blueberries but I am guessing that picking berries was not her favorite activity. I think she did like being out in the woods with her grandchildren. Her husband aka Grandberry was well known within the family as a berry-picker. I have many other more prominent memories of grandma as a busy moom of four and grandma of 11. Active church circle member and I don’t know what else. Busy, busy, busy. If I went to the grokkery store with her, she would buy me whatever I wanted. Pretzels? Candy? Barbie Dream House? Yes. I went to the grokkery store (the old A&P, now SuperValu) with her many times when the Engineer and I stayed with her and Grandberry when our parents were out of town. It was pretty cool staying there. Not only because we were doted on but because we could walk to our own elementary school from her house. It was a longer walk, much more interesting than red-queening across the street. We could play with different classroom friends, the ones who lived in my grandparents’ part of the neighborhood. Nowadays when I walk on the south side of Sault Ste. Siberia, it takes me maybe 10 minutes to walk between my old house and my grandparents’ old house but it seemed a lot farther away as an 8-year-old.

Anyway, this is my grandma and she is gamely wielding a berry-picking box and giving her trademark smile for the camera but she is probably thinking about ten thousand things other than picking berries. I’m just guessing here. How could I know? I think there is a hint of Uber Kayak Woman in her expression. That’s a little weird because I always think of UKW as looking more like her dad, who was an outlaw. A much beloved outlaw but still. I have seen photos of Grandma that showed flashes of Pengo Janetto too. And others and, well, meeeee.

And so, the precession of the generations goes on…

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