365 Project: Day 24

This is my grandparents' house in Texas. Yes, it is pink, and so are most of the things inside of it, including the entire middle bathroom. My grandmother, Mee Maw, loves pink apparently. I have so many fond memories of visiting this house when I was a kid. It has changed over the years, but fundamentally it still feels and smells the same as it always has.

I spent a lot of time here visiting with my grandfather, Granddaddy, while on this trip to Texas. I thought I'd share a few of my childhood memories of this house with ya'll (I was just in Texas, I can say ya'll). I spent a lot of time out in this yard running around barefoot. Their yard was always full of nature. Plants, trees, flowers, little green lizards, thick grass, and a garden that my Granddaddy tended. I loved to sit on that wooden swing behind me in this picture.

There are pictures of me and my cousins in this tree when I was little. I tried so hard to climb its branches. Now that I'm a little taller, I can climb right up with hardly any trouble at all (and I did several times for this picture). My dad had a dog named Snoopy growing up who used to climb this tree. There was a similar tree in the front yard that was always full of snails. I tried equally as hard to climb that tree, but the trunk was much taller than this one. It was cut down not too long ago. It was old and they were afraid its huge branches would fall on the house during one of the recent hurricanes.

I was surprised to see this rose bush was still alive and blooming on the side of the house. My Mee Maw would cut these little pink roses for me. She would remove the thorns and wrap the stems in a wet paper towel for me to take home. Somewhere there is a picture of me on Easter Sunday, all dressed up in a little pink and white dress, sitting on a green velvet chair, posing with one of these roses.

These ferns are thick and abundant all over their yard. Those little green lizards hide in here and climb up the side of the house. The house behind me in this picture (across the street) belongs to Betty. The same woman who lived there when my dad was growing up in this house. She is the sweetest woman and I've known her my whole life. She still walks across the street to sit in lawn chairs on the driveway with my grandparents and discuss the neighborhood. We tease her and my Mee Maw that the two of them are the "Neighborhood Watch".

There is something so comforting to me about this house. Its full of memories. It still smells like coffee, the screen door still sounds the same when it closes, my Granddaddy's WWII metals still hang proudly in a display case on the living room wall, and there is always candy in the crystal dish on the kitchen counter (candy corns this time). My family grew up coming to this house for holidays and visits. I grew up here, my dad grew up here, and my grandparents insist on never moving even though the neighborhood has become dangerous and full of crime. I worry about them living in this house, but it is their home.