Grandma Says: Learning is power. Learn a new word every day.
When I think of Grandma Fannie I usually think of her at the farmhouse Grandpa Ed, with some help, built in the earlies 1950s after he and Grandma Fannie remarried. To a young boy used to living in one and three room houses, their new house seemed enormous. It boasted a large kitchen, a sunroom where Grandpa Ed smoked and which also contained such tools as the cream separator, a dining room which doubled as a study/educational center, a formal parlor, a bedroom and an indoor bathroom. I vaguely recall the much smaller house in which they lived prior to their divorce. I suspect that they had built that house when they traveled to Oklahoma to stake out land which had first been opened up for white people to settle in 1889. Sadly, I am not sure of the year that they made the journey and staked out their claim but it certainly was not in in 1889. It has never been clear to me whether the amount of Native American Blood (Cherokee Indian) was sufficient to claim land that was open only to the Native Americans. At any rate, my memory of time with Grandma Fannie and Grandpa Ed begins to be clearest when I was called upon to help build the house although I am not sure that I was all that helpful.
Once the house got built it seems as if it was instantly filled with possessions which they must have been storing somewhere. Besides books, including the Bible, and a set of the Encyclopedia Britannica, a piano, and china there was a large Webster dictionary and dictionary stand. One of the required daily tasks and joys was to learn a new word every day. I cannot recall how Grandma Fannie determined what word one should learn. Perhaps there was a chart. There certainly was not a pre-computer version to the app which announces via my iPhone and computer what new word I should learn today. At any rate, whether it was new to Grandma Fannie or from an internal or external list the schoolmarm edition of Grandma Fannie kept, I have no idea. I do know feeding the mind in this way was only the first of many intellectual and spiritual feedings of the day. Days on the farm ended with feeding the mind by writing, reading or practicing music and, of course, prayers.
Although in my young mind schoolmarm Grandma Fannie knew all there was to know, I later realized that she pushed herself to learn something each day. This habit remained with her until a few days prior to her death. In fact I received a letter from her a week after she died. (In those days mail delivery took a bit longer.)
Once I decided a few years ago that, if I was honest, I was not using the large Merriam-Webster Dictionary, or an of the many specialized dictionaries very often I reluctantly gave them away. The goal was to downsize and leave as little for my son to deal with when I died. (He may feel as if I still am leaving him much too much stuff of which he will have to dispose.) By that time I did have the dictionary app for my phone and computer to remind me of the word I was to learn for today and I had access to Wikipedia as well as a thousands of other virtual file cabinets. I also still have more physical books than I need plus all those Kindle editions on my iPad, phone and computer.
I can well imagine that Grandma Fannie, if she was alive today, would have the latest Apple computer, an Ipad, an iPhone, a stack of stationary and her pen. She would delight in looking up information and in the speed of correspondence. She would insist that we obey all the normal rules of letter writing even if using email.
In other words she would continue to walk the talk as some say.
Aristotle’s followers are said to have discussed philosophy while walking about with him—hence their name: “peripatetics.” I suppose they could have been said to “walk the talk.”
For the rest of us, the saying is “if you’re going to talk the talk, you’ve got to walk the walk”—a modern version of old sayings like “actions speak louder than words” and “practice what you preach.” Another early form of the expression was “walk it like you talk it.” public.wsu.edu) Of course, schoolmarm Fannie would expect her grandchildren to also walk the talk. She would not hesitate to remind one that either you are going forward or backward. There is no standing still.
Today the new word for the day is surfeit which my dictionary app defines as “an excessive amount of something.” I could keep it simple and say I will not use a surfit of salt today in my cooking. I could also resolve that I will not succumb to a surfeit of excuses for not learning today.
Thanks Grandma Fannie.
Written March 27, 2017
When I think of Grandma Fannie I usually think of her at the farmhouse Grandpa Ed, with some help, built in the earlies 1950s after he and Grandma Fannie remarried. To a young boy used to living in one and three room houses, their new house seemed enormous. It boasted a large kitchen, a sunroom where Grandpa Ed smoked and which also contained such tools as the cream separator, a dining room which doubled as a study/educational center, a formal parlor, a bedroom and an indoor bathroom. I vaguely recall the much smaller house in which they lived prior to their divorce. I suspect that they had built that house when they traveled to Oklahoma to stake out land which had first been opened up for white people to settle in 1889. Sadly, I am not sure of the year that they made the journey and staked out their claim but it certainly was not in in 1889. It has never been clear to me whether the amount of Native American Blood (Cherokee Indian) was sufficient to claim land that was open only to the Native Americans. At any rate, my memory of time with Grandma Fannie and Grandpa Ed begins to be clearest when I was called upon to help build the house although I am not sure that I was all that helpful.
Once the house got built it seems as if it was instantly filled with possessions which they must have been storing somewhere. Besides books, including the Bible, and a set of the Encyclopedia Britannica, a piano, and china there was a large Webster dictionary and dictionary stand. One of the required daily tasks and joys was to learn a new word every day. I cannot recall how Grandma Fannie determined what word one should learn. Perhaps there was a chart. There certainly was not a pre-computer version to the app which announces via my iPhone and computer what new word I should learn today. At any rate, whether it was new to Grandma Fannie or from an internal or external list the schoolmarm edition of Grandma Fannie kept, I have no idea. I do know feeding the mind in this way was only the first of many intellectual and spiritual feedings of the day. Days on the farm ended with feeding the mind by writing, reading or practicing music and, of course, prayers.
Although in my young mind schoolmarm Grandma Fannie knew all there was to know, I later realized that she pushed herself to learn something each day. This habit remained with her until a few days prior to her death. In fact I received a letter from her a week after she died. (In those days mail delivery took a bit longer.)
Once I decided a few years ago that, if I was honest, I was not using the large Merriam-Webster Dictionary, or an of the many specialized dictionaries very often I reluctantly gave them away. The goal was to downsize and leave as little for my son to deal with when I died. (He may feel as if I still am leaving him much too much stuff of which he will have to dispose.) By that time I did have the dictionary app for my phone and computer to remind me of the word I was to learn for today and I had access to Wikipedia as well as a thousands of other virtual file cabinets. I also still have more physical books than I need plus all those Kindle editions on my iPad, phone and computer.
I can well imagine that Grandma Fannie, if she was alive today, would have the latest Apple computer, an Ipad, an iPhone, a stack of stationary and her pen. She would delight in looking up information and in the speed of correspondence. She would insist that we obey all the normal rules of letter writing even if using email.
In other words she would continue to walk the talk as some say.
Aristotle’s followers are said to have discussed philosophy while walking about with him—hence their name: “peripatetics.” I suppose they could have been said to “walk the talk.”
For the rest of us, the saying is “if you’re going to talk the talk, you’ve got to walk the walk”—a modern version of old sayings like “actions speak louder than words” and “practice what you preach.” Another early form of the expression was “walk it like you talk it.” public.wsu.edu) Of course, schoolmarm Fannie would expect her grandchildren to also walk the talk. She would not hesitate to remind one that either you are going forward or backward. There is no standing still.
Today the new word for the day is surfeit which my dictionary app defines as “an excessive amount of something.” I could keep it simple and say I will not use a surfit of salt today in my cooking. I could also resolve that I will not succumb to a surfeit of excuses for not learning today.
Thanks Grandma Fannie.
Written March 27, 2017
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