My parents' family were from Salem, NH and Lawrence, MA--quite close to each other. So, at least a couple times of year we made a long day trip, over 2 hours up to spend a day visiting both of my parents' sides of the family. They usually came down to see us once a year too.
On Dad's side of the family we visited my grandparents and Uncle Joe, who lived with them. Sometimes we would see other Aunts but typically it was these three. I recently found this newspaper article of my grandparents when they celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary, ironically. They used to put these things in local newspapers.
On my mother's side we visited her Aunt Helen and Uncle Bill. This visit was usually just talking and catching up. Aunt Helen's place had everything just so and decorated with her Hummels or handmade crafts. Aunt Helen was very blunt, reminding us how much weight we had gained or anything else she wanted to point out. Uncle Bill had a great sense of humor and he would say things to her that only he could get away with. We held our laughter until the ride home.
"These stones are to be a memorial...so that when your children ask, 'What do these stones mean?' you can tell them..."
They lived in a small house in Salem, NH. My parents often brought Kentucky Fried Chicken takeout to them. As soon as the meal was done, the table was cleared and the games of setback began. They were serious card players and started me in the game when I was 7 years old. We played as teams and I was often nervous, because I knew they wanted to win. Setback wasn't so bad, but they also played this game called 45's. That game is so confusing, but that was one of their favorites too. I needed a cheat sheet to keep things straight.
We did do some visiting too and my Grandmother would bring out her old teddy bear that played a song in French and she would sing along. My grandfather would give kids a ride in a wagon he attached to his riding lawnmower. These simple things became tradition and good memories.
As I've been looking at old memorabilia, I found this note my grandfather had written to my parents but there was an enclosure from my grandfather that said, "jokes for George". It makes me smile to think how he took the time to do this and that it meant that he liked George too. 
On my mother's side we visited her Aunt Helen and Uncle Bill. This visit was usually just talking and catching up. Aunt Helen's place had everything just so and decorated with her Hummels or handmade crafts. Aunt Helen was very blunt, reminding us how much weight we had gained or anything else she wanted to point out. Uncle Bill had a great sense of humor and he would say things to her that only he could get away with. We held our laughter until the ride home.
Of course, visiting relatives was the main reason for our trip, but we always had a couple of sidetrips.
When my mother was still smoking, we would pick up some cigarettes. They were a lot cheaper in New Hampshire. Another "mandatory" stop was Thwaites Market, an English market. We would sometimes get some little meat pies or other foods, but our reason for stopping was for tomato sausage. We would bring a cooler and buy several pounds to put in our freezer--saving one out to enjoy the day after we got home. I have never seen that for sale anywhere else. Fortunately, Thwaites is still open, so if we really get a hankering for tomato sausage, we can take a road trip.
Our other stop was to Granite State Potato Chips. There was a small building that only sold Granite State Potato chips. You could see the potato chips come through a chute and be filled in boxes or, better yet, they sold buckets that you could buy to have it filled and bring them back to re-fill them. We often brought the buckets back from CT (saving them for the trip months later). They didn't sell any fancy flavors or ripples or unsalted--just regular, delicious potato chips always freshly filled in the boxes or buckets while you wait. I was wondering how my memory served me, so I googled and found the buckets used to hold 128 ounces. I knew it was a lot--more than we could finish on the ride home, fortunately, but never lasted the months before we got back again. Sadly, they closed in 2007 after 102 years in Salem but will always be in our memories.
Joshua 4:6-7
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