Great Grandma Would Be Twittering

If you had known her! If she were here today, she probably would be twittering!

My earliest memories of my Great Grandma C. are found in her home with the big porch on Vinton. I remember Sunday dinners around her dining room table. From my view, as a young girl, her chin seemed to barely reach the table. (Her back was rounded and we were told that her spine was shrinking with artheritis.) That didn't seem to stop her. Under her chin, I can remember the shape of her folded hands as she bowed head and said, "Pa, say the blessing!" I remember how he did. I have a memory of opening my eyes and thinking she had fallen asleep. I remember how she made her tea and held her cup with both hands. I also have vivid pictures in memory of wash day at great grandma's. I remember the hand pump at the kitchen sink. I remember the wringer washer being pushed into the middle of the kitchen floor. I remember the sheets and clothes coming through the wringer, like thin stiff ribbons. I remember my mom, my grandma, and my aunt folding them back and forth, stacking them in the baskets. And then I remember putting the baskets on the wooden wagon that Uncle Charley made, and pulling it up to the clotheslines to hang the clothes. I cherish my childhood memories.

In the rare moments of my memory when Great Grandma C. wasn't cooking, cleaning, doing laundry, quilting or resting her chin on the dinner table, she was twiddling.

That's right. she was twiddling. She might be sitting in her chair in the living room, or swinging in the big hanging swing on the front porch, but she would be twiddling. With her hands folded, she rotated one thumb around the other, in continuous motion. With absolutely no plan or timing, she'd reverse her thumbs and keep twiddling and then reverse again. Sometimes, she'd even sing or whisper "twiddleley dee twiddleley dum" over and over.

In all my memories, there is one memory that I do not have. I do not remember a single moment ever when my Great Grandma C. was bored. Never! She always had something to do, and if she didn't, she would...cuz she'd twiddle.

Now Great Grandma C. is swinging, singing and twiddling around the throne in glory, but I know that if she was here she'd be twittering.

I just learned about twittering. Rather, I just heard about it. I do not know a good definition of twittering. I do not know how to twitter and have no desire to learn, or plan to start. But I do know that people who twitter (a computer activity two steps higher than blogging, and one step higher than facebook) must have found little moments where they must keep their thumbs busy. So like Great Grandma C. and her twiddling...they have taken to twittering.

I don't twiddle and I don't twitter, but like those who do, I will not be bored. For I am determined that what my hands find to do, I will do heartily as unto the Lord.