Who's Side?

Debi

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I was close to my maternal grandparents. My mom was an only child so we ended up close to the paternal side of uncles and cousins, since my dad was one of 9 kids! lol Never met my paternal grandfather as he had passed on, but recently found a pic of my paternal grandmother. OMG...I look like her! She was Cherokee.
 
My mom's side of the family for awhile. We lived in the same neighborhood as our Aunt. Uncle, cousins. My grandfather lived next door to them and my mom's best friend and her mother lived on the same street. We went to same schools together so we were always around each other. My grandmom on mom's side of family always stayed at our house and we always visited her in Philadelphia until she moved to New Jersey. My dad's side of the family we visited often so didn't see them as much as other side of family. Abit of a synch with this thread as last night me and my mom were talking about my great grandparents, though my memory is hazy as was pretty young. I do have a clear memory of grandpop's parent's house. First time ever seeing a cuckoo clock.
 
Selectric, kind of the same story as you. My maternal Grandpa - Pop - was really close to my brother and I. My dad's parents and his sister left Joliet for the Denver area in the 60's. So we only saw them once a year.

What's pretty cool is we had so many aunts and uncles in this area - and I bet you half of them weren't even related to us !

Barely remember my great grandma because I couldn't have been more than four. They had a house in the city but the family moved to a super small town with a house on the lake. And the brothers and their wives lived together along with a hired hand.
The brothers were all off the boat from Sweden and their favorite things in the world were playing music , fishing, and drinking and gambling.
They also quit the Lutheran Church when the Pastor informed them that they couldn't be gambling....

In Sweden my great grandma used to ice skate across a fjord to get to school.
 
I was close to both grandmothers. Both grandfathers passed away when I was young. I have memories of them, but I didn't get to grow up with them. Both grandmothers were wonderful, and I miss them very much.
 
Was closer to my Dad's side of the family, despite my Mom's family being geopolitically closer. All my cousins on her side were at least 5-6 years older than me, so I had little interaction with them.
 
Mom's side dominated the family. I grew up in a household of 90% women. Strong-willed Croation women. Neither of my grandfathers had much use for children, was never close to either. My paternal grandmother died when I was only 4, I didn't even know her.

To this day, most of my friends are women. I am more comfortable around women than men. They smell better too (most of the time, lol) and are easier on the eyes. :)
 
My paternal grandmother was in my life more than my maternal one. For some reason my father didn't get along with my maternal grandmother. She died when I was nine, and I never got to know her very well. I remember she was really short; under five feet, and spoke in a very precise way.

My paternal grandmother liked to sew and make jelly. I wasn't very close to her because to me, she was frightening at times. But she loved her grandchildren very much.
 
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Definitely my Mother's side of the family.

My Mom was one of 7 children so I had lots of Aunts, Uncles and Cousins. Her Mother was one of 13 so there was also a very large extended family as well. Going to family gatherings was a major event and I had lots of Cousins my age to hang out and play with. This was also the Mexican side of the family so the food was great and plentiful, though I never really learned to appreciate the mariachi music.

My Dad's side of the family was much smaller. He was the one of three brothers, his Mother had one sibling, a sister, and his Father had siblings whom we never met. So it was a much smaller family, plus my Dad was the oldest brother so when I was born I was the only grandchild for several years. When there was finally a cousin I could play with he didn't really have much in common with me. Unfortunately he also turned out to not have very much in common with my Uncle who discovered that his Son wasn't really his, it was awkward. I never saw that "cousin" ever again and the next cousins to come along were all girls about my youngest sister's age. This was also the wealthy European side of the family, very snooty and WASP-y. They were my introduction to the phrase "Children should be seen and not heard". I had heard that it was a bit of a scandal in the Country Club when my Dad got married to a Mexican woman, but I was never at that club so can't say for sure.

The notable exceptions from that side was my Grandmother, who taught me to play cards, and her Brother in Law, who was a judge with a tough reputation but always treated me with the respect he showed any other adult even though I wasn't. He would play chess with me, discuss politics, history and literature and never once "dumbed down" the conversation even when I was 8 or 9. To this day it's a pet peeve of mine to hear adults using that "I'm talking to a little kid" lilt and tone.