Grandma and Grandpa Bragg: Memories of Them and Their House

This "special edition" of my blog is dedicated to memories of my dad's parents and their place by the Flambeau River in Ladysmith. I want to record these memories in case my kids are interested someday, but also I'd like to put them out there to invite any of my older cousins or other Bragg relatives to reminisce and maybe share some of their own memories as well. I just wish I could remember more-! Please forgive the gaps and inconsistencies in my memory; I was a kid, afterall...

While they were living, we made the trip to visit Grandma and Grandpa about once a month, I'd guess. It seemed like a very long drive, but Rhinelander's only about an hour and a half from Ladysmith, so it wasn't actually that bad. Eventually we'd pull into town and drive past the familiar landmarks... a big park and playground on the right, a Dairy Queen (?) where the road bends, and old parked train cars by the grocery store. Their place was beyond town, out in the country. We'd get to their gravel driveway and drive down, as I recall. We'd see the garage first... it was surprisingly far from their house.

Then the house! It was white with green (or black?) trim. It felt like we entered through the back (side) door, because the front of the house was facing out toward the river and yard. So we would enter and pass through a hall where there was a large black and white aerial photograph of the property hanging on the wall. We spent a lot of time looking at that photograph. It was pretty impressive.

The center of the house-- my favorite room-- was their living room, which I remember as having hardwood floors, white walls, and a large oval-shaped, green rag rug (that Grandma made) spread out in front of the fireplace. There was a clock on their fireplace mantel that chimed the hour, and a straight-backed ornate wooden chair with green velvet upholstery to the right. They had a color TV in that corner (years before we had a color TV). As I recall, the color was imperfect and had kind of a greenish tint; I remember trying to tune in a better color for them.

There was a large covered stereo and record player that looked like a piece of furniture. Resting on it (or near it?) was a beautiful Gone-With-the-Wind style hurricane lamp. It had two round white globes painted with roses.

Their chair and couch were olive green and kind of flat and modern-looking. There was a wooden stool in the living room that had knotty legs and a primitive style.

In between the living room and the dining area there was a toybox. I wish I could remember all of the toys-! I remember that I loved knowing what I was going to find in that box... they were always the same toys but we didn't see them often enough for them not to be special and interesting. My favorite was a little tile puzzle... you had to slide the tiles left and right, up and down, in order to put together the image (wish I could remember what the image was). There was also a colorful metal top with a wooden handle that you had to push up and down before sitting back and letting it spin. And there was a Raggedy Ann and Andy book with wonderful pictures.

I don't remember it directly, but in photographs there was a hutch with blue and white dishes in it in the dining area, as well as copper molds hung on the walls of the kitchen. It's funny because I don't remember getting the idea from Grandma Bragg, but those are things that looked classic and familiar to me, and I display them prominently in my home.

Grandma's kitchen had real wood paneling, narrow like beadboard and piney-looking, if I remember right. The overall effect was dark and warm, but there was a window over the sink that added a lot of light and cheer. There was a breakfast bar / counter with stools pulled up to it. She had pictures on the wall of bowls of fruit and something with a dog in it, I think.

To the side of the kitchen area was a sitting nook with  a couple of wooden chairs. They were straight-backed table chairs, with woven seats. There was a picture on the wall there of Aunt Carol when she was a girl-- her and her horse. She had a secret smile and wavy reddish hair... she was beautiful, fresh-faced, and free, and I wondered about her.

Down a little hallway was a utility room, on the right. All I remember about that room is that it was packed with things, that there was a guitar hanging on the wall, and that there was a little daybed in there with two cylindrical pillows that looked like candy wrapped in paper. I was very impressed with those pillows :).

To the left was Grandpa's room. We weren't supposed to go in there but I remember he had a great, masculine-looking dresser with a tall narrow mirror and all kinds of interesting drawers. Sometimes he would go in there and open one of the drawers and pull out polished rocks to show us.

Grandma's room was larger, with a white bedspread (the kind with bumpy raised dots in a design... is that chenille?). There was a big stuffed animal in there... a cat, I think. She had a little blue and white porcelain figurine of a girl feeding ducks on her dresser... I have that figurine now.

To add to all this, there was a xylophone in the basement!

There was a covered deck on the front of the house-- a wonderful outdoor space. Grandma and Grandpa had bird feeders out there... I remember they gave peanut butter to the chick-a-dees. They had these great whimsical wooden stools that were painted a limey green and looked like mushrooms. The lawn was large and spacious. There was a stone structure (a former barbeque?) in the yard that had been rebuilt into a shrine, with a statue of the Virgin Mary. She was behind an enclosure but I loved to look at her because she was standing at the top of a set of stairs that were perfectly to scale for her. It was like she could have been real, could have walked up those tiny steps.

There were trees around the edge of the yard that mostly obscured the view of the river, but you could see it in places. The house was situated high in relation to the river; in order to get to the water you had to walk down a winding trail. But we were hardly ever allowed to go down by the water, and never alone; people had drowned in the river, so we were expected to stay up by the house.  But that was okay... we'd play croquet on the lawn or look for arrowheads by the field.

Another place we could go was to Grandpa's little hidden stream that flowed in the woods on the other side of the lawn. In the shade of the trees you could cross the stream over a little bridge... where there was a tin cup hanging, for drinks. So fun; NOTHING tastes better than cold stream water on a hot day.

I don't remember a lot about Grandpa Bragg... mostly visual impressions. I remember him being outside and wearing a straw hat with sunglasses clipped over the top of his regular glasses. He often had an unlit cigarette in his mouth; he'd quit years ago, but wasn't ready to give up the habit of having the cigarette nearby.

Sometimes he had a bag of chocolate stars in his pocket. He'd always share.

He liked to polish stones and make jewelry. I have a tiny bracelet he gave me; hard to believe my wrist was ever that small! He also liked to carve and paint wooden birds, for Christmas ornaments. I'm sure every one he made is now somebody's family treasure; I have one and I think my parents have a couple more.

I remember Grandma and Grandpa called each other "Laddy" and "Lassie".

Grandma Bragg was more formal than my other grandma; she had been a school teacher, so expected good behavior from young people. But I remember her spending a lot of time playing cards with us (rummy), teaching us to count and keep track of sets. When I was learning to write her and I exchanged letters in the mail. I knew she had travelled to China and other interesting places with her sister, after her children had grown. She had lots of great books in the house... hardcover sets she had probably purchased one at a time. She quilted, knitted afghans, and tatted lace. I remember wonderful meals... beef roast and peppery creamed potatoes. Also chocolate cake with coffee in the frosting.

I remember in later years, when they lived in a smaller house in town, that she had nice plants, including violets and ferns. Some of her plants were hung by strings of colorful beads... a Bohemian detail that caught my eye.

She wore a brooch pinned to her shirt; I don't remember if she wore other jewelry. I don't think so.

I don't remember much more than that. There were a few big family get-togethers at Grandma and Grandpa's... I remember lots of cousins, especially the Voss cousins. Jean, Elaine, and Rosie, who were closest to me in age, and the ones who played with us the most. All the older Voss girls seemed very glamorous back then, athletic and beautiful with long straight hair. I remember playing baseball (or watching it be played) in the field by Grandma and Grandpa's house.

When you're a kid and go places, visiting people, you take it for granted that those people and places will always be there. An hour and a half car ride to Ladysmith feels like forever; you have no idea how quickly ten years will go by... or how many changes will occur in that span.