personal history prompt 1.

welcome to week one of personal history. this week i sat down and told my computer everything i could remember about my grandma isabelle. here's a snippet:

My grandmother bought me a book called "going in and out the window" when we still lived in san dimas. that means i was older than five, but younger than nine. she gave it to me for a birthday, i think, when she and my grandpa were in town for a weekend. it's a book she gave all of the packard cousins. it was a collection of songs and that weekend i think my grandma sang me all of them. several times. again and again. i remember those songs, i remember her voice and i remember feeling a little disappointed the first time my dad sat down to sing those songs instead of his mother. he just didn't seem to know them as well as she did (although, with time and my constant requests, he really did perfect some of them. like the "bones-o" song and "what will you wear jenny jenkins", my two favorites).

and here's a picture: 

this was taken in austria, i believe, where she met my grandpa. he was in the army and she was a teacher. he asked if he could walk her home and she told him could. when church ended he talked too long to some of the members and she started to walk herself home. he ran to catch up with her and asked, "why'd you leave without me?" and she told him he'd talked to long. if you know my grandpa, this does not surprise you.