Growing up my sister and I split our weekends at our Grandmothers’ homes. This is the first in a series of two reminiscing about those weekends.

On the weekends we stayed with Ottie, we’d make homemade potato chips, walk across the street to Maxine’s Diner (now Mama Max’s) for burgers, “ice skate” on [aka polish] her hardwood floors to a Dolly Parton record, play with our aunts’ old Barbies and make their furniture out of shoeboxes, have a nightcap of Coca-Cola in a small glass, and pick cherries off her cherry tree. Not to mention playing with her dog, Foo-Foo, planting flowers in her flower beds, and generally being her shadow for about 36 hours.

But the thing I remember most is watching The Sound of Music practically every weekend we stayed with her. So it shouldn’t surprise you that it is one of my favorite movies of all time. In fact, I consider the opening scene to be one of the best in the industry. It’s perfect: the blue ski, the lush mountains, the perfection in Julie Andrews’ voice. Every time I watch it, I want to be her. There are so many things about the movie that I love, like the confidence she finds in herself, because really? What is so fearsome about 7 children? Then there’s the strapping Christopher Plummer as Captain von Trapp. I mean, hello. Then towards the end of the movie there’s one of the best scenes, the talent contest. I remember Maddie and me laughing and laughing at the lady who bows her way across the stage to accept her award, then bows her way off the stage with flowers in her arms when we watched it with Ottie, sometimes even rewinding just to laugh some more.

I don’t know how Ottie never got tired of watching this movie over and over again with us. I mean even classics can get old after a while, but she was always there, in her chair doing needlepoint or a word puzzle or absolutely nothing but watching along with us. It’s just one of the many ways I remember Ottie today.

Up next? Weekends with GrandMerle…