My Great Grandma only lived a little ways from my house too.   Her son, my Uncle Ray lived with her too, because he never got married.   I was lucky to live so close to both Grandmas.

I liked to go to Great Grandma Sophia's house.   It was very old and it smelled like mothballs and furniture polish and fresh baked bread.

in the kitchen was a big wood cook stove.   Not a black one like ours, but a beautiful polished silver and bluish colored one.   There was no running water in the house.   There was a pump just outside the kitchen door and also a pump handle in the kitchen sink.   On the hutch, there was a big enamel pail with a tin dipper in it   If I wanted a drink of water, I dipped it out of the enamel pail with the dipper.   If I wanted a REALLY cold drink of water, I had to pump the handle at the sink.   That water came straight out of the ground and was so cold it hurt my teeth.

In Great Grandma's dining room was a big table, a day bed to take a nap on, a large china cupboard and a roll-top desk.

In the living room there was a horsehair sofa, that was awfully hard to sit on because it was so slippery.   If I wiggled around too much, I slid right off the front of the sofa.   There was also a tall wood stove in the middle of the living room.   It was polished all silver like the cook stove and had panels in the door so you could see the fire.

There was also a room off the living room, called a parlor.   The parlor doors were kept closed most of the time and just used for very special occasions.   In that room was a beautiful upright piano with carvings on the front of it.

Sometimes, Great Grandma let me go into the parlor and play on the piano.   When I got older and took piano lessons, Great Grandma gave the piano to me.

Also in the downstairs of the house, was a bedroom and a small storage room with a safe where Great Grandma kept her important papers and money.   There was no bathroom in the house.   You had to use the outhouse across the driveway.

Upstairs there were two big bedrooms and a big attic with lots of old stuff to look at.   Great Grandma went up there with me and let me look at her boxes of sea shells she got on a trip to Florida.   She had really old dresses that she let me try on and funny looking hats.   She also had a very pretty blue velvet box with her diamond earrings (she called them "ear bobs") that she let me look at too.   They were beautiful and sparkled in the sunlight coming through the attic window.

It was a very nice house and my Great Great Grandfather had built it when he and his wife were pioneers.