New Years Eve with Gram

Well kids, here we are on the doorstep of 2025. Has it really been 25 years since we celebrated Y2K? The math says yes but the mind says, “no way!”

I was going through Facebook yesterday and one of my friends posted a meme that said “Happy New Year! I’m telling you now because if I’m up at midnight it is to pee.” I got a little giggle out of that one and I thought that for many of my friends that is not a joke but a true statement. I have always been a “night owl” so I will be up, but there will not be any shenanigans going on for sure. My days of sending out the old year with a BANG went to bed well before midnight years ago.

It got me thinking about past New Years celebrations and my thoughts went back (WAY BACK) to when I was a pup. My brother and I are the oldest of the kids and grandkids of the family. My parents used to throw a house party for New Years. Allen and I were sent to my maternal grandmother’s house to celebrate with “Grandma Fordie.” This first started in the mid to late 1960s before my sister was born and lasted until I thought I was too grown for such things in the mid 1970s. Looking back, these are some of the best memories of being young and ringing in the new year in style I have. She was one of the best people I ever had the honor and privilege to meet and love. May I tell you a few things about her and the parties she used to throw for her grandchildren?

Gwendolyn Yvonne “Bonnie” Fordham was the strongest person I ever met. As the oldest grandson, I thought that we had a special bond. I loved spending time with her, and I did it a LOT. I would tell people that if you want to know what a Christian is, take a look at my grandma. She called us her “little hunners” and was a very deep caring person. How she ever got connected with my grandfather, which to me was the exact opposite kind of person, I will never know. Some in the family told me that grandpa changed a lot after going to WW2. I’m sure that didn’t help.

When she finally saw that things were not going to change with grandpa, they divorced and she moved from a home in Tallmadge, Ohio to a mobile home park in Mogadore, Ohio. My mom and my uncles would look after her since she didn’t work outside her home, and she had a very severe case of rheumatoid arthritis. Over time her hands and feet showed the signs of the disease eventually placing her in a wheelchair. However, she was one of those people that I never heard complain about her plight in life. She constantly pointed me and others toward God with stories of how great He is. When I stayed at her place, I would wake up to her beautiful voice singing hymns while making me breakfast. Her favorite was The Old Rugged Cross and to this day I can’t get through that one without getting emotional and thinking about her. When I would get sick and have to miss school, my parents would take me over to stay with her. I can’t confirm nor deny that sometimes I may have faked it to spend some time with her. She had the awesome gift of making tomato soup and a grilled cheese serve the same purpose as penicillin and antibiotics. All with crumbled up fingers.

Even though her health challenges kept her from attending church she still faithfully tithed to Lovers Lane Church where she was a member till her passing in 1980 out of the small amount, she received from Uncle Sam every month.

I remember watching TV with her during the Vietnam War. The local channels would post a running script of those killed or missing in action every night after the broadcast. I would see her intensely watch looking for my Uncle Mel’s name and being thankful not to find it but then being overcome with emotion for the other families that were not so fortunate. Even though the Vietnam War was the first to be “televised” we went for long periods of time not hearing from those we loved that were serving. Grandma had my uncle’s letters stored in a safe place. One in particular she had framed in a small picture frame that he sent home on a dried banana skin.

She liked The Mills Brothers, The Ink Spots, old-time hymns, Lawrence Welk, Glenn Miller, Guy Lombardo, and other big band types of music. Thankfully (for me) she didn’t like country music. If you check out my record collection you might be surprised to see a bunch of those oldies. I loved to hear her sing.

Today’s blog will be about some of the New Years Eve parties I got to spend with her. I know the title of the blog sounds like it could be a Mitch Albom book, but I hope my New Years Eve with Gram stories will bring back some good memories for you as well as we rocket into 2025.

But First…A Joke:

Q: What do you get when you cross a dyslexic, an insomniac, and an agnostic?

A: Someone who lies awake at night wondering if there is a dog.

Bonus Dad Joke:

Q: Why do you go to bed at night?

A: Because the bed can’t come to you!

A Verse to Contemplate:

May He give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed - Psalm 20:4

Have I Told You This One?

Gram was a very welcoming woman and when we would show up for our big party, she would meet us at the door and say, “there they are my little hunners!” We would get hugs and kisses, and we could smell the delicious food cooking. She started me on the New Years tradition of eating certain food for good luck in the next year. We would eat kielbasa, sausage, corn, mashed potatoes, and green beans.

Then we would gather around the black and white television and watch Dick Clark from Times Square and prepare for the countdown and ball drop. However, we could never miss Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadiens (I think another channel) do their year-end show which would end with Auld Lang Syne. She loved those guys! We had three channels back in those days all out of Cleveland. Channels 3, 5 and 8 were the network channels. If the rabbit ears were pointed in the right direction and had enough aluminum foil and the weather was perfect, we could pick up channel 43, a local channel.

She would get us gathered up around the tube when it got close to midnight, so we didn’t miss the countdown. We would watch the ball slowly drop and then 3…2…1…. Happy New Year! She would give us a big hug and then she would have a prayer with us to make sure we started off the year right. Not too long after that it would be time for bed, and she could finally take a breath after getting us tucked in. I always remember feeling so safe at her place.

One year though that was not the case. I remember one particular year where we had a really bad storm, possibly a tornado, hit on New Years Eve while at her house. I remember the terrified look in her eyes, as she made us get down on the floor as the storm tore through the mobile home park. I looked up once to see what was going on just in time to see the roof of the home next to ours get ripped off and launched into the sky. Thankfully, we did not get any damage, but it was too close for comfort.

I remember one year when it was shifting from 1969 to 1970 and for some reason thinking this was a momentous occasion. When it clicked at the bottom of the ball drop to 1970, and the lights all went berserk I got all fired up. I have no idea to this day why, but it still sticks with me. I wonder what will happen tonight when it flashes to 2025!? I’m probably going to handle it a bit better.

Once I hit about 15 or so I started going to parties and such with friends and became too cool for the party at Grams. My sister and cousins took my place, and she carried on the traditions fine without me. I would still stop by and give her a hug and smooch but didn’t hang around too long. It was one of those moments when you realize that you are aging, and things change.

My Gram was a very modest person and had the kindest heart. I always struggled with why she had so many hard things going on in her life. I figured I would never understand on this side of heaven why these things happened to her (sound familiar?). Once her health started to fail more, she could not live alone she took turns living with different members of the family. She did not want to live in a nursing home and even though our homes were not made for a wheelchair she put up with it to be with family.

When I was in the “too cool” period and knew everything, I got myself in trouble doing some real dumb stuff. Dumb enough that I had to go to a court hearing at the Juvenile Detention Center in Akron. I could tell that I really had disappointed my parents, and they were hurt. I realized that what I did was very stupid and that I was done with that. The judge agreed and sent me home and promised to expunge my “record” if I kept my nose clean (I’m happy to announce I did my part). I dreaded coming home that night because Gram was living with us at the time, and I didn’t want to see her disappointment as well. When I got into the house she came up to meet me and I thought “here it comes.” I braced myself for the worst but she asked me to kneel down. I did and she hugged me as hard as she could with her arthritic hands and told me that she loved me, and she always will. That ended my life of crime.

One day when I was in college, she was living with us. I was getting ready to go class and was running a little late. I checked in on her and asked her if she was okay. As I said before, she NEVER complained but, on this day, she said that she wasn’t feeling good, and she did not sound right. I asked her if she wanted to stay with her until she felt better. She said no and to head on to class, but I didn’t feel good about it. I went outside to leave, and my car would not start, it ALWAYS started. I flooded it trying to get it started so I went back inside to let it sit and to check on Gram. When I got into the house, I called out to her, and she did not respond. I ran to her room, and she was in the middle of a stroke seizure. I didn’t know what to do so I tried talking to her, but she was unresponsive and shaking all over. I ran out and called 911 and they arrived quickly. She was still seizing when they came in and they asked me to hold her legs still as they cared for her. It took all I had to hold them. She couldn’t even walk, but this seizure made her very strong.

She passed in 1980 when I was twenty. Her death made me take inventory in myself. At the time I had one foot in the church and one foot in the world. I decided that I needed to make a choice because I couldn’t keep doing both. At her funeral I decided that I wanted her to always be proud of me, so I started to change my ways and live my life like I thought she lived hers. I want to be a positive example to others like she was for me.

I’m a blessed person to have known her and as the ball drops tonight I will raise my glass of milk up to her and wish her a Happy New Year (from the oldest hunner)! How great would it be to spend another New Years Eve with Gram!

Thanks for your time to give this a read. Happy New Year to all of you as well! Bring on 2025 and I appreciate your support in reading my blogs over the past couple of years. May He give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed (except Michigan, everyone but them).

A Prayer:

Father, You are my hope! Fill me to overflowing with joy and peace as I learn to completely trust You by the power of the Holy Spirit in the new year ahead.

Book Recommendation:

Big Chuck! (My Favorite Stories from 47 Years on Cleveland TV) by Chuck Schodowski with Tom Feran (2008)

Music Recommendation:

The Sweetest Music This Side of Heaven by Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadiens (1975)

Quote of the Day:

Knowledge is like underwear. It is useful to have it, but not necessary to show it off. - Bill Murray.