Thinking of my Grandma Bilow & her house in Brinnon

On March 23rd, we went to a memorial for a great Uncle.  This Uncle (George Snider) I didn't know very well.  He married my Great Aunt Norma in 1985.  He was a quiet man, but smiled a lot and was pleasant.  I don't think I ever had a conversation with him, but I have seen him many times.  He came to all of the yearly family functions that I came to. (And some that I didn't come to..)  

My Aunt Norma is the youngest of her siblings and the last one alive.  She is in her early 80s.

She looks a lot like my Grandma.  My Grandma was one of 10 children.  She had 4 sisters in adulthood.  They were together a lot, whenever they could be! They laughed & cried together. They loved each other dearly! They used to have monthly Wed. lunches. This tradition still carries on. Now the cousins & grand kids go.  I have only been once, but I love that the tradition carries on!  It is mostly my mom's cousins that go now. One of my mom's cousins travels 2 hours to come to this monthly lunch.

(My grandma & some of her siblings, Don, Stan, Gordon, front Norma, Gma, Vera, & Shirley)

Some of my best memories from when I was a little girl are at my Grandma & Grandpa's property.  They called it "the lot". It started out as just a piece of property with 2 outhouses on it & then they built a house on it that they moved to when I was 5 or 6. Most of the great aunts and uncles had property up in Brinnon on the Canal tracks.  During the summer we would go up there and have so much fun! During the day, I would go for walks with my grandma.  She was slow... because it seemed like she knew everyone there & would stop and talk with EVERYONE! Some of her cousins lived there, too. I loved that she knew everyone & everyone knew her! When she was happy like this, she was so much fun to be around. In the evening there would be huge bon fires and smores. (And drunken & lively adults). My grandma & grandpa lived next door to my Uncle Stan & because the 2 properties were so close together this was usually the gathering spot. 

(My gma & her sister Norma, they loved Raggedy Ann dolls)

One of the great things going to my gma's house was the drive there. No matter where we lived, it was a long ways. An hour or two.  They lived in the middle of nowhere! Brinnon is on the Hood Canal. It is almost an hour past Shelton on Hwy 101 on very curvy roads. We would measure the 2 big curves both a little over a mile each.  The other way to Brinnon was to ride the ferry from Edmonds, WA to Kingston and then drive to Brinnon which from Kingston is a little under an hour. I loved going that way and riding the ferry! Still to this day, I love riding the ferry and it reminds me of going to gma's house! 

My gma lived on a cul-de-sac. The cul-de-sac went down a hill to the left.  My gmas house had a driveway that went all the way around her house with a steep hill on one side. There were lots of flowers, (she loved flowers and hummingbirds!) , ferns & huckleberries. One of the other great things about gma's house was the                                                                 "Eye house"

Strange, isn't it?! It is prob. a little more run down & cluttered now, but how I remember it.  As a child (and maybe still a little now..) I could never stare at enough, so odd!

Soo many more memories, but I will save those for another blog post.

One of my favorites of my Grandparents.  I loved them mucho!