Grandma's life didn't end when she married Grandpa. She was still independent and still strong, only now she wasn't alone in that independence and strength. The building they'd started their marriage in was the building my mom raised chickens in when I was a kid so it was hard for me to picture anyone - much less my Grandma and Grandpa - calling it a home.
It was a temporary home while they built their new home - a place of efficiency where everything was within easy reach. "The perfect home of the 50's". It was a house not 25 yards from the home Grandpa grew up in. In her later years Grandma often wished she had been a little more frivolous in the design and a little less efficient. It was the sort of house you saw in the 'perfect sitcoms' of the 50's. Grandma wasn't quite the June Cleaver but she could have taken that perfect woman down in two snaps of her wet towel. (I heard many a person tell me the snapping of her towel could silence the quarreling of her two sons in less than a breath).
Jaroso was a busy town at this time. The train made its last stop here and with it Jaroso received business from both sides of the state line. Also bringing both states together was the grain elevator. A grocery store, a restaurant, hotel, bank, tractor implement, and the pool hall were kept hopping. There was also plenty of farming to do. Sheep, cattle, pigs, and crops had to be cared for. Not to mention KIDS. Rumors were rampant when Grandma gave birth to the first of two boys shortly after the wedding. It was said the marriage forced when Allen was born premature in 1950. Grandma and Grandpa didn't seem to mind the rumors. They had other things to worry about. Allen was a miracle child in that he survived birth but his childhood wasn't an easy one with many trips to the children's hospital in Denver.
January 1952 brought a flood for Grandma and Grandpa to survive. December 1952 brought their second son, Harold, for them to survive. Raising two boys in the 50s had as many adventures for Grandma and Grandpa as any of their other endeavors did. One of those adventures was having lost Allen and not knowing he was gone until after the train left the depot heading back north. They searched everywhere and when they still couldn't find him they called the depot in Fort Garland and asked them to be on alert for a 3 year old on the lamb. It was to their relief when a neighbor called to tell them the child had made the mile trek for a visit. Another such adventure - aka near heart attack - came later when the two boys were old enough to 'show their affection for one another'. It was a discrepancy involving a hammer and Harold's head. Grandma was busy loading the milk into the store fridge when Allen came over and informed her that "Harold's dying." Grandma recalled saying, "That's nice. Hope you boys are having fun." Then realizing what Allen had said and rushing over to find Harold laying on the concrete porch with his head cracked open.
They did get those two boy raised and even sent off to college - not a suggestion for the Anderson family but a requirement. The house was built, they survived the ups and downs of farming and the town dying. The many camping/hiking trips, the trips to Alaska, the CAP duty times, the many crash landings of more than one small airplane....and somewhere amidst all that living Grandma went back to the classroom, teaching in Centennial High School, San Luis.
Grandma was a good teacher - or at least all of the reports I've received from her students were that she was good. She was firm but fair. Many of the boys would rather take home ec with Mrs. Anderson than many of the other classes offered. More than one person has recalled a memory or two from my Grandma's lessons. Those that worked with her respected her as well.
As for me, I thought it was kinda cool to have a Grandma teaching in the same school I was attending. When I'd have those coordinationally challenged moments of my young life the first and second grade teachers would guide me to the high school and Grandma would take care of the problem. Most kids had their parents called. I remember holding a hand of cards in a game of 7 card rummy, sitting in the 'big kid chair,' wearing an over-sized skirt while waiting for the drier. I remember sitting in an all school assembly and hearing them call my Grandma to the front so she could receive an honor the year she retired. I was sitting next to my teacher and when she pointed and said "There's your Grandma," I remember replying with, "I know," and smiling.
I don't know how the high school worked without her the next year but I know I was one terrified kid getting on the bus for the first time knowing my Grandma wouldn't be there when I fell.
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