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now that everyone is mentioning smells, it brought back the memory of smells at Nana's - cooked cabbage. They were Irish. Yuck. (to the smell, not to being Irish!)
I don't remember smelling cabbage growing up. Our Irish grandma was "Nanny." I think she made something called a poor man's cake.
I have happy memories of visiting my maternal Grandparent's house. We visited several times a year, and it was always a treat to visit their Victorian home. They were Italian immigrants and had transformed their yard into the garden of Eden - fruit trees, flowers, vegetable gardens, a grape arbor and several outbuildings that we kids loved to explore.
They had an old well under a huge mulberry tree and a wine cellar complete with casks of homemade wine from their own grapes. I can still recall that heady scent today. The bedroom where we stayed had this odd little window over the bed that led into a large walk-in close/small room. We would peer through and try to see what was in there.
My grandmother would make homemade ravioli and it would be drying on a card table on the sunporch covered with a white cloth. She had these little corkscrew type pins she used to keep the doilies in place on the furniture, and I recall always untwisting them....it must have drove my grandmother nuts after we left to replace them all.
I loved that place.
Yes. In my grandparents area there was a bit of competition between the different ethnic neighborhoods with the gardens, they all got in on it. lol. My grandmother specialized in roses and grandpa grew the tastiest tomatoes. There was also food competition, you could smell the different cooking smells all around the streets.
I remember lace hand made curtains and a lot of different aprons. The art deco architecture and fixtures.
A round washing machine. Of course an old Singer sewing machine at the ready. The house was always so sunny, warm and cozy and smelled like fresh baked bread a lot. Just like a stereotype of a Grandma house. Grandpa's rifle wasn't exactly secured and was just leaning in the corner- uh oh. But no one would have ever dared touch it. Grandma was a cat lover so there were always a few kitties around to play with. The house and yard was a cool place to explore with gardens and little nooks to hide in. Once I was digging around under the back porch with my little shovel and unearthed an old cameo pendant. I concocted a fantasy that Victorian ladies had lived there once upon a time, and had danced around in the gardens in their ball gowns and lost the pendant. Lol, the cameo was probably my grandmother's lost costume jewelry but she let me have my little daydream.
Yep I loved going there. My own house seemed so boring in comparison.
Front porch where my grandfather would sit and read the morning paper. I had a chair there too but I didn't know how to read yet.
A long row of pansies grew along one side of the house.
Off the kitchen was a panty and there would be pies on the counter.
The kitchen stove was on tall legs. It was light green. There was so much room under it that I used to hide there when the doctor came.
The dining room had a bay window for plants and a cranberry glass pitcher and bowl set.
There was a hen house out in back and an enormous, perfectly kept vegetable garden.
My grandfather had a woodworking shop in the cellar and he used to cut out elephants and tigers from wood for me. He cut me some birds too and painted them.
Now that people are mentioning gardens --- My grandfather, who died when I was 4, had made a brick wall around part of their yard. That's where he grew some vegetables. I actually don't remember which ones he grew, all I remember is seeing him working in there.
Also, my grandparents had a grape arbor where they grew the tastiest concord grapes I've ever had. My grandmother also had a patch of mint. Us kids would like to pick some, wash it off and eat it. To this day when I smell fresh mint, I always think of that mint patch.
My grandparents were immigrants, as were just about all their neighbors. In fact, my grandparents, mother, aunt and uncle became really good friends with an Italian family and an Armenian family. There were also a few black families. One lady, who was widowed, had a beautiful flower garden. Every time my grandmother would take us for walks, when we went by this lady's house and she was in her garden, she would cut some flowers, make a bouquet and give them to my grandmother. I just loved going by her garden.
OP---Thank you for creating this thread. It has given us all a chance to go down Memory Lane
I remember the scents. They're hard to describe but once in a blue moon I'll be somewhere and get a whiff and immediately get pulled back to my grandparents' house. The scent of certain soaps, certain aftershave, certain perfumes that are no longer popular.
Like many people of their generations, they had a lot of dark wood furniture. It's not common to see the wine colored varnishes in today's houses.
They also had formal living rooms, which no one seems to have anymore. I distinctly remember that both sets of grandparents had a cut glass crystal container for certain kinds of candies which were only offered to guests and never touched otherwise. It seemed to be a thing for that generation.
Yes, my grandmother had one of those crystal containers too, and it was the only thing I got of her's after she passed away. It's on a pedestal and stands about 15" high, and she used to put that Christmas candy in it that's all different colors and shapes.
My one grandmother had an Indiana limestone house with a fireplace and chandelier with prisms in the living room. The kitchen always smelled of cantaloupe and fried bacon, she gave us Coca-Cola in those bright colored aluminum glasses that seemed so cold with ice and Grandpa had Planter Peanut men everywhere dispensing peanuts. We were allowed to help ourselves to anything at their house. White enameled cast iron chairs and table in the garden and a glider on the front porch. Plastic mattress protector that crackled on the beds we slept in, a cigar box full of clay marbles we played with and a wood and glass Pachinko (pinball) machine kept in a drawer we could play with. Bookcases on both sides of the fireplace overflowing with books. She lived across from a park in the middle of a town that was the county seat and we could walk to the movie theatre and downtown stores. Grandma like to watch the Lloyd Thaxton show on TV and Grandpa like to watch Shock Theater and horror movies with the grandkids.
My other grandmother lived in a brick house with a large front porch in a nearby town to the other grandmother’s. That small town out in the country consisted of two crossroads, a post office and the number of churches and bars were about equal. Grandmother had a Hoosier cabinet on the back porch that always seemed to have a berry pie of some kind cooling. Glass candy dishes had either gum drops or those sugared orange gel slices. We could have some if we asked first and it wasn’t too close to supper. You could eat off the floor in any corner of any room. There were antimacassars on the back of the davenports and chairs. They had one small wooden box of toys for us in the cleanest, uncluttered basement I have ever seen. Grandpa had a big vegetable garden out back lined with flowers. They had a porch swing on the back porch. I remember listening to a clock in a glass dome ticking. It was a quiet, peaceful house.
I loved both homes and grandparents for different reasons, but the one house was more fun for a kid.
I described my paternal grandmother's house so now I'll describe my maternal grandmother's house.
It was in a very small town, on the outskirts. It was I guess a prefabricated house, and the rooms weren't large. The garage, however, which my granddad built, WAS huge. It was probably as big as the house itself. It had all sorts of tools in it, as well as a contraption to make homemade wine, which was always percolating something.
One thing he and my grandmother made was life size zoo animals and exotic animals cut out of plywood and painted. They would put these huge animals in their yard and they made a big sign that said "The Silent Zoo." People would drive out and take pictures of it, and it was also in the paper at least once.
Another thing the huge garage held was their barge. They would float along the rivers and canals of Louisiana and my grandmother would smoke her pipe and do pastel portraits of people, as well as paint church baptistries. There are many church baptistries in rural Louisiana painted by my grandmother.
Her house was jam packed full of things like huge stacks of National Geographic magazines, gag gifts bought at Stuckeys on her many road trips, paint supplies, baskets of mysterious things, pipes, bottles, you name it.
I had a great aunt who lived in New Orleans in a quintessential New Orleans house. I used to love to visit her there (which we did often). She had married into the family and she was Creole, and spoke Cajun French when she was with her friends. Us kids thought that was so exotic. I loved her house, which had very tall ceilings, lots of wood trim, archways, dark bedrooms, etc. I believe it was built in the Gothic style and it had lots of cool brick work on it, as well as a lush patio area and deep green, lush backyard. I know it was in New Orleans but for some reason, not because of AC because she didn't have it, but I guess because the house was so well built - it was always cool and dark inside. She was a fabulous cook, and it always smelled like roast beef gravy in her house! We would always have roast beef, rice and gravy, crescent rolls, and green beans for Sunday dinner.
My uncle was Roman Catholic and my aunt was Protestant, so they would each go to their respective churches on Sunday morning but then we'd all sit down together for that fabulous roast beef Sunday dinner.
We usually had home made fruit cobbler for dessert.
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I think she made something called a poor man's cake. 
