OPINION: Two grandmas

July 27th 8:41 pm | Donna Sauraq Erickson    

Growing up, I had two grandmas.  They both lived far away.  One we called our "White Grandma" and the other, our "Eskimo Grandma".  We talked on the phone to one of them and it filled my little mind with wonder. 

My dad's mother had a different way of talking. I held the rotary phone close to my ear and she would tell me that I was a "swa-eet little thang," she had a strange accent!  She sent us gift packages, and in the summertime we would get a watermelon packed in saw dust, and big rubbery corn in jars that was called "hominy" and some sort of chipped beef that our dad loved to eat. It was so exciting to get a watermelon in the Arctic!

Our Eskimo Grandma never ever called on the phone, but we would travel by air to visit her during the summer, to camp at her fish camp or to go berry picking.  The only thing I remember our Eskimo Grandma ever sending were big huge coffee cans filled with dried seal meat in oil. 

I never did meet my White Grandma, but I cherish the memories of her letters and packages and phone calls. Years later, my sons would have an Eskimo Grandma and a White Grandma, although I don't think they ever thought of it that way.

Today my grandbabies have a half-breed grandma.  I like to send them things that I have made, like seal skin boots and little kaspaks, or call them sa-weet little thangs, and on some rare occasion, I'll even buy a watermelon.