GRAND Magazine - January 2009 - (Page 6)

isn’t it grand? Sweet love remembered Grand The magazine for grandparenTs www.grandmagazine.com WEndY rEId CrISP editor in Chief SIMOnE TIEBEr art director MarY ann COOPEr senior editor CHrISTInE BETTEnCOUrT Copy editor HOLLY LEnTZ editorial assistant Contributing editors M YSTErIOUSLY, LIkE dISTOrTEd LIFE forms in a ’50s horror movie, boxes of cards, letters, Boy Scout badges, elementary school drawings, birthday party favors—and photographs! endless photographs!—seep into our lives from the recesses of the attics and closets. I throw nothing out and it’s stressful; I throw anything out and the next day I need it. The house of our friend Sara burned to the ground in a San Diego fire last year, and as she has begun to recover from the shock, she says, “At least we don’t have all that stuff anymore.” And then, there’s the payoff. In a late-life marriage, such as I have, many boxes are filled with unfamiliar faces. Here was one album, filled with photos of a young family in the ’70s—a mop-headed, skinny father with sideburns, wearing a blue leisure suit, and a mother in a Gunne Sax granny dress and…teased bouffant hair? Cultural tip-off: Long, straight hair was the hippie norm. I don’t know these folks. “Who’s this?” I asked John, my husband, and he flipped through the pages, enchanted. Somehow, as stuff has a life of its own, this album had come into our lives without previously passing before his eyes. Nevertheless, it belonged to him: Its contents held the story of his life with his boys, the big house he’d owned in Ohio, pictures from the Christmas his parents drove east from Minnesota. “But, who’s this?” I repeated. A man who looked something like John was napping with a child who looked something like one of John’s grandsons. “Oh!” John said, and his voice caught in his throat. “That’s Dad. And Mike, when Mike was 5.” His father and his son. And that is the moment we save for: when a picture transcends its faded colors and careless, amateur composition, when it stops being stuff and becomes the stuff as dreams are made on—the stuff of life, giving our hands strength to clasp the trembling past and reach forward to the small, trusting grip of the future. ruth nathan, Brigitte Castellano, Michelle Briseño-Tucker, Tiffany Sharpe, anna Gervait, Galen Miller, Fran Weber Teall regional editors Los Angeles: Judy Pugh Orange County (California): Pat Burns Tampa Bay: Barbara Hunting-Hanley New Jersey: Helaine Shilling San Francisco Peninsula: donne davis Metro Detroit: Suzanne Finley for CusTomer serviCe and address Changes 727-323-9587 PrOdUCT rEVIEWS Please visit www.grandmagazine.com or products@grandmagazine.com Mail samples for review to Grand Magazine Editorial, 989 Milton, #3d, Ferndale, California 95536 Please visit www.grandmagazine.com Grand Media, LLC, allows carefully screened third parties to rent the Grand subscriber file from time to time. If you prefer that we not include your name, please write us at Grand Magazine, 4791 Baywood Point drive South, St. Petersburg, FL 33711 or e-mail admin@grandmagazine.com Grand VOL. 5 nO. 1 (ISSn 1553-9202) is published bimonthly by Grand Media, LLC 4791 Baywood Point drive South, St. Petersburg, FL 33711 T. 866-327-9039 F. 727-323-9587 Contents © 2009 by Grand Media, LLC SUBMISSIOnS/QUErIES Editor in Chief 6 GRAND JANUARY 2009 nXTbook Media 6 GRAND MAY JUNE 2008 http://www.grandmagazine.com http://www.grandmagazine.com http://www.grandmagazine.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of GRAND Magazine - January 2009

GRAND�Magazine - January 2009
Grand View
Contents
Isn't it Grand?
Grand Central
Tips on Teens
Grand Gestures
Toddler Town
Help! My Grandson's Being Raised Vegan!
Cover Story: Casualties
Leader of the Pack
Reunions
Together Time
Resources
Grand Finale

GRAND Magazine - January 2009