Grandma Cram died when I was 7 yrs. old and yet I have many memories of her. I only remember a few stories from her youth. Grandma was the youngest daughter in a large family. Her oldest sister was just a baby when my great Grandpa Robert Stoney and his wife Sarah Jakeman came across the plains into Utah. (You can find his notes from that trip on LDS.ORG.) My grandma had a flare for the dramatic. She went to college and got her teaching degree. She taught Elocution. She was very good at giving dramatic readings. She had one about an Indian princess named Urna. That is where she got the name for my Mother. When I was a little child I remember going over to visit my Grandma. She would play cars with us on their front room rug. It was a large oriental designed rug. We would drive the cars around the patterns. Sometimes we would play marbles too. She also played games with us on her big dining room table. We played "Cootie" and "Checkers", and "Pick up Sticks" She had a large buffet in the dining room. We loved when she would go over to the buffet and tap the bottom drawer with her foot. Smiling she would say " I wonder what's in here?" We would all come running. You never knew what to expect, but it was always something yummy! Sometimes it was peppermint candies (white with a green center) or it might be her famous cheese straws. (pie crust sticks baked with cheese in them,) or it could be her 'garbage cookies'.... We have tried for years to duplicate those cookies. She said she called them that because she put everything sweet in them that she found leftover in the icebox.
I loved grandma's kitchen. It always smelled so good. She had a wood stove to cook on, and a ice box. We loved it when we got to watch the iceman make his delivery. Some times he would give us slivers of ice to suck on. He had a leather pad on his shoulder. It was used to carry the ice. He would grab the ice with big metal tongs. Then he would sling the block of ice up onto the leather pad on his shoulder to carry it into the house. Grandma was always singing or humming as she worked. She smelled good and she always made us feel loved. She had a root cellar on her service porch. There was a hatch in the floor . It was a door that led to the root cellar. Sometimes she would send my brother down for some fruit or potatoes. I wasn't allowed in the root cellar, I didn't really want to go down that dark hole with spiders' webs. I remember one time when she took me to the Five and Dime store with her. She needed some powder. She showed me all the beauty supplies and then purchased a compact with powder in it. I felt so big. Walking back home with her hand in mine I knew I was loved.
We always went to Grandma and Grandpa's for Thanksgiving. Grandma would always seem so happy to have all her family around her. She would tease Grandpa and make him laugh. She always sent us home with pudding for my Daddy. She knew he loved it and since my mom often brought the pies she would make the pudding for Daddy extra.
When my Grandma was dying my mom took me over to see her. She said Grandma wanted to see me so I went into her bedroom and sat on the edge of her bed. Grandma took my hand with her frail one and looked me in the eyes and told me that I should never be afraid of dying. She told me of her faith in our Heavenly Father and that she knew she would see him. She told me to be good. I will never forget that experience. As I was growing up my mother would always remind me that Grandma was watching over me. I wanted to be a good little girl for my Grandma.
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