I loved going to Grandma Perry’s house when I was a child.  She was my Grandmother on my Father’s side of the family.  We went fairly often and the fun began even before we reached the town where she lived.  I suppose most children enjoy the thrill of a
roller coaster or a carnival ride, but one of the first thrill rides that I remember
were those Novelty Missouri Hills.

Frequently, we would drive over to Novelty, to visit Grandma Perry.  I couldn’t wait to get to the outskirts of the small town because that’s where the hills began.  These hills were a little different in that they each dropped off abruptly and there were several of them in a row.

As the car would make the turn toward Novelty, I would say,  “Don’t forget the hills, Daddy,” and he never disappointed us as he accelerated just a little at the right moment
as we went over each hill.  I would giggle as we descended the other side of the hill
with my tummy seeming to be in my throat for a moment.  J
ust as I would get back to normal, the next hill would come up
and take my breath away once more.

Grandma lived in Novelty where she had moved after selling the Perry farm.
She had been a widow for many years and I never knew my Grandfather since
he had died when Daddy was only five.  She lived in a little house just across
the road from the Christian Church, and just a block or so down the same street
was the Methodist church.    As a child, I just supposed that if there was a church
nearby, you went to it.  I thought maybe she went to both churches and that was
why she knew so many hymns by heart.  In reality, Grandma probably just loved music
and poetry because she could also recite long passages of poetry
that she had memorized, one of which was “Curfew Must Not Ring Tonight”

Uncle John lived with Grandma and he was always so glad to see us.
I had been told that Uncle John had gone to a special school where he learned
to talk with his hands because he couldn’t hear or talk like other people.
It was called “sign language” and all of my Daddy’s brothers and sisters had learned
enough to be able to communicate with him.  Grandma Perry was so good at signing
to Uncle John that she would stand at the stove stirring a pot of food
with one hand while talking to John with the other.

Daddy and Uncle John were very close.  Daddy told me that when he and
Uncle John were young, Grandma would tuck them in and turn out the light.
She would tell them to go to sleep but they would sometimes stay awake
a long time and talk by signing against each other’s hands in the darkness.

There was a ditch or gully out beside Grandma’s yard with a small tree beside it
and there was a swing that hung from the tree.  It was situated so it swung out
across the gully and my brother and I would play “Tarzan”.

The nice thing about Grandma’s house was you always knew what to expect,
and I had learned to expect chocolate cake with pink icing because Grandma always
seemed to have that particular kind of cake.  She kept the cake in a big kitchen cupboard.
Daddy said that it was the same cupboard where his supper was put if he didn’t eat it
when he was a young boy.  He told us that they were taught not to waste food so if
you didn’t eat your supper, then you had to eat it for the next meal.
(I wondered why he didn’t just give the food he didn’t want to his brother like I did).
Grandma Perry would serve me a piece of her chocolate cake with pink icing
and I always ate it all because I wasn’t sure but what she might put it
in that cupboard for me to eat the next time I came to visit.

When we visited Grandma Perry, she would allow me to hold her wooden music box
that had pretty flowers painted on the top.  It was kept high on top of the cupboard
where it would be safe.  I had never seen a music box before and it seemed like
a rare and wondrous treasure to me and I handled it very carefully.  Perhaps it was
then that I fell so in love with music.  Over and over again, I would wind it up and listen
to it play it’s soft, tinkling sound of the hauntingly beautiful
melody that I still remember today.

I still like music boxes and have even collected a few.  Sometimes I make
a chocolate cake with pink icing just for old time’s sake
and for a few moments I am a child again.

The house Grandma Perry lived in is still there in town, but
the Christian Church is the only church that still remains there today.
The Novelty hills are gone now, replaced by a more modern highway,
but I bet there are others, like me, who still drive down that road
and remember the thrill of the hills.

By
Pamela R. Blaine
© February 2003