My Grandma Jordan was born in 1900 and lived in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania for all the years I knew her. My grandparents had a splendid old house on Penn Street in Punxy. I have wonderful memories of summers there in my early years catching fireflies, Saturday night concerts at the band stand across the street, and grandma playing her piano and organ for me. Then there are the not so wonderful memories of her meatloaf. Her heart was in the right place, but those were the nights when we secretly ordered Mrs. Defelice’s pizza after dinner.

Like me, Grandma had curly hair. Still, she regularly had her short hair permed. Whether that was because it was the fashion, or because it was a way to keep her curls where they belonged, I don’t know.

Grandma died in 1992 and there are two key mementos that remind me of her place in my life. The first is a porcelain puppy coin bank that used to sit on Grandma’s counter. Today it sits on my dresser and is one of my most treasured possessions.

The second is her laundry basket. This basket is circa 1930. I call it wicker, but it seems as if it’s made of a sturdier material than that – although it has only one handle. For years the basket sat in the barn loft at our place in Massachusetts. I certainly wasn’t going to haul my laundry around in an antique basket and I didn’t want to get rid of it, but I didn’t know what to do with it. Recently, when we were cleaning out the garage it landed in the house. And, some freshly laundered blankets landed in it.

Now the basket has a higher purpose.

Cinder has adopted it and I’m inclined to let her have it. She’s just too cute in it and this gives me a reason to leave it out and be reminded of Grandma Jordan.