Things Your Grandmother Had

mfceiling

Lorelli! wrote: »

She also had a dark wooden cabinet with loads of ornaments. One I loved was a little girl with a tear down her face. My mam has that now. In the cabinet, she also had photo albums which i would take out every now and then.

She had these little tacky novelty cactus plants that she got as a holiday present from one of the other grandkids which I loved and snowglobes. She also grew rhubarb and blackberries in the back garden.

I think we are related.

Lorelli!

mfceiling wrote: »

I think we are related.

Ok! I can't even keep anonymous on an anonymous forum :pac:

Were you the one who bought the eh tacky cactus plants? Only messing!

whoopsadoodles

My paternal grandmother died when I was young, she had a crap life. Really crap.

My maternal grandparents are still alive and kicking, though my grandfather is in earlyish stages of alzheimers which is heartbreaking to see. They don't have many "things" they live in a very tiny house, I grew up in one on the same street and my folks still live there. There's no "good room" as there's just one living room off of which there are two bedrooms and a scullery kitchen. The bathroom, which used to be just an outdoor toilet, is just off the kitchen - which is fcuking rank imo but that's what they've got. The only thing that was memorable from me growing up was my nan's collection of "aynesley" which we would get her as gifts for big occasions. I vaguely recall getting her a piece for her ruby wedding anniversary - many, many years ago. I'd imagine it's probably all in the attic now because it's not in the sitting room any more. My nan is very house proud and would be sick if someone called to the door if a cushion was out of place. But not in a Mrs. Bucket way - in a panicky and not wanting to be judged for being poor - kind of way.

I have great memories of spending Sundays in their house. My sister and I would go to 11.30 mass with my Grandad, we would walk down the "long way" so he could go to the shop to get the paper. Outside the shop was my Grandad's pal Tommy who each week would give my sister and me a 50pence piece. In the shop then, the shop keeper who knew my Grandad well would give us a free treat as well. I often bought a pyramint. Yum. During lent, all of these treats were brought back to their house and put in a jar until Easter. We never ever got through them all of course, but sure we didn't know that! To the pub then about 12.45 and we'd get a lemonade while my Grandad played Darts. We'd head over then to my Nan at 2 when the pub closed and would get a full Sunday dinner. Off then on an adventure, maybe just to Dun Laoghaire to walk the pier, or the Dart then in all its magical glory could take us as far as howth. My grandad loved to take photos and we have so many of us as kids on a Sunday afternoon! Sunday was my parents day off

My nanny was always the one with the fizzy drink, or the trip to McDonalds. I remember actually finding fizzy drinks in my own house once and being absolutely delighted, asked my mam if I could have some and she said no. I couldn't understand it at all. Following weekend then she threw a surprise birthday party for me

Thanks for making me think of those things OP. I'm all warm and fuzzy now.

jmayo

My granny introduced me at age of about 3 or 4 to Poit?n and Andrews Liver Salts.

No not together although thinking about it, it would be one interesting combination.

I actually loved the fizziness of the Andrews.
Of course I didn't realise it's ultimate function.

She was great believer in power of poit?n, usually taken as punch.
She also used to make a bread milk mixture called goody.
Can't believe I also liked it.

My granny also had a fascination with worms and everything was diagnosed as "he has worms".

Graces7

JupiterKid wrote: »

The housework our grandmothers would have had to do would have been so hard and tiresome. Washing clothes by hand and other difficult chores. The advent of washing machines, electric cookers, vacuum cleaners, dishwashers and other labour saving devices must have been a godsend to their daughter's generation.

My parents used to tell me about growing up in the 1950s with no television. I just couldn't imagine life without TV. :eek:

Youngsters now probably can't imagine life without smartphones, tablets and the internet. Life goes on and technology advances.

But hopefully people will always remember at least one grandparent and their cherished possessions with fondness. They had a lot less than we do now but in ways they had enough to be happy with.

Before TV we played board games etc as a family, or played out with friends . Hobbies; my older brother did beautiful intricate marquetry, developed and printed his own photos and built intricate model planes. There were normal occupations. We had radio too of course. and radiograms

Lady Haywire

One of my grannies is still going strong, will be 98 in a few months time. When she's in a good mood she'll tell stories about growing up, her tales around the Big Snow are amazing, hard to believe almost!
Only moved into a nursing home there in January but before that she lived on her own She had a good room alright, though wsn't allowed into it very often. It had a large picture of a girl crying with a smashed vase & a lassie type dog looking at her sorrowfully. There were National Geographic magazines kept in there from the 1980s (they were all kept for some reason!) so I'd be given a few at each visit to read through. Still have them in my bedroom somewhere.
My other granny lived right next to us, the house used to be a shop and was old in itself (before famine for sure) so the windows are very deepset. Used to climb into them and read :pac:
In the good parlour there were old cabinets full of the good delph, including a set given to her aunt when she went to America, surprisingly she returned to Ireland so the 'set' came back with her. Another cabinet had loads of photos and newspaper clippings, I'd spend hours at them.
The upstairs in the house was really dark and the floor creaked like mad ( no building regs's when it went in!) so I was always nervous of going up there, though it was full of interesting things, an old travelling chest, christmas decorations etc. They're still there, the house is mine to use but I'm not ready to settle into it yet.
The one resonating memory from that house is the tick-tock of the big grandfather clock with the lead weights, which was wound morning & evening. It didn't tell the time but it was still kept going as it was a gift to my great grandfather and mother as a wedding present from his side of the family.
I recently took it away and got it restored so now it chimes the hour and tells perfect time.

blue note

My grandmother had a box brownie camera which she got as a teenager. She was born in 1912, so I think she got it in the late 1920's. Her mother died when she was young and she was largely raised by a neighbor who didn't have kids and I think they doted on her. Her father called to her every day but didn't raise her as such.

So for us as kids it was a cool old camera to play with. But when I think about it it was something truly extraordinary that she owned as a teenager. My mother told me that she often used to take pictures of neighbors on request as she was the only one on the street with a camera and that would have been in the 50s / 60s. I can't imagine how rare it was in the 1930s.

Graces7

seamus wrote: »

One grandmother died when my mother was four. She had a stillborn child and then was put in recovery in a ward where four women had dysentry, she contracted it and died.

My other grandmother I kind of remember her house. It had that decor that was really 1970s - lots of browns, greens and grays - and hadn't been updated. She grew all sorts in her garden out the back, mainly rhubarb and gooseberries, but also blackberries and raspberries. I think she had a "good room", but I don't entirely recall. Whenever I was there, she had a living room, which was basically the walkway from the rest of the house to the kitchen, with a small TV in the corner. The odd time we went over for Sunday dinner, there was a larger room at the front of the house with a settee and a dining table, but no TV, that was never otherwise used.

When I was around 6 or 7, she had a "senior moment" which resulted in her setting her kitchen on fire and completely destroying it. So she agreed with my Dad that she wasn't able to cope on her own anymore, we converted our our living room into a completely self-contained granny flat and she moved in.

Somehow she managed to make this single room (plus kitchenette) a microcosm of the house she had just left. It had the same smell and feel as her house and despite being newly painted and decorated it, her furniture still made it feel distinctly 1970s.

There was definitely a picture of Jaysus on the wall (the woman went to mass every day until she was in her 80s). No red light though. She also had a number of Mary/Jesus/Baby Jesus statutes both in the room and in her bedroom. Bit creepy tbh. I think all of their heads were broken off and glued back on.

She was diabetic, so there was always a packet of "sweets" lying around that you'd never see in the shops - one you'd get in pharmacies. Also boxes of needles and vials of insulin hanging around where anyone could get them. Clearly child safety wasn't top priority
She used to break the tips off old needles and let us use them for sucking up water and spraying it around

All my grandparents were gone by the time I was 12, so I don't really have any particular sentimentality about them. They were all "old" when I was growing up, and so not particularly engaging - they didn't have the energy. The grandmother who lived with us would come in and speak to us often, I have good memories of her, but she was an incredibly reserved woman, personally very cold. I hindsight she really enjoyed having grandchildren to talk to, play cards with and bake for, but I never recall getting a hug from her or having a proper heart-to-heart conversation.

So for all intents and purposes from my perspective as a child, she was the nice woman who lived in our house, as opposed to a family member.

My other granny, on my mother's side, was always in bed, as she had no legs. "Lost them to sugar," adults whispered. I learned many years later that that meant she was diabetic. I used to try not to stare at the bedclothes, flat as they were, wondering what was..... underneath. She gave birth to 7 children and raised 3. TB took the rest at various ages. This was in the UK. She lived to a good age considering her illness. Well into her 60s

Summer wind

One of my nana's had a stemmed glass with a red liquid in it on her dressing table in the bedroom. It was a trick glass because it could be turned upside down without spilling the contents. When I was very small I wouldn't dare turn it upside down when nana asked me to because I was sure it would spill. There was always milk in a tall jug on the sideboard in the kitchen for baking bread and sultanas (that we always used to eat by the handful) for baking too. The clothes were always washed with a washing board and bath of hot sudsy water. Ther was a big solid fuel range that we held our bread up to on a toasting fork for lovely hot buttered toast.

My other nana had lots of lovely beaded necklaces that she gave me when we visited. There was a lot of fruit trees in their orchard and we always had fun picking fruit and eating it. She had huge dogs that had their own chairs in the kitchen and if you sat in the chair the dog would jump up behind you and put his paws under your bum and keep pushing until he knocked you off:)

Samuel T. Cogley

Grandad on at least 7 occasions on oneside

LordSutch

snowflaker wrote: »

Things Your Grandmother Had

Bunions.

s3rtvdbwfj81ch

Graces7, I love that smell.

My grandad used to smoke a pipe, and the smell of that, along with a cup of sugary tea,made with leaves ALWAYS in that house, they had a tea-leaf dispenser on the kitchen wall, kind of like the things you see for dispensing coffee grounds a coffee shop these days, and they always drank their tea from bone china, there was an everyday set, a set in better nick for when there'd be a gang around, and a "Good" set for the priest or Charlie Haughey when he'd call!

whisky_galore

Giving out disappointing treats...boiled sweets, clove rock and the most disappointing ice cream of all time. The Golly Bar.

s3rtvdbwfj81ch

Strange thread, and I wonder what my own 3 year old will answer in 35 years when he's the age I am now, about my own mother's house.

Everything there seems relatively "normal" to me.

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

A walk in linving-room library. Seriously - thee was a room where you could not see wall - just books everywhere. For all I knew, they might have been holding up the ceiling.

And a black-and-white tv that took about 30-40 seconds to "warm up" after you turned it on.

Widdershins

My granny was a very modern woman and I don't remember seeing anything old fashioned in her house. She liked reading and seemed to enjoy Dick Francis crime novels so there were those by her bed. She grew an amazing garden, so the house was cloaked in roses and clematis and there would have been flowers in vases inside the house in the Summer time. She had some souvenirs from her holidays, like a conch shell that you could ''hear the sea'' through if you put it to your ear, and dried gum nuts in a vase. Somewhere in her house there was a manuscript of a childrens' book that she wrote.

Then there was the other grandparent, Goblin Grandad..meh.

Widdershins

If I ever have grandchildren, they'll have something to talk about 'cause my house is full of weird stuff Not least myself
I'll be the Weird Granny.
I kind of collect some of the old kitchen and domestic implements some peoples' great grannies might have used. I have two elderly friends with museums of artefacts from old Ireland and I know someone who supplies props for period dramas and films. His collection is jaw dropping.

The thing I miss is the stories. I never asked my granny enough about her job during WW2, or anything else really.

More threads like this, please

Graces7

jmayo wrote: »

My granny introduced me at age of about 3 or 4 to Poit?n and Andrews Liver Salts.

No not together although thinking about it, it would be one interesting combination.

I actually loved the fizziness of the Andrews.
Of course I didn't realise it's ultimate function.

She was great believer in power of poit?n, usually taken as punch.
She also used to make a bread milk mixture called goody.
Can't believe I also liked it.

My granny also had a fascination with worms and everything was diagnosed as "he has worms".

Do you remember the ad jingle? "andrews. andrews for inner cleanliness!" and yes, worms were a catch all diagnosis... goody was a way to use stale bread;mush up with "connie onnie." ie sweetened condensed milk and very soothing to small empty tummies when times were very hard.

Lorelli!

Widdershins wrote: »

The thing I miss is the stories. I never asked my granny enough about her job during WW2, or anything else really.

Ye I've thought about that, how I would like to have had more conversations with them about their younger lives. I've heard some things and stories in later years about them and realised that they weren't that different to me at all. It just felt like they were because I was so young and they were old

cefh17

Her own paintings up on the wall, as a teen I got her painting lessons for her 80th birthday because it was something she always talked about wanting to try. At the end of her course a woman offered to buy the paintings from her at the mini exhibition they had, she politely declined and promises the first to me, it's still up by the front door in my house

Graces7

Caylee Sparse Dust wrote: »

Graces7, I love that smell.

My grandad used to smoke a pipe, and the smell of that, along with a cup of sugary tea,made with leaves ALWAYS in that house, they had a tea-leaf dispenser on the kitchen wall, kind of like the things you see for dispensing coffee grounds a coffee shop these days, and they always drank their tea from bone china, there was an everyday set, a set in better nick for when there'd be a gang around, and a "Good" set for the priest or Charlie Haughey when he'd call!

Oh that is good to read! For me it is the smell of horror due to my abusive father who smoked and always stank of it.. THANK YOU!

And oh yes, the "best china"!

Samaris

My grandmother also had a lot of stories and information about the generations immediately preceding hers, not to mention my long-dead grandfather's family. I regret that I wasn't hugely into family history until after her stroke and so didn't really ask her as much as I wish I had. Same as my dad, it sometimes takes only one person passing on to lose a lot of the family history, especially if they are the "only one left" from a particular family or area or generation.

zmgakt7uw2dvfs

If your grandparents are still alive and elderly, interview and record them. You won't regret it.

JupiterKid

Layla Proud Shark wrote: »

If your grandparents are still alive and elderly, interview and record them. You won't regret it.

My sister did that with my grandfather before he passed away in 1999 at 91 years of age. He was a great storyteller about life as a young lad in Coleraine, Co. Derry in the 1910s and 20s and then later in Portrush and Belfast in the 1930s. His stories of the Blitz bombings in Belfast in 1941 were both frightening and fascinating at the same time. She still has to get round to transcribing these recordings and I will certainly help her. This is now more urgent since our parents are gone too.

My late dad remembered the last years of WW2 even though he would only have been 5 when the war ended. His own stories of life in the 1950s and 60s were amazing. For instance, he remembered when the M1 Belfast to Lisburn motorway opened in 1962 and bombing along it on his motorbike on the opening day. He also remembered the horrific discrimination against Northern Catholics, the civil rights movement and the start of the Troubles in 1969.

Spudgun

Great Granny had an outhouse and no indoor toilet and used to drown kittens in a water tank, horrible woman
Granny had a potty and only got an indoor loo in the 90s she was sweet I miss her

Morpheus

they had a small holding on an acre in loughshinny, my memories are of finding her on sunny days in the centre aisle of the glasshouse, working at the base of tomato plants in the loamy soil, or in the field with my grandfather working on the potatoes, the smells and colors in the glasshouse and her smiling face, or seeing her in the kitchen of the house with a flour covered apron on, preparing apple and blackberry pies. Back kitchen door was always open and the fire was lighting year round. She had "the sweets press" for us grandkids - bags of crisps or a biscuit and always fresh baked homemade soda bread under a teatowel on the kitchen table. She died in 1993 and i still remember the sound of her voice, I feel blessed for that. My own mother sadly passed away a year ago from the big C and when i think about it, when I have kids, they unfortunately will never know theirs.

bodice ripper

Layla Proud Shark wrote:

If your grandparents are still alive and elderly, interview and record them. You won't regret it.

My grandma would hate that. I put a photo of us together on Facebook once, and a neighbour remarked that they had seen it. She wasn't pleased.

Instead, I spent extended periods living with her, and I tell her stories everyday to whoever will listen. And they always listen. She has excellent stories.

padd b1975

A statue of a dog at each end of the mantlepiece.

A large t-towel draped across the telly to keep the dust out.

Proper steamed bread pudding.

Sunlight soap.

A high Nellie bicycle with the most comfortable leather saddle ever made.

Religious paraphernalia for when the priest called on the first Friday of the month.

Being force fed cod liver oil-none of your fancy capsules!

Hundreds of headscarves.

Tapioca pudding.

MilesMorales1

A barometer.

HalloweenJack

Rosery beads.

*still has

decky1

she had a big range [Agga]? And when she got a new batch of chicks she would put any sick one's in a sock and put them in the oven part to bring the to life again. she also had some great sayings eg if someone was mean she'd say 'they wouldn't give you their piss to scour[clean] pots. what a great lady---always remembered .

The_Captain

An inherent belief that any young girl molested by an adult man was a little slut who led him on, even if she was only 7 years old.

I'm glad she's dead, all in all.

Hotblack Desiato

Floor ashtray, even though neither she nor my granddad smoked.

A B/W TV with the tuner knob that went thunk-thunk-thunk.

A mangle.

Parkinson's - from quite a young age so my grandad had to do a lot of the work of raising 5 kids as well as a full time job.

They were both born in 1900, lived in an 'artisan's cottage' in Sandymount that originally had no bathroom and an outdoor jacks. Would be worth serious money today.

karaokeman

My nanny is still alive but I have many fond memories of borrowing her VHS copy of The Last Unicorn.

mohawk

I actually knew some of my great-grandparents. They used to give me money when we visited. So 'twas worth the trip even though you had to sit down an be quiet.
My granny is still alive. Angry bitter woman who I avoid like the plague. Will literally live forever driven by pure hatred of all that is good in the world.

She has one of the mirrors with her and grandads family crests.
There is the holy water fountain by the front door, the sacred heart lamp. Her marriage certificate is framed and hanging in the sitting room.
cabinets which proudly display the Waterford crystal and good china. Also has fancy cutlery for Christmas.

Rumpy Pumpy

A painting I drew as a 4 year old on the inside of her kitchen door.

A patterned carpet that was great for running little diecast cars around.

Awesome beef stew. Potatoes from the range. Heaps of butter and salt. Milk was the drink.

A keen sense of politics. She married a proper old school FG man (long deceased), but once told me upon arriving home with a cheap copy of the Irish Times from college - "that's a paper for blueshirts and protestants".

Beasty

A butter churn

She also had one of my granddads, which was quite a co-incidence as the other grandma had the other one!

Oh, and one of them (I'm not prepared to reveal which one) had a criminal record....

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

One of my Grannies lived in a tiny round house referred to locally as the pepper pot house. I seem to recall only two rooms and they were packed with books - classic fiction and factual books. She smoked a small clay pipe. I was always enamoured by her rocking chair. My other Granny loved in a small farmhouse and, besides the smell of fresh bread baked daily, the terrible taste of goat's milk, and wonder of all the preserves in a pantry room, my abiding memory is of the two metal buckets inside the door that we had to take to the pump and fill before we headed home.
Strange as it seems now, we thought our house was so modern in comparison because we had running (cold) water in the house and a flushing toilet outside.

kittensmittens

The "Church Collection"
Dont know if anyone remembers it but it was a box of envelopes that you HAD to put money in EVERY WEEK and it was collected from the house.
My nan didnt like the church collector so always made me go to the door with it.
Also, super sers, headscarves and immaculate knockers (brasses on the hall door were always polished to a blinding gleam), by me but on her orders instructions

Beasty

Ah - the pantry - don't think I saw a fridge before my 10th birthday

muddypaws

JupiterKid wrote: »

I mentioned it in my OP. The Sacred Heart of Jesus picture. Also pics of De Valera and JFK were popular too.

Depends which side they were on. Mine had a print of Beal na Blath over the fireplace, after my Grandad died and the house was sold it disappeared, nobody seems to know what happened to it, but it is the thing that I remember the most about their house. There was also a head portrait of Collins and one of JFK.

She made the best soda bread, and every dinner had a big bowl of spuds in the middle of the table, with salt and butter. Home made gooseberry jam on soda bread, you can't beat it. She would mind us for the night and let us stay up to watch Kojak and give us a glass of milk with digestives with butter and jam, still one of my favourite snacks.

Outside, non flushing toilet, with spiders. We used to visit each summer and stay there for 2 weeks, and would have a potty under the bed for night time, my parents, my two brothers and I all in the same room, all sharing the same potty. There was running water, but no bathroom, so we'd be washed in the kitchen sink.

It was a lovely cottage in what was rural north county Dublin then, now its surrounded by modern houses, (and failed apartment blocks) across from Father Collins Park, but is still standing, although the lovely hedge all around, and the garden that my Grandad worked so hard in is long gone.

My paternal grandmother passed when I was quite young and I don't have many memories of her other than an impression of her always being busy.

My maternal grandmother is still going strong, I hope for many years yet. One of my earliest memories is of being bathed in a big Belfast sink in the scullery, and of sitting on the butchers block countertop with my feet in the sink as a toddler, so she could wash the mud off me. I remember the mud washing down the sink and getting scolded for not wearing shoes in a voice that wasn't even trying to sound annoyed.

Every Sunday she would do a giant roast beef, yorkshire puddings, roast potatoes and vegetables from her own garden, and I couldn't bear to see how the gravy was made with all the icky stuff in the roasting pan even though its the best gravy I've ever had. The best thing about Sundays were the toasted left-over roast beef sandwiches on Sunday evenings, sitting on the high stools at the breakfast counter, with the big old Bush radio with a twisty dial I wasn't allowed to touch on the windowsill.

The kitchen and breakfast room were at the back of the house, and a sitting and dining room to the front. Every Christmas there would be a tree in the front window of the living room because that was near the big fireplace where there was a stocking for each grandchild - loads of us. She would lay the table for Christmas dinner on Christmas eve and the favourite grandchild* of the time would be her extra special little helper.

When my grandfather was alive, he would read the paper in his fireside chair and his dog would sit on the top of the back of the chair with his head on my grandfathers shoulder. Granny used to say the dog read the paper faster than granddad, and I used to wonder how they taught the dog to read.

I've never seen a lapel pin on anyone but Granny. She has a collection of animal pins she wears on her coat lapel, my favourite is the crocodile. She also has a collection of about 15 lipsticks, and every last one of them is Revlon Red. She never leaves the house without it.

When my grandfather passed, we rented a boat to scatter his ashes in the sea as he wished. The crew took the whole family out and the urn was opened and as we had planned for everyone to scatter some ashes themselves, the realisation hit us that we had no means of scooping out his ashes in portions. Granny, always prepared, pulled a washing powder scoop out of her handbag, and with that we each scooped out a dose of Granddad like so much biological detergent, and committed him to the ocean. I think he would have laughed at the thought. She waved as we turned back and quietly said "Bye, love". I can't think of that without choking up.

*It was always me.

Murrisk

A bitchin' sideboard.

A great, shapely pair of legs, even in her 80s.

Lia_lia

My grandmother (who's still alive at 93!) has a fabulous fur coat that was given to her by her Mother. Probably worth a fortune. Myself and my Mother are both very against fur though so neither of us will take it off her...

She was also in the Wrens in London in WW2. She has many medals from this time and some crazy stories.

My favourite grandmother was born in 1895. It's always struck me that she had clear memories of her own grandmother, a woman who lived during the potato famine and who was an elderly woman in the time of Parnell. Unfortunately her only stories about her Grandmother related to her dress sense.

Now, my Granny was a firm Christian, a very stern woman, although she was very gentle and encouraging towards we her grandchildren. I remember how she would beckon me and my sisters over to her big chair using her pet name for us, "come here, snowflakes".

I always found her so cute, but now I wonder if she wasn't just an old battleaxe who would have voted Trump in her disdain for us millennial snowflakes. Ah well.

prinzeugen

A towel. Not just any towel. This was made from bits of towel that had started life in the 1850's.

When a bit fell off a new bit was sewn on from another towel that had fallen to bits.

Bit like Triggers broom. Not sure how much of the original is left but it is "the kitchen towel".

Everyone wants the towel. Causes more arguments than who gets the house!

JillyQ

My grandmother had a butter churn and always had fresh soda bread coming out of the oven as we drove up the avenue to her house

GB FAN GALWAY 30

Two rooms and a kitchen and a fiddle by the wall. And an oil lamp in the window burning low.

dreamers75

A ridiculously sized 1st step in Carnlough road in Cabra, it was made for giants!!!!

BalcombeSt4

My Great Grandmother owned this giant house out in Ardee right beside Ardee Castle.

8 Bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 2 living rooms one of them was huge, I remember in one of the bedrooms they had this big, old black & white picture of a young soldier from WW1. I remember this fairly large statue of the Virgin Mary halfway up the stairs sitting high above some sort of wooden balconey that used to scare the piss out of me, there was also lots of pictures of Jesus that also scared the piss out of me around the house. She had this really old sowing machine, it must have been from the 30's they kept in a bedroom/walk in closet that had this really low roof & very uneven floor for some reason. They also had "holy" water in a bronze cup thing you had to bless yourself with once you walked in the door, I mean they were real hardcore Catholic, I think my Great,great,great,great,great Grandparents must have set up the Catholic Defenders or AOH.