Author Archives: Katharine Davis

A Grandmother Called Gom

Our ordinary suburban family life changed dramatically when Gom and Aunt Kitty came to visit. My mother, busy with her brood of four, and little household help, should have been nominated for sainthood. She insisted that the butcher at the A&P give her the very best piece of beef. She polished silver, ironed the linen napkins, and changed the beds. My two younger sisters, who gave up their bedroom, got to sleep on the hide-away bed in the den, a rare treat.

My mother set out luggage racks, and located trays, as Gom and Aunt Kitty expected breakfast in bed. The children’s bathroom became the guest bathroom outfitted with the good monogrammed towels. The shrunken bar of Ivory soap was replaced by a perfect oval of French soap that made the bathroom smell like the perfume counters at Saks.

Gertrude Zell Pietsch, circa 1908

My father’s job was to be sure the lawn was mowed and that everything was in readiness for cocktails. It was a treat to go with him to the liquor store for the “hooch” as there was a gum ball machine outside the store. If we’d been good, he usually doled out the requisite pennies on the condition we spit out our gum before Gom arrived. She thought chewing gum was common. There was nothing worse than being common.

Gom and Aunt Kitty traveled from Cabin Run Farm, in Bucks County, Pennsylvania about two hours from our house in New Jersey. I thought it wonderful that they lived in a house with a name. Cabin Run was not a working farm, though my grandmother had a vegetable garden, and a half dozen Cheviot sheep whose job it was to look scenic in the field across the stream. Gom talked about the work involved in taking care of “the place.” The barn was always under repair. The stream, the actual Cabin Run, had to be dredged every year to create the waterfall and pond. Their scary gardener named Updike, who spoke Pennsylvania Dutch, butchered the roses, but he was the only man they could get. Getting good help was a continual topic of conversation.

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