LOL, she sounds like a trip.
My lower-east-side grandma was a hoot also. If a box of something she bought said there was “x” inside, she’d count them and if it was less she’d write to the company. She did get some refunds and coupons that way. A while back I emailed 3M because I liked their commercials with squirrels, and they sent me coupons for post-it notes that still come. When I told my parents I did that my dad said I came by it honestly from grandma Emma!
I learned a lot of cuss words from her and to this day I have no idea whether my mom even knows that.
Do you remember what street you lower E side grandmother lived on?
Grandma was a saint. She would say “damm” or “$hit” on occasion, but it was very rare, and you knew she was really mad.
She got all the grandkids clothes that were too small or beat up, and she would wash them, and fix them by hand to give to families in her neighborhood. She never made a big deal out of it, but I noticed. Her neighborhood was a lower middle class, blue collar area. Not a BAD or dangerous neighborhood, though. She knew who needed help, and everybody in the neighborhood knew Mrs. Schreiner. They loved her, too.
She went to daily Mass at 7am. So did I when I was staying with her. (SOMEtimes she would let me sleep in) Everybody in the parish knew her.
She was the greatest woman I ever knew.
I forgot something. Her front (and back) door was locked & unlocked with a skeleton key. One of my uncles wanted to put real locks on the doors, but she said no. “Nobody’s going to bother me”.
(she had a shotgun, too, and she knew how to use it) =)
She had a pint of bourbon in her cabinet. Every night before bed, she took 2 teaspoons of it. It was medicine.