Janet Grant, though Ma always called her Mrs Grant because she was not comfortable calling adults by their first names, even her friends, for a long time. Lots of memories about John and Gug (Doug) Grant, including when their father "went up to live with God." Remember?

I thought the Chef was on the west side of the highway and more north. Chinese takeout was the Chinese Kitchen, where the ur prawns came from. More later; gotta go.

Hey, I just came here to post what you'd said about The Chef, and reply to it, and I found you'd made a post! Damn me, I never thought to check back after you said you wanted to cool it for awhile. Very, very cool! just the kind of thing I'd hoped would happen.

I don't remember anything about Lala's Kotex boxes! Nor do I remember the 40th birthday, although now that you mention it, it's so easy to picture it it's almost like it is coming back to me. That is doubtless the original source of the sense that turning 40 was supposed to be traumatic. Shit, I also just remembered, it used to say "Life begins at 40" on the side of milk cartons-- and Lala would say "Haw Haw Haw!" in that sarcastic way of hers.

I do remember all the fighting. Fran could hold his own with her, but she usually won with Grandma, reducing her to tears. I remember Grandma saying, after one of these battles: "Don't ever have kids!" I understood what she was saying, but I never took it seriously. I always figured I'd have them, but I sure as hell wasn't going to ever let them live with me after they got married. I talked some with Thea about this the last time I was out there, but I can't remember now what she said about it. It's in my notes somewhere. I think Fran lost a job or two after they'd been out living on their own for awhile, and they had to move in with Grandma to survive. According to Thea, Grandpa had bought a lot of stuff for them, which she still feels resentful about. It wasn't so much a matter of money after the war as it was the horrendous housing shortage. Remember, that's why we got turned out of our house in Paly and forced to live in a shack in an orchard! Times were hard. It took the big subdivision boom before there were places like Hillsdale, a complete new town, that Lala and Fran could move to.

Anyway, here's what you said in email today:

Ma does not remember eating at a restaurant on the peninsula called The Chef. We were little. You remember, don't you? We knew the waitress, and one night I came home with an earring in my hair because she'd hugged me.Do you remember this?

Yes, I remember it, including the earring incident. Or at least I remember it being talked about after the fact. It was out on El Camino, between Los Altos and Palo Alto. On the west side of the highway. I had forgotten the name of it, but remember it now. We also used to get Chinese take-out somewhere in that same neighborhood-- the first ethnic food I remember having. I do remember how very exotic it was when Mrs. Grant (what was her first name?) fixed something called "pizza."