I'm missing my Nana tonight.
She would have been 97 this past October. She passed away two years ago this month.
When I was a small child she used to do what she could, on a very limited budget, to make me feel special when I visited her home in Schenectady, New York, about a 60 mile drive from my and my parents' house. We made the trip more than once a month.
She always offered me a choice between the same two beverages, always either ginger ale with the bubbles stirred so that I didn't burp (because I loved to burp and that was not ladylike at Nana and Papa's) or buttermilk. Although I loved buttermilk, and still do, I routinely chose the ginger ale because it came in a fun highball glass with a swizzle stick shaped like a key. The key swizzle sticks were plastic but they were heavy duty and were washed and rinsed and dried and put away over and over, visit after visit. I'm sure they weren't expensive but we treated them as if they were.
I bet there are still some around, probably at my Aunt's house since she cleaned out Nana's belongings when that time came. I would love to put my hands on one this evening as I am feeling a little out of sorts and unwell and sad. A swizzle stick in some ginger ale might be a nice thing to have right now.
I miss you, Nana.
#1960s #1970s #swizzlesticks #schenectady #stockade #highballglass #buttermilk #mushroomtumbler
