Grandmother Bennett may have been the model for the stereotypical grandmother in the 1950's. She had all the attributes. Her grey hair was in a bun on the back of her head. It was actually quite long, but I never saw that, I only know because my own mother told me so. She always wore a housedress; her stockings were rolled down to her calves and every once and a while you would see that. She wore slippers on her feet. And yes, she always had a big apron on. It went around her neck covering the front of her dress, it had two large pockets on it and went to her knees. In one of those pockets, she kept her change purse. How well I remember her reaching for that, opening it up and carefully removing the correct change. You never saw the contents of that purse just what she extracted from it. Occasionally, when times were good, a few folded dollar bills could be seen poking out.
I remember being in her kitchen, that's where all the activity in the house took place, when the Dugan man would pull into the driveway. The Dugan man, in case you are not familiar with him was a door to door salesman that delivered baked goods of all kinds. I thought it was like magic when he appeared. Later on, I learned there was a large D printed on a card. Grandma put that card in the window whenever she wanted him to stop. That was when I usually saw that little purse appear. Maybe she would buy a few cakes or cookies. But one thing she would buy for me was a bag of potato chips! Now that was a treat. It is the earliest place I remember getting potato chips. That would have been about 1958 or so. I was five then. Little did I realize what an extravagance that was for her. Whatever the cost was I'm certain it was expensive in her eyes. You have to remember that ten cents could buy an awful lot back then. Potato's themselves cost about 35 cents for a ten pound bag. So, if you look at buying a few ounces for a dime, it's expensive! In 1958 federal min wage was one dollar an hour!
I don't see any of those little purses today. I wonder if anyone uses them. The last vestige of that, at least a reminder of that was when women carried those little purses that held a pack of cigarettes and a little pouch in the front for the lighter. A far cry from grandma's little purse that much is certain. A sign of the changing times I suppose. As far as I know my grandmother never smoked a cigarette or tasted liquor of any kind. No, my grandmother was just like you would see on television shows. Always busy, always involved in some industrious activity. She would stop occasionally and have a cup of tea, to socialize as she called it. That generally lasted all of ten minutes. Today women may carry their I-phone with a case that holds their credit cards.
I never saw her when she wasn't fully dressed, her hair up in a bun and engaged in some kind of work. What she did for entertainment I have no clue about, even to this very day. I know she was against card playing, the devils' tools as she called them, and didn't allow them in her house. She did have a small television in her dining room, but I never saw it turned on. As far as I know she didn't have a radio. I never saw her sewing or knitting, nothing like that, although I'm quite sure he knew how to do all of that and more. She passed away at the age of 89 after having taken a fall in her home. She broke her hip and went to the hospital. While there she fell off a gurney hitting her head. From that point on she suffered from dementia and was placed in a home. That was in 1973 and I was in the Navy at that time. I never got to say goodbye, to see her gain. Today is her birthday. She was born the 19th of March in 1884 at Ransater, Sweden. She lies in peace today in Cedar Lawn cemetery, East Hampton, New York. She would be 140 today. Happy Birthday Nana. 
One of the very few pictures I have of her. And the only time
I know she left her house. A rare occasion indeed.
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