This story is a part of Love For Our Elders’ celebration of National Share-A-Story Month. We encourage you to share your story with us this month by clicking here.

As a child born in the mid-70s, I can remember a time when my grandparents Bill (Pop) and Lou (Nana) Haberman were a large part of our family. The family was able to get together for family birthdays, anniversaries and any time we could spend time together. We would frequently gather for events such as friend outings or sports games. My father was a banker in our local city and my mother was a registered nurse in the labor and delivery department at our city’s hospital. Growing up, my father Bill worked from nine to five Monday through Friday and my mother Nancy worked twelve-hour shifts on the weekends delivering babies for excited parents across Middlesex County in New Jersey. 

When my mother worked on weekends, my father became the primary caretaker. He was an intelligent man and an inspiration to me for some of the successful decisions I have made in my life. His weekend lunches and dinners are times that I look back on warmly. My father always took us out for lunch to the local fast-food “Roy Rogers”. If we were well-behaved, he took us to “America’s Diner” Denny’s. For dinner, my father always wanted to cook his favorite meal – hot dogs and beans. We would eat this meal every weekend and it was terrible. My father was no chef and he would routinely burn the beans. My brothers always smiled while eating it, but I was the picky eater back then as well as the youngest. After I complained about my father’s cooking, my grandparents would invite us to their house for dinner on Saturday and Sunday. Looking back, I am sure that Nana and Pop wanted to spend time with their son and grandkids. Nana always cooked the best meals with plenty of garlic bread along with ice cream cups and special spoons for each child. During this time in the mid-80s, Nana and Pop also had cable TV with the remote control on a cord with HBO and Showtime. Catching up on movies like “Howard the Duck” was something we always did before dinner.

The best memories of being over at Nana and Pop’s were the game nights following dinner. My Dad and Pop would watch TV and talk about current events, but Nana always wanted to play board games with us boys like Wheel of Fortune and Uno. She always let us win. One night, we played Uno and Nana received a phone call from a relative. While she was on the phone, my brothers stacked the deck so that Nana would lose the game by over 1000 points. When she returned from her phone call, the stage was set, and Nana lost the game miserably. I look back on this and feel like it was a wrong to do, but Nana did not mind and always wanted the boys to win.

In a time before technology, children could more easily separate from their friends and the pressures of growing up. Nana made this time comforting and for a short while, we would forget about the stresses of school and making an impression for acceptance with friends. I look back fondly on this time because of how supporting Nana and Pop were in keeping the family happy and how engaged they were in all aspects of our immediate family. My grandparents were always there and would drop everything to be part of our lives. They were influential long past their lifetime. In my mid-40s, I still reflect on many of these memories as some of the best times. Lessons I learned from them translate into my parenting of my own two children. When I have grandchildren of my own in the future, I will emulate what I learned from Nana and Pop.