Long before I knew what it was to empower women, my grandma was teaching me life lessons about how to be a badass woman.
This is my grandmother in the late 1930’s. What I love about this picture is the way she is dressed and how she is carrying herself. I’m certain you didn’t see many teenage girls dressed like this back in those days and the fact that she is, tells me everything I need to know about my grandmother has a young woman.
I only remember her dating one man for a few years while I was growing up and I never remember her taking any shit off him or anyone else. That is one thing I always admired about her. She was exactly who she was and she didn’t care if you liked it or not.
She died when I was 13, but before then she taught me some life lessons that I will never forget.
My favorite was when I was probably around the impressionable age of 7 or 8. Rocky had come out in 1976 and I’m sure I didn’t get to see it until it came on tv a year or two later, but the moment I did I was in love with Sylvester Stallone.
As soon as I got my allowance after watching Rocky for the first time. I had to buy a picture of Sylvester Stallone. Once purchased, I couldn’t wait to show my grandma.
I remember taking it out of a brown paper sack and showing her with so much pride “Grandma look at him isn’t he the best?”.
Her response was less than I expected.
“He doesn’t have chest hair” she declared. I didn’t even know what she meant as I slowly looked at the picture and realized she was right. He didn’t have any chest hair.
I looked back up at her and she said, and I quote “Listen to me, don’t you ever trust a man who doesn’t have chest hair”.
I’m not joking, that’s what she said to me. And honestly, now that I’m in my late 40’s I can say that I should have listened to her more. I found my person late in life and he has so much chest hair that he looks like a grizzly bear and has been the most trustworthy guy I’ve ever known.
If my grandma was here today, she’d be 98 years young. She’d be still wearing a bikini and drinking her Budweiser beer with salt. She would still be coming up with lines that would make you stop and think and she’d do it all the classiest way possible. So cheers to the women who had their shit together long before anyone even knew what the word empowered meant.
Enjoy some other life lessons grandma taught me:
“Don’t start it and there won’t be any of it”
“It’s ok if people gossip about me, at least they’re leaving some other poor bastard alone”
“Those with the most trash in their backyards, are always the first to look for trash in yours”
“If you were my husband, I’d cut your ball sack and run your leg through it”
“Nobody gets out of this world without paying their dues”
“Don’t believe anything you hear and only half of what you see”
“Treat people the way you want to be treated.”
Thanks for the lesson’s grandma!
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