Gramma Semple and Leslie

Every time Bob Hope came on TV, Gramma would say "He used to sit behind me in school and dip my pigtails in the inkwell!". Its easy to imagine this wisecracking English kid Leslie Townes Hope pulling little girls hair. Its a little harder seeing this rather stern second generation German American girl putting up with any such nonsense. Of course Mr Hope left East High in Cleveland, went on to fame and fortune in vaudeville and later in the movies, radio and TV. Gramma was Gramma, always. So I give her story the benefit of the doubt.

   That's hard for me to do. I must of played several thousand hands of rummy with Gramma, my brothers and sister through the years. Gramma cheated everyone, every game, until we finally caught on to her tricks. After that She would accuse one of us of cheating at every game. To fluster her I would tell her I could see her cards reflected in her glasses. it would set her off for ten minutes about how ungrateful we were taking advantage of an old lady. Then while we're laughing she would be slipping cards into her lap.

   Memories are snap shots. I remember her greeting me at the door of her little apartment at 3am. Her hair down out if its customary bun, hanging well past her waist as she answered the door on my unscheduled visit. I took her over to Kroger for some shopping the next day and we talked and talked of my new life in the Navy and her new life at the senior center. How she would go on bus trips to places like New York and Atlantic City. A new sort of freedom she had never had before.

 I won't say Gramma was tight with a dollar. She wasn't stingy, but lived on a tight budget. Every year on my birthday that crisp dollar bill came in the mail no matter where I was in the world. Thanks Gram! She had a lot of Grand kids and I'm sure we each got one while she was alive. Each year she would save enough from her Social Security and Grampa's VA pension to fly out to California until she just couldn't make the trip anymore.

  In 1978 I had the pleasure of working a benefit event at El Camino College. Bob Hope was the Master of Ceremonies. After Les Brown's Band of Reknown, Mr Hope did maybe a 20 minute routine. After his monologue the 5 of us stagehands working that night gathered off stage as Bob left the building. Graciously he shook each of our hands and thanked us. I couldn't ask him if remembered a little German girl whose pigtails he dabbed in the inkwell. I believe Gramma and that's good enough.