My Kropp Grandparents

I didn’t spend as much time or feel as close to my grandparent’s on my Kropp side of the family although I did spend time on school vacations with them. The rule was if I was going to spend time with my Livingston grandparents I had to also spend time with the Kropps.

Grandma (Theresa) Kropp was born in 1900, I always have been able to remember her birth year.  She was born in the Pennsylvania Dutch area of Pennsylvania but was German not Dutch. Being called Pennsylvania Dutch meant that your ancestors were from the part of Germany that had many Amish and Mennonite families. Grandma was neither but her German roots showed through.

She was the youngest of 6, with at least one sister dying at a very young age of around 8 months old. I don’t really know what her father did for a living but would guess that he was some sort of shop keeper since in the old family photos there are pictures of him wearing an apron and standing in front of what appears to be a grocery.  I know even less about her mother.

Grandma lived next door to her next oldest sister Nellie for most of her adult life. I knew Aunt Nellie well, and in some ways liked Nellie better than my own Grandmother. Nellie was the more typical grandmother type, always ready with a cookie and a lap to sit in.

Grandma Kropp was always very concerned about her appearance, she dressed for whatever occasion, and I never remember her without makeup on. She use to insist that we give her a kiss for greeting and her face smelled of face powder and perfume. To this day I have a problem with strong perfumes and especially Taboo which was her signature scent.

Grandma and Aunt Nellie fought like cats and dogs, or like 2 sisters that lived too close to each other, and where too involved in each other’s lives.  I never knew if they were getting along or not until the visit started. But even if they weren’t, and we weren’t supposed to visit Aunt Nellie, I usually would sneak over for at least a short visit and a cookie.

During most of my childhood Grandma worked for the WT Grant Company and was a woman’s clothing buyer for the Towanda Store. She took her job very seriously and thought she was very up on all the current fashion trends.

Each visit with her meant that I would be taken to the store, shown around her co workers, and made to try on whatever new outfits had just come in. Often times I was made to strip to my underwear in front of other woman salespersons and “model” the latest fashions. I hated that! I didn’t like wearing frilly dresses and Grandma loved dressing me in them, complete with matching hats and gloves.

 I have a cousin, Terry, who is only 1 month older than I am. Grandma would buy us matching outfits for every holiday and take our pictures together. I think in most of the pictures Terry was smiling and I was frowning.

 When I was a pre teen jeans became more popular for young girls and Grandma bought us both a pair of them. Terry put her on and cried because they were too stiff and scratchy but I loved mine. I think that was the one outfit Grandma chose for me that I liked.

Grandma also liked to hold parties and often she would have a group of her woman friends and couples over for drinks and card games. I was again dressed up and brought out for show.

 Grandma always thought I needed companionship so would arrange with her friends for their grandchildren or other children to come for play dates. These were always awkward since I was very shy and use to playing by myself.

I wasn’t encouraged to play outside but did like to play on a stone patio that Grandpa Kropp built. It had steps with different levels and archways that made it an interesting place. Grandma would get upset if we played in the back yard because there were rattle snakes and copperheads that could be found in the yard, I do remember one being discovered there.

Grandma was not comfortable being outside herself so preferred that I stayed inside with her. She would try to come up with craft ideas to make together. I remember using some of her old costume jewelry, she had a lot, and decorating bars of soap with the jewels.

Grandma loved game shows we watched a lot of TV at her house. She also was a regular reader of the Enquirer newspaper and thought of it as the only paper for all things news related. She would quote information from it as though everything was true. I don’t think it took me long to question the “news” about alien babies and other outlandish things.  If Grandma was questioned about it she would state that they couldn’t print it if it wasn’t the truth.

Grandpa (Frederick) Kropp was as quiet as Grandma was outgoing. I don’t remember him ever saying much or ever having any conversation with him.  I do remember a couple of times with Cousin Terry sitting on the back of his arm chair and combing his white hair. He never seemed to mind but didn’t engage us in conversation either. He read a lot and had a full bookcase, mostly of history books.

When I was young he worked as a salesman for the same auto parts company that my father was part owner of. I’m not sure what type of work he had done previously, probably some sort of sales.

He had been a soldier in the First World War and I know he and Grandma married in 1929, after the end of the war. Grandma would have been 29, which was old for a woman to marry in those days but maybe because of the war, and a lot of boys being gone, she had waited.

 I have no idea if Grandma and Grandpa had been friends before the war.  In her old photo albums she had many pictures of men, boys really, being inducted into the army and shipping out. Also pictures of individual soldiers, non that looked like Grandpa.

Grandma gave birth to my father, Richard, and his twin brother Fred in 1930. Richard and Fred didn’t look much like twins. Richard was very dark with lots of hair all over his body at birth and Fred was blond and looked like the Gerber baby.

Grandma suffered from she called bad nerves after their birth but today I’m sure she would’ve been diagnosed with post partum depression.  Grandma was upset that Richard wasn’t a “pretty” baby and even shaved some of his dark hair from his body. After that the twins went to live with her sister Grace and Ruth until they were close to 2 years old. I’m not sure if Grandma also lived with her sisters or elsewhere during that period of time or if she was treated at all for her “bad nerves”. She would later bring up her bad nerves anytime she got upset over anything.

Grandpa was also German and I have traced his family back to its German roots. He was the one who liked to be outside and did most, if not all, of the flowers gardens and vegetable garden that they had. Grandma would scatter moth balls around the flowers to keep the snakes out. He also built the stone patio which was very elaborate.

I remember Grandpa’s younger brother Karl. He either owned or worked in the local shoe store. Karl was a character and lived alone in a basement apartment that I sometimes visited with my father or Grandparents. He had traveled in his younger years and had many artifacts from his travels. He had a large collection of porcelain dog figurines that covered a whole wall of shelves. Aunt Stacie was given a couple of his dogs but I have no idea whatever became of most of them after he died. He would visit at Grandma’s and would encourage me to tell scary stories that I had made up.

 I think back now and realize that he was a gay man but that was never spoken of at that time. His land lady was named Flo and she had a deep horse voice. I remember that they drank a lot of whiskey together and my father and Uncle Fred would tease Karl about his “girlfriend”.  Flo was older than Karl and I don’t think there was anything romantic between them. 

After Grandpa died and Grandma moved from their house, we found many boxes of shoes in the basement that Grandpa had bought and never worn. Maybe that was his way of helping his brother out financially.

 Grandma on the other hand horded Jell-O and a variety of can goods. When we helped her to move there were many loads of can goods and Jell-O way past their expiration date that had to be thrown away.

Grandpa suffered from age related hardening on the arteries which started when I was a young girl. Now I think he would have been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, but that wasn’t a common diagnosis then. He eventually got mean to Grandma, would lock her out of the house and threaten her with knives and violence.

 Before he was moved into a nursing home he came to stay with my family for a few weeks one summer. I was a teenager by then and I had to give up my bedroom for him to stay in. I remember that at his home he would often walk around with a hand full of peanuts that he ate, he always had a dish of nuts next to his chair. Although my mother had peanuts for him he would grab a handful of cat food and eat it like peanuts.

At that time there was a lake owned by a college in Binghamton called Empire Lake that college students would travel to for parties. We lived on one of the road that led to the lake although it was at least 10 miles past our house, with a few turns onto dirt roads.

 Once while Grandpa was living with us a group of students stopped to get directions after they had gotten lost on some of the back roads. Grandpa acted as though he knew exactly where to send them and gave them detailed directions that made absolutely no sense to anyone from the area. I remember my friend Diane and I had a good laugh and wondered how lost the students got trying to follow his directions.

After he was placed in a nursing home I did go to visit him a few times with Grandma and with my father. The first few visits we would walk with him outside and Grandma always brought him an apple to eat. Later he wasn’t able to go outside and he would make what sounded like motor noises when you tried to talk with him. He died when I was a senior in collage.

After Grandpa was in a nursing home Grandma sold her house and moved into an apartment in Towanda. She could walk to the stores and didn’t have to drive. I know she was lonely and would often talk about so many of her friends dying before her.

I continued to visit her and would try to see her every other month or so. I did visit Grandma Livingston more often but always felt guilty if I hadn’t visited Grandma Kropp recently. I guess the old lesson that I needed to share my visits between both stuck with me into adult hood.

Grandma eventually moved to Virginia to be closer to Uncle Fred and his family and she died within a few months of moving there. She was 86 when she died.

I think back now of what I learned and absorbed from my time spent with both Grandma and Grandpa Kropp. I like to think that I got my love of reading from Grandpa since none of my other grandparents were devoted readers.  From Grandma I got my sense of style, or lack thereof some people would say. I learned what I didn’t like and what felt comfortable for me.

Also from spending time with them I can imagine how my own father was raised and come closer to understanding him and his struggles. It was a very sterile environment in many ways and not much love or any emotions shown to other family members. I’m sure that affected him as a child as well as my Grandmother’s “bad nerves”.

Written 3/2/18