Besides unconditional love? Learning things from them.

depends on which one. i'm with bear, unconditional love. my paternal grandfather was like andy on the andy griffith show, he had all the time in the world and would talk to you forever. it was great.

my grandmother via one of my stepmothers, was on my side no matter what....however, she did that with her children as well, and they didn't turn out well from this at all. even i used to be surprised if she took my side and i knew i was wrong. you don't learn anything from that. those were my two favorites of the grandparents.

for me, my god parents were some of the most important people in my life.

One time when I'd misbehaved (I don't remember what I did) Nanny told Pappy to whip me. Pappy led me to the bathroom, took off his belt and made a loose loop and then pulled it taut suddenly. It made a loud pop and he stepped on my little toe enough to make me yell. He told me to yell just like that every time he made the belt m pop, so I did. I thought - we bother thought - we'd gotten away with something but Nanny was smarter than both of us. When we came out she had fire in her eyes and picked up a peach switch and gave me flying lessons. If you're not familiar with flying lessons, it goes like this, take a bad boy by the hand and apply a switch to the backs of his legs and I guarantee he his feet won't touch the ground as the two of you go in a circle. After that, it was understood that she would handle adult-child relations where justice was concerned. I think that may have been when my behavior in general improved.

But the cool thing about her was that punishment cleaned the slate. It was over and done, no lingering hard feelings and things went back to normal.

Memories... she taught me to cook. Cereals at first, cause I'd get up early on weekends and summers. I could very quietly get cereal, and watch morning cartoons at low volume. Biscuits came next (the canned kind at first) while she did bacon and eggs. Soon I was doing all of it, and then came cakes and pies and cookies, then side dishes and entrees. I thought it was cool I when I made mac-n-cheese from a box, but then she showed me how to do it from scratch with different cheeses. Small wonder I was a chubby kid.

Thank you so much for reminding me of all that.

My grandparents were like parents to me. I spent all my time with them when I wasn't in school. They were a lot of fun!! My grandfather would drive around traffic at a red light when I told him I wanted to be first in line and he would drive all over Brooklyn to find all the cobblestone roads that I loved to ride on. He also taught me how to drive and to drive fast to appreciate the handling in his sports car. My grandmother always made me what I liked to eat and always made sure I had what I needed and wanted like the newest watch or ski equipment, etc.
I loved them soo much and still miss them. my grandmother lived to 98 she just died this past summer.

They would speak in Italian when they were arguing. I remember the best ravioli ever. I remember my grandma had a bristly face when she gave you kisses and how proud my grandpa was of his Chrysler. His beautiful garden in the back with paths and large tortoises, lemon trees, fig trees, and it had a gate that went to my aunts house who had a pool we loved to swim in. I remember sitting in the kitchen while all the family discussed & argued heatedly about politics. What a wonderful thing to remember good memories of your grandparents!