Virtute.org

  Barbara Elisabeth Orman Bird was my grandmother’s name.  When mom had her first child, Grandma suggested she name her Barbara.  Mom was not thrilled about the idea because the name sounded like an old woman name to her, but mom thought that grandma would be unhappy if she didn’t take her suggestion and so my oldest sister was named Barbara.  I knew my grandmother favored my older sister, but I honestly didn’t mind.  I’m always sad to admit it, but I never felt really close to my grandma Bird.  I remember sometimes my parents would leave Barbara to stay with my grandma while the rest of us went home.  I think Barb and I both stayed once.

Read more »

**I should start with a disclaimer.  I know that Grandma’s office was on Lincoln Ave. in Bellevue.  I browsed Google Earth and the pictures I’ve included look somewhat like the places I remembered.  Although my grandmother’s house looks the same that it did 20 years ago, downtown has changed some.  I do remember seeing a red white and blue barbershop  thing close to her office.  I also faintly remember walking by a car dealership that was close to her house which I saw a few blocks down on Google Earth and I recognized a big stone bank that used to be Mellon Bank close by**

Grandma owned her own real estate office (Bird Reality) in downtown Bellevue.  Her office was close enough to her home that we walked there regularly when we were visiting.  I remember that her business motto was “It’s nice to be important, but it’s more important to be nice.”  She had a little office with brown paneling on the walls.  In the back room she had a kitchen with a fridge. I imagine a picture of an owl cross-stitch on the wall, but it may be misplaced in my memory. I think maybe she used an owl in her company logo or something because I think of brown and orange owls when I think of her office. Grandma must have been excellent at managing money because somehow she saved up enough to give us a generous college fund. She started putting money away for our college fund when we were born, or shortly thereafter, but wasn’t able to establish one for each of my siblings before she died (when I was about 11). I remember my mom telling me once that she was a little frustrated that they had so many kids because she couldn’t keep up.

Read more »

We loved to play outside at Grandma’s house. In front of her house just under the windows was a flowering tree that had these leaves that would turn brown and curl up in the fall. We used to pretend they were tacos and fill them with dirt (beef). Grandma also had these plants in the back yard at the far end that had really big leaves. We’d either pretend they were salad or put the tacos on top of a leaf (thus using the leaf as a garnish). I remember the ivy that was climbing up the yard and the big tree in front of the house. I think Lee put one of Barbara’s bras up in that tree from the upstairs apartment once and I remember having a hard time figuring out how we could retrieve the bra. There were steps leading up to the building and the steps had brick and concrete platforms next to them that we regularly used as a bench or a table.  

Read more »

We visited my Grandma Bird in Pennsylvania whenever we could.  We always called her Pittsburgh Grandma, although she lived just outside of Pittsburgh in Bellevue.  I thought the drive took about 5 hours, but Google maps thinks we could get there in 3 1/2.  We took toll roads most of the way.  This meant that for most of the drive, there wasn’t much along the road except the occasional rest stop.  Some of the rest stops had eating establishments.  It seems like the most familiar rest stop had both a Popeye’s Chicken and a Dunkin Donuts.  Usually we didn’t buy food.  We’d go in to use the bathroom and eat the snacks my parents packed in the car.  Sometimes my dad would buy a side of red beans and rice at Popeye’s.  As we got closer, we’d each try to pick out landmarks that told us that we were getting close.  The most distinctive one I can remember was a big hill where you could see a trail of red lights climbing up one side and white lights coming down the other.  We all tried to find one that was far enough away that we knew we were almost there first.

Read more »