Kris Jenner . . . And All Things Kardashian Read Free

every home I’ve had since.
    From the moment my parents divorced, my mom worked full-time. She loved to work, and we learned from her that work was a positive thing. She had to sell our beautiful house in Point Loma, but my grandmother helped her get a house on Deer Park Drive inClairemont, just three blocks away from Longfellow Elementary. I walked to school and was a Brownie. My grandfather Jim came over and built my sister and me a real playhouse. I’ll never forget how amazing that playhouse was, right in front of our house. We were really happy. Every day after school, my mother would give us a dollar each, and Karen and I would walk up to the little strip mall at the other end of the street and buy candy as an after-school treat.
    My mom worked in many places after my parents’ divorce, but the job I most remember was in a pro shop at a golf course. My mom is and always has been so beautiful: she’s tall, and she has such a beautiful figure. And she’s always dressed to the nines. When I was a little girl, my mom dressed like all women did in the ’50s with the fashion and the drama—the hats and the gloves, everything. My mom didn’t have a lot of money in those days, but somehow she always figured out a way to look really fashionable. She went to work every day dressed like Jacqueline Kennedy. She was the mom doing the housework and making dinner, but at the same time, she was wearing these gorgeous dresses cinched at the waist. She always looked like she had on some fabulous Chanel ensemble. And her hair was perfect. She was so beautiful, and I adored and admired her.
    But it was my grandmother who was most instrumental in my upbringing. My grandmother was my hero. She was born in Hope, Arkansas, and her first husband, my biological grandfather, cheated on her. So she packed up my mother and had the gumption to leave. She was very strong-willed and stubborn. She decided she didn’t need a man, and she moved with her daughter to San Diego. She was so confident, so smart, and she had a strong sense of self. She met my grandfather Jim while working as an accountant on a naval base in San Diego. She wasn’t afraid to roll up her sleeves and get to work.
    She and my grandfather lived in an upper-middle-class neighborhoodwith an avocado tree and a birdbath in the backyard. Since my mom was busy with work, Grandma and I really bonded. After my father moved, my grandfather became the male figure in my life. He was pure working-class Middle America. Every day he put on a uniform—khaki pants, khaki shirt—and went to work for San Diego Glass, driving one of those trucks that carried big panes of glass on their sides.
    My grandma bought our school clothes, cooked the greatest dinners, and bathed and groomed her two toy poodles, Bridgette and Toulouse, who were supposed to be my dogs. My mother wouldn’t let me keep them because they were too much work, so my grandmother kept them for me.
    My grandmother was gorgeous like my mom, but she had blond hair and green eyes. Until the day she died, my grandmother wore a matching outfit every single day. She always wore beautiful slacks with a matching blazer and the perfect blouse and shoes. My family members, every last one of them, were always fashion-forward, and my grandmother was the matriarch. Fashion and grooming were both very important to her. Even if we were going to Disneyland, she made sure to take us shopping a few days beforehand to buy us new outfits for the outing. My grandmother took us shopping while my mom was at work, and if we had a friend with us, she got a new outfit too. It was always important to my grandmother and my mother that we looked our best.
    I remember how special my grandmother used to make our holidays—big, perfect, and glorious, a tradition that I would eventually assume and take to an even bigger level. We celebrated everything endlessly. At Easter, for instance, there were Easter cupcakes and Easter cookies and Easter eggs. She