CENTER TWP — Throughout their college years, the grandchildren of Ron and Carol Holt always had an extra $10, or so, as well as a nice message.

And while the money the four grandchildren received each week in an envelope from their grandmother was helpful at the time, the letters included with the money remain meaningful to them, years after they attained their degrees.

The four grandchildren — Josh, Dylan and Tyler Snodgrass and Justin Holt — kept many, if not all, of the letters they received from their grandma — “Bub,” to them — even after moving from place to place. On Saturday, Feb. 1, they all met at the Holts’ home in Center Township with letters in tow, where they shared their memories of getting them each week.

The letters themselves sparked memories in each of the grandchildren of where they were and what they were doing at the time they were received.

“It was everything you had going on in the week, and we loved hearing it,” Justin Holt said. “She knew when we had finals week, or she knew if I was home for the weekend, she was able to bring it all back up. It was nice to hear everything she had going on too.”

Carol Holt will still write letters to Tyler Snodgrass, the youngest of her grandchildren, when he goes to medical school in the coming months. She said Saturday that writing letters was a good way to keep in touch with her grandchildren, and keep them in the loop with he own life.

“Just current event kind of things,” Carol Holt said. “Possibly I would know something they were getting involved in or doing and I would ask them about that. Keep them up-to-date on things around here I thought they would be interested in.”

Tyler Snodgrass brought an entire grocery bag filled with letters to the Holts’ house Saturday. Josh Snodgrass, his eldest brother, and Justin Holt, their cousin, brought as many of the letters they kept over the years, having finished college in the mid-2010s.

Each of the men commented that the letters have become sentimental artifacts, because it placed themselves and their grandmother in a point in time.

Renee Snodgrass, Carol Holt’s daughter and mother of Josh, Dylan and Tyler, said her sons didn’t need her urging to hold onto the letters their grandma sent them.

“They looked forward to them every week, they loved them,” Renee Snodgrass said. “That’s why they saved them all, it meant so much to them.”

Carol Holt didn’t write to her grandchildren before college, and she stopped once they finished their last year of college, or after they completed their graduate years. Josh Snodgrass said the letters — and the money they included — were not expected by the grandsons, but were appreciated.

“I don’t know if it was specifically, ‘I’m going to send you a letter every week,’ if you just started sending them,” Josh Snodgrass said. “Then every week thereafter was the letter.”

At one point, Josh Snodgrass, Dylan Snodgrass and Justin Holt were all in college at the same time, but their grandmother still didn’t skimp on letter-writing. She continued to write them all each week, and give them some money, albeit, less than Tyler Snodgrass has been getting, as the last remaining student of the bunch.

Renee Snodgrass said her mother ensured her grandsons got money along with the letters. Dylan Snodgrass said the money was a nice bonus that went along with grandma’s updates.

“Sometimes they would only get $10,” Carol Holt said. “Tyler would get $40 because he was the baby and farther away.”

The letters from Bub weren’t the only communication between the family members, although the grandsons were more attuned to other methods of communication.

“We would call every so often. I don’t know if we ever wrote,” Josh Snodgrass said.

The letter-writing became a routine for the grandsons and Carol Holt. She said she would write in her letters about anything that crossed her mind, and she would usually fill up the page.

“I didn’t text too much back then,” Carol Holt said. “I thought, ‘They would probably like hearing this.’”

In rereading some of the letters they had on hand, the Holt grandsons were reminded of their college experiences, and reminisced on the experiences of picking up their mail each week.

Renee Snodgrass said her sons’ roommates may have gotten jealous of the letters, since they came with money each week.

“When you’re a college student you have hardly any money, so it was a super bonus getting that,” Justin Holt said. “My roommates were always jealous and everything when I got my weekly mail.”

Carol Holt said she would usually write the letters on Monday or Tuesday, so they would arrive to her grandsons by each week’s end. She would have to get each grandsons’ address each semester, which complicated things at times — especially for the ones who didn’t stay in one place. Carol Holt recalled one semester when she got part of Justin Holt’s address wrong, resulting in delayed mail.

“I would address a lot of envelopes at one time, just because, so they were ready to go,” Carol Holt said. “Believe it or not, the ZIP code, I had a wrong number and as a result, he didn’t get them.

“Somehow or other, the post office had accumulated these and got a hold of them somehow, and he got every last one of them.”

On Saturday, Josh Snodgrass asked his grandmother if she wrote the same thing to him, his brother and his cousin while they were all in college at the same time. She said she might hit similar themes, but didn’t keep exact track of what she wrote to one person or the other.

Looking through his pile, Josh Snodgrass said the letters kept him in the loop on both his grandparents’ activities — even though Ron Holt didn’t take part in the writing. He said his grandmother shared her week’s activities, from painting part of her home to attending events to travel experiences.

“She sent a postcard when they were in Florida,” Josh Snodgrass said. “Leading up to that was like, ‘We’re getting ready to go to Florida with some friends of ours, we got all our stuff ready.’”

Josh Snodgrass said he recently looked through the letters when making a move from one house to another. Although he doesn’t have every single letter his grandmother wrote to him while he was in college, he said he held onto many that have particularly interesting stories, or that came at a pivotal time.

He has the first and last letters he received from his grandmother, he said.

“Before I moved to the new house I cleared them all out because I just had so much,” Josh Snodgrass said. “I went through a few of them … I found the very last one (she) sent me.

“The final letter she had written to me says, ‘Dear Josh, this is the final letter I will be sending to Cleveland.’” Josh Snodgrass continued. “’We’re happy to see you come back to Butler. Love you.’”