My dad’s cousin, Lenny (brother of Rosaline, who died last Xmas) is pushing 80. He was always grumpy, at least all the time I’ve known him, but now he’s getting senile, and that is a bad combination.
My dad told me that he’d been at the VFW, and there’d been a discussion about “these kids today” re, I think, school shootings. They were all agitated, but Lenny got himself so worked up someone had to restrain him. If other GOMs think you’re getting out of control…shudder.
He’s always hated Jews, which isn’t typical in my family. We’re Italian Catholic, and my relatives generally look down on other ethnic groups, but not other religions. They say “Polak”, “Bohunk” and “Johnny Bull”, but Lenny is the only one who will use the k-word, and others. My dad’s last business partner was Jewish, and my dad told Lenny in no uncertain terms to can that talk (around my dad; Lenny never met this guy). So he was spared, but others still had to hear it.
My dad hates lawyers, and in the '80s and early '90s, hated the Japanese. (Don’t know if this still applies.) The one time I remember him getting angry with me over something that wasn’t personal was an evening in '85. At the dinner table, I remarked brightly, as I was eating my stir-fry and rice, that this was what kept the Japanese so healthy. “And they don’t just sit around at lunchtime! They work out! They never stop doing stuff.”
My dad turned into the Great Stone Face. Loud silence, then, “Well why don’t you go to Tokyo! Work for Mitsubishi, Panasonic, whatever the fuck! Who needs American products.” For a moment it was 1968, and I was saying “Nixon’s a pig”.
He hates lawyers because of an environmental hearing in which he gave testimony. It was dragged out for over a year, after which a hefty fine was levied, but the decision was too late for the fishermen who’d already lost their homes and the fish and other creatures who had lost their lives. He has a t-shirt that says, “First thing we do; kill all the lawyers”. (I didn’t trouble him with the context of the quote.)
He’s been less grumpy in the last ten years. He mostly had the GOM phase when I was in high school and college. Lucky me. He’s been a lot more patient and understanding with my nephew “Brad” than he ever was with me, and I was an angel compared to Brad.
So the important thing is, I had an onion on my belt.
