I posted this in the Pit on the astrology school thread, but I think it fits in better here…
Back in the day (freshman year of college), before I discovered that calculus and I were a bad match, I was an Astronomy major (really!) with asperations to be involved with cosmology. I still remember wincing at the sound of my grandmother informing distant family members that I would be studying astrology and wanted to get into cosmetology…
When my grandmother learned I was taking German in high school, she yelled at my dad for letting me learn that “evil Nazi language.” How interesting, considering the fact that she is of German descent…
My grandparents – all of them – have chosen to forget that Mr. Winkie and I lived together before we got married. Trust me, they knew, it was no secret, but now it as if it never happened.
85-yr old grandmother to my mother, about 6 months after the wedding: “I’m so glad they didn’t love together before they got married. It just cheapens a girl.”
When I was a kid, I remember visiting my grandmother, walking into the living room and seeing her make a dramatic entrance wearing a lounge outfit consisting of black velvet hotpants, quilted black and gold lame maxi duster, black patterned stockings, and high, high heels.
My grandmother had been widowed for about 12 years at that time, and was definitely enjoying herself.
My father’s jaw dropped: “Good heavens, Mother, take that off!”
“Certainly not. It’s what they’re all wearing now. Sit down and have a drink, Donald.”
My sister and I loved it. She looked great.
Really, you totally never knew what she’d do. Perfectly lucid and completely hilarious. I loved visiting her. Like hanging out with a really nice, non-depressed Norma Desmond.
August 1973, the day before I was to leave for Navy boot camp in Orlando… I was saying goodbye to my grandparents, and my grandmother said “Well, we did our best to talk you out of this, but if it’s what you want…”
Cracked me up because it was the first inkling I had that I was being “talked out” of enlisting. I wound up spending 11 years on active duty, and I’m still working for the Navy as a civilian all these years later.
This is the same grandmother who used to buy bodice-rippers from thrift stores, then pass them to me when she was done, commenting on which ones had lots of “good parts” - my mom would have been appalled!! I thought it was a hoot that my grandmother liked cheesy gothic romances.
Hey Creaky How’s your Grandmother doin?
my granny was a hillbilly women from arkansas. my gramps worked for the farm next door. her mom had died, and the funeral was one day. the next day, gramps as leaving to go to nebraska, where he had a job offer. when granny realized he was leaving, she got her horse and buggy and went down to the train station. she got on the train, got him by the shirt-collar and said “you ain’t goin nowhere”
they went right over to the jp and got married right then, without her family even knowing. if gramps had lived 3 weeks longer, they would of been married 50 years.
mamma says when we kids would act up and talking back and stuff, he would tell her “you don’t HAVE to hear everthing” he also used to say “one swat is disipline, two swats is anger”. he was the most gentle man i have ever known.
BTW, after gramps died, granny was living in a trailer park, 91 years old. there was a big 35 foot tree in here yard. she hated this tree. one day she got an axe and chopped it down. laid it right down between 2 trailers as pretty as can be. chopped it into little pieces, and threw it away in the trash. we asked her why she didn’t have one of the boys do it, and she said that she’d done it before on the farm and it wasn’t no big deal. besides they would probablt kill her trailer
they don’t make people like granny and gramps anymore. and the world is a poorer place for it. they were great