Well , why the hell not ?
At least it's Friday.
It's gonna be a tough weekend and upcoming week kids.
Cindy Lou Who's Aunt Toots is not long for this earth. Cindy Lou Who just got back from Sweetwater , Texas ( aka BFWT - Bum F*ck West Texas) and no more had a day at home and then had to turn right back around and high tail it back. We all hope that she made it back before Toots actually passed , but at the last I'd heard it was iffy at best .
There is not a lot that we can do at this point. In the 8 years that the girls have lived next door to us, we have become insanely close so this is hard . Since they have moved in , I have lost my father, Cindy Lou Who has lost hers ( within less than 6 months of each other ) and SU lost his Mom 15 months ago...not to mention his aunt Genie and 3 weeks ago , Uncle Harry.
Jeri Lee and I were talking last night at the Ice House about how we are in fact at the age where we are becoming the older generation. Our parents are dying off, our Grandparents are all gone and our kids are having their own kids.But I still have a hard time wrapping my head around all of it , surely I can't be that old ? Can I ? Can he ?
The funny part is that my grandparents acted like grandparents. Granted I have no living children, but even so...I can't fathom my grandmother falling over laughing at something as I am prone to do , perhaps because she was a preachers wife and it wasn't done. As for Nana, sure I can see that , but at the same time she was both lady like and a full blown Auntie Mame so if she did so it would have been in the absolute privacy of her own home . One does not deport themselves in public that way dontchaknow.
Perhaps part of this is that we are all still working , retirement is something we joke about so we don't feel that old , even as we stopped counting our ages past 55. And we don't have the same type routines that they did. SU will grab the vac and hoover or throw in a load of wash or clean a bathroom...or cook a meal . My grandfather did none of those and didn't learn how to really cook until my grandmothers cancer was at the stage where she couldn't cope. In all fairness, he became quite the cook ( or what passes in small town Lutheran Minnesota) and quite the catch around town.
Nana on the other hand was a divorcee. Yeah, sound quite quaint now doesn't it ? It was in fact quite the scandal in 1955. It wasn't done..but other than to say that it wasn't a matter of HER fault, it's not my story to tell. The interesting part is that after she regained her sight ( psychosomatic blindness /stress induced ) , she dropped 25 pounds or so and dyed her hair blonde. Now she was a tiny thing, only about 4'11" so you can only imagine her drive. She became a world class Bridge player and I doubt she ever dusted a damn thing again.
But still....she was OLD to me..Nana.
My father was only 26 when they divorced and so I'd hazard a guess that she was maybe no more than 26 when she had him...so I am only a few years older than she was when she had to reinvent herself.
It just hit me like a ton of bricks...she was my age .
It literally just hit me like a ton of bricks.
HOLY CRAP !
There really isn't that much of a difference between the generations. It's a matter of perception ( I'm feeling kinda dumb at this moment ) and I am sure that there is a more than even money chance that my grandparents felt their parents and grandparents were old and staid too.
It is hard to lose family no matter the age, but if you are lucky you can be there for friends and family when it happens because that is really what gets us all through the dark days we all experience.
And we 're all gonna get older , like it or not .
Funny part is , I like my age..I just never thought of my grandparents as being the same age....Bast , I am so glad they were smarter about it than I am .
Have a great weekend .
Ciao,
Aunt Pol
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