There are quite a few entries in the blog that are really just me writing down memories. I think the girls will like to see that their mom was a real person at one point. :) This is one of those entries.
I went to a funeral service for an amazing woman today. She was my neighbor at my old house. I considered her a grandma. She treated me like a grandkid. She had 4 kids. When we lived there the youngest child was still in high school and the oldest had kids my age. I grew up with her grandchildren. I was also fascinated that there was a REAL high schooler that lived RIGHT NEXT DOOR TO ME. I think small kids think that high school is a magical land of amazing half grown-up people. Kids can recognize that teenagers are still functioning like a kid but look like an adult. "mysterious". Marion had amazing things at her house. She always had candy out in a jar on the coffee table. She was always reading paperback romance novels. When I asked what she was reading, she would say "Oh, don't you worry about it, sweetie". I learned how to play cards over there, danced to Michael Jackson, and raced around her giant yard! She had a bowl that you put corn in, that looked like a real ear of corn! She had a giant vase at her front door with pussy willow plants in it. I learned to not run barefoot in her rock garden, and that all cats were not friendly. (It was my goal to make her cat, Tatty like me-I failed) She was such a character and will be missed.
The funeral service was in my hometown. There are pros and cons to living almost anywhere. The pro to not living where you grew up, is you don't see it as the daily mundane place. In other words I don't have to go grocery shopping or run errrands there. To me it is all of the happy memories of growing up. Every where is a "look at that" or "remember when we"....it is a fun place to visit. I took Libby thru my old neighborhood. As I drove around, things looked great and about the same. Our neighborhood was on a large hill. I was ready to drive down the hill and remembered a question that Julia had asked me last week. "Mom, did Nanny or Papaw ever do anything to embarrass you when you were a kid?" (I think I am starting to embarrass her??) Uh, yes Julia they did. It happened right at the top of that hill. Today it made me laugh outloud to think about.
When I was in high school, my friend and I dated guys that were best friends. PERFECT. This was great for all involved since we could double date. Every weekend consisted of a date with the 4 of us. She and I were talking one day and she admitted that she was thinking about breaking up with her boyfriend. WHAT? What would happen to our double dates? I had actually been thinking about doing the same thing but was afraid to admit it. So we decided to break up with our boyfriends on the same day. ( Note:this was not the peak of my maturity, thank God!) I am sure we did it in a heartless way like in a note all folded up like an origami bird or something. Anyway, the guys were obviously bummed because my mom was driving up to our house, my friend and I were in the back of the van. The two boys were parked at my house egging it. In the middle of the day. Again, high schoolers are idiots! :) The boys spotted her and took off driving. My mom took after them in a blind rage and all of a sudden we were involved in a chase scene that rivaled the Italian Job. Only instead of driving stylish mini coopers my mom was driving like Bo and Luke Duke in her minivan. She got PASSED them and stopped her van so they could not get passed us and then got out to confront them. This was the point I was certain. CERTAIN. I would die of embarrassment. We will have to call 911 because I knew then it was possible to actually DIE of embarrassment. Through the glass of the minivan windows, I could hear my mom yelling, I caught, "ashamed of yourself" "lucky I don't call your moms" Sweet heavens. Social. life. OVER. Surprisingly I woke up the next day and did not die. I also lived thru the next. No eye contact was made for awhile with both of the guys involved. I was so selfish that I never thought through how embarrassing it must have been for them.
No real moral to this story, just a funny memory and how now as an adult I can see all sides of it, but at the time I was a teenager and it pretty much revolved around me. I will most likely embarrass my girls to the point of near death. I think I owe them at least that! :) Happy Tuesday!
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