Carly's Ramblings Blog - Style

Family Memories & Laughter

Today`s blogs.... wrote days ago....

Welcome To My Reality - Week Eighty - Four?

2. Tell us your favourite family memory.

Favourite family memories always take me back to my Grandparent's farm. A little place painted a bright yellow. A place without indoor plumbing or electricity. It was living off the grid.

My imagination ran free there and my grandmother's love was unconditional. I could do no wrong in her eyes - that is not to say that she let me get away with naughty things; it was more being able to hum at the dinner table and not get yelled at... things like that. I think I was a pretty good kid.
I remember family dinners at the huge dining table in the front room. Finishing my meal, I would ask to be excused and then I would slip below the surface and sit among the legs. The conversation would hum above me, like a more calm version of Charlie Brown's adult's speech, and I would sit in the dimness. The lamp light cast shadows on the wall. The spot was like a protected cocoon.

I would usually find my Gramzie's feet and tickle her or just touch her - being close to her always made me smile. There was no way I would touch my mother's legs - I might get in trouble there, but not with my grandmother.

There I would stay until it was time to tidy up. Then I would keep my small self out of the way as the table was cleared - sometimes I was given things to carry back into the kitchen. The table was shifted out of the way and my grandmother's brothers would set up; Uncle Alec would get his violin and Uncle Jessie would get his guitar and we would sing along to family favourites. The rest of us would pull in chairs or pick a spot on the couch or floor to enjoy the show.

Going to Cape Breton Island last summer reminded me of these old family memories. House parties - full of chatter, laughter, whoops of delight, toe tapping and clapping.

Here's a taste...



3. What made you laugh this week?

Laughter and tears. I got together with one of my besties. I have know Michelle since she was seven and I was nine - next year will be forty years! We got to talking about our men and what they do or don't do. The frustrations of life we learn to laugh off and take in stride. What got us going was a little bathroom humour tied into how much cleaning our men actually do. My husband is a pretty tidy guy... he can be considered anal in some areas - particularly his car. Her husband cleans nothing. In fact, she can come out of the bathroom after cleaning it and he will go in and use the facilities and not flush - this leaves a stain that she cannot get rid of no matter how she tries.

I told her about my little septic tank ditty - "If it's yellow, let it mellow; If it's brown flush it down." That got us laughing. Though in our house I sometimes leave it mellow if my husband is sleeping off his night shift - I flush when he gets up.

It was really good to talk to her about some of the issues that have been plaguing my marriage of late. I think her best line was "At the end of it all - are you going to remember if there was a stain in the toilet you can't get rid of or the day you got to the beach."

We already have two friends who died of cancer and one who is recovering from a spine surgery that has her living in a nursing home - at the age of 46 - she's been there three years. It is important to remember to live... because these friends can't.