Today, while my father and I had our Sunday lunch, I was eating some carrots and was reminded of something from my childhood. When I was six, my grandpop (think I called him pop-pop) had a stroke one New Year's Eve as he sat at our kitchen table. He wasn't real good about taking his blood pressure medication, stubborn would be a better way to look at his refusal to take the pills. When he was eventually moved to a rehabilitation center for speech therapy and to try to regain movement in his right side, I frequently visited him. He only let me push his wheel chair and feed him when I visited.
Any hoo...onto the advice...he had a roommate named Mr. Brewster. Mr. Brewster had a great sense of humor. One day I noticed he wasn't eating his carrots. Being the ever dutiful child, I asked Mr. Brewster why he wasn't eating his carrots, after all, veggies are good for him. He replied, "Carrots give you lumps on your head." Throughout most of my childhood, I did not touch a carrot. Well, I didn't want lumps on my head. Everytime I eat carrots, I think of Mr. Brewster. :)
Did you ever had adults say crazy, funny things like that when you were a child?
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My dad used to change the name of things to make them sound funny or gross. Like, he would call Grilled Cheese sandwiches - Chilled Grease sandwiches. Things like that. He would also say things to us like "Put an egg in your shoe and beat it". That was a favorite, we heard that one all the time. When we had a loose tooth he would say "Come out to the garage with me and I'll get the pliers'.
When we were kids, we thought it was all hilarious, then when we got older we did a lot of eye-rolling when he would say them. Funny, though, now that he's gone, we laugh about all of those sayings and occasionally used them on our own kids.
My uncle used to teach me how to make elephant noises and talk like Donald Duck.
When he died, his girlfriend went on and on about how good he was with her grandchildren and how used to do those things with them. But, I think I appreciated it more. He used to stand me on his legs and hold my hands and he'd giggle me around all over by moving his legs.
I miss him. We have a similar sense of humor. He had me convinced that I could get a tan from the moon, since I couldn't really tolerate the sun.
One of my grandmothers was Norwegian. Some of the expressions I remember were:
"Oh you'd complain if you were hung with a new rope"
"Ain't ain't in the dictionary"
"Life is what you make it"
"What do you mean "WHO", do your feet fit a limb"
"It'll all come out in the wash"
"you're too young to be tired"
"Tend to your own knitting""
"You got any complaints the Chaplain will punch your card the second Tuesday of the week"
"You make a better door than a window"
'If your hand itches you'll kiss a fool".
"Things were tough in the old country"
My grandmom used to say a lot of those, too.
"You're too young to be tired" was her favorite. That and she'd always love to tell me that she had to walk to school with a hot potato in her hands to keep warm.
My Dad used to tell me the story about riding the horse to school. . or walking through the drifts of snow. When I was in high school, I came home to two friends of my folks from high school in the driveway. They'd kept in touch over the years and they had stopped in to have dinner with us.
My parents weren't home yet.
We got. . "the rest of the story".
My Dad had a car.. . he got drunk in high school and drove it (a model A I think) into a ditch and then didn't remember where it was.
He and Mom went on a date and didn't get home until 4 AM. Apparently they "fell asleep" at the movies"
My folks, when little, put my Uncle, when he was MUCH littler, in a washtub and floated him down the river, Moses style. He survived (only to drown in a boating accident 50 years later which is just weird).
But it was nice to know my parents were human, and did the same stupid things we did (allegedly).
But I didn't buy the "walked through the snow drifts for miles" story after that at all, and we got a good chuckle out of it when we were parents ourselves.
I walked to school in the snow and HATED it! I don't know how folks of their generation "like it."
HA!
My mom had to share a bed with her two sisters and didn't have hot water until their teens. That had to suck!
Three of my grandparents were Norskys.
Hush and eat your Lutefisk.
Uffda!
More coffee?
No Aquavit until you're ten.
God Yule!
Tusen Tak!
Skul
(short for long Norwegian name)
I walked to school in the snow and loved it - cold fresh mornings with the sun in a clear blue sky reflecting off the snow, magic.
Mind you it was not much fun when it was deep enough to come over the top of your wellies - wet feet for the rest of the day.
Yeah, but I'm still doing it and I'm not blind!
Skul:
Yeah! Eat your lutefisk!
DBA:
Do I want to know what wellies are? Heh.
Ssssteve:
That's nice. I was just about to eat dinner. Never mind. I need brain bleach right now.
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