In order to prevent herself from being carted off to the States with her family my mother and dad eloped. They had an accomplice, my father’s mother, so get married they did, as they were madly in love. I assume madly for why would anyone elope if that were not so.
I surmise that Cliff, my Dad’s father didn’t have a hand in it, as he was a mild sort of a milk-toast kind of man who always was in the background and never said much. I was never sure what he did for a living although I was always told that he had done truck farming, but I never saw him ever doing it or at least it was before my time. Grandma was the one who supported the family by teaching grade school. I suppose Grandpa was an all right kind of guy, but I never did connect very well with him even after staying with my grandparents through grades one and two. And especially after Grandpa accused me of something that I never did, I can’t even remember what it was but I knew I hadn’t done it and he didn’t believe me and there was a ruckus but I never got spanked for it.
I lived with my grandparents my first year of school, until Christmas. I came home at Christmas because I was home sick my mom said. I never remembered being home sick but I guess I can’t blame my mom for using that as a good reason for getting me back home, ten months is a long time to be without your little boy. And to put things in prospective I was the favorite. My sister Dawna always made sure I knew that was so.
The next year when I was eight I again spent a year with my grandparents this time with my sister Dawna. I will never forget the day when my sister lost her front teeth. It happed this way. Our job was to do the dishes after supper every evening. As kids we would goof off, Dawna being the lippy one had just lipped off our Aunty Olive once to often. Aunty Olive who was only sixteen at the time had just told Dawna to quit goofing off and get on with the dishes. Dawna of course lipped her off with “You can’t make me.” Aunty Olive then proceeded to back up her words and also take care of my sister’s sassy mouth by giving Dawna a good slap on the head. Dawna ducked to avoid the slap, striking her teeth on the edge of the kitchen counter. What a snapping sound, what a lot of bawling and what a ruckus ensued, it was incredible. I sure felt sorry for my Aunt. Maybe a little sorry for my sister as she was the one who lost her front teeth, she deserved the slap, but not the missing teeth. Dawna wears a bridge to this day.
Even though my Grandmother was tough on me I always liked her. During my grade two year I remember getting the strap three times for talking. My dad said he got strapped just about every day when he was a kid, just so he wouldn’t be thought of as being a favorite. I don’t think he had any resentment to grandma because he always talked about it with a sense of pride. It wouldn’t do anybody any good especially the teacher’s son to be thought of as teacher’s pet or a momma’s boy. So the tradition was carried on although I did not feel quite the same way about it as my dad did.
No comments:
Post a Comment