Monday, December 27, 2004
IIIIIIII'mmmmm dreammmming....of a whiiiite....Christmas!
Today my parents and I drove up to my grandparents house to do some organizing, inventorying, and deciding what if anything I'd like to keep.
**********
Overheard in the ladies restroom at a Panera in PA
a mother: from the stall to her teenage daughter "what time is it?"
stranger: "it's 1:45"
mother: ignoring stranger "do you have a watch? what time is it?"
stranger: "it's 1:45!"
sullen teenage daughter: "I don't have a watch!"
mother: "you don't have a watch?"
sullen teenage daughter:"no"
mother: "well would you wear a watch if I bought you one?"
daughter: "no, I don't like watches. they're stupid"
mother:still in the stall "you're JUST LIKE your father! he doesn't wear watches! he doesn't wear sweaters!"
daughter:even more sullen "I wear SWEATERS!"
**************
My grandparents have collected so much shit over the years, it's unbelievable. containers full of emery boards. Plastic knick knacks they got free from gas stations and prescription medications. Old pill bottles as pencil and pen bottles, for HUNDREDS of pens and pencils. An entire closet full of shoeboxes filled with recipes clipped from magazines and newspapers (recipes she never made, by the way)
But my mom can't find the pearls she bought her. Or one of the hummels. Or the set of tableware with the green and gold stripe. Those she might have lost. Or broken. Or just given away to some relative who stopped for a visit. Grandma wasn't very sentimental.
I picked out a lasagna pan she never used, and some yarn for knitting. and a few other odds and ends.
Mom and Dad are going to sell most of it at a garage sale in the spring. and maybe some stuff on ebay. When we all got home, my parents and brother went through a big box of pins and buttons, while I tried to find them on ebay to see if they were worth anything. A coin from the 1939 world's fair. an "I back Ike" pin. Might get a few bucks here and there for the stuff. Nothing of Antiques Roadshow caliber, though.
The find of the day was an old travel journal my grandfather kept of their vacations a long while back. Details of the flight to Hawaii in 1978, when they apparently had much better airplane food. He wrote how they entertained themselves on the flight by playing cards, and how grandma trounced him utterly, and how she MUST have cheated, because that's the only way she could have won! Hehe...some things never changed. She always beats him at cards, and he always stormed off, accusing her of cheating.
He wrote about my first visit to their house. I must have been around 2 (probably not long after the hawaii trip). They took me to SeaWorld and Lake Pymatuning, where I got to feed the carp and ducks. I actually found an album with pictures of the trip. I had curly hair. What the hell happened to my curly hair??? I feel cheated.
**************
Afterwards, mom and I went out to dinner with some friends of hers from high school. Dad waited for my brother, who was driving down from visiting his gf's family in Erie. It was a relief to get away, to laugh, to relax.
*************
I drove home. Mom doesn't like to drive at night. No problem for me! But it snowed north of pittsburgh, and was STILL snowing. And the roads weren't completely clear. I'm used to driving at night, but I haven't driven on a highway in the snow in a loooong time. Managed not to flip us, though. And I got a white day AFTER christmas, anyway!
// ranted by evilsciencechick @ 12/27/2004 01:08:00 AM
**********
Overheard in the ladies restroom at a Panera in PA
a mother: from the stall to her teenage daughter "what time is it?"
stranger: "it's 1:45"
mother: ignoring stranger "do you have a watch? what time is it?"
stranger: "it's 1:45!"
sullen teenage daughter: "I don't have a watch!"
mother: "you don't have a watch?"
sullen teenage daughter:"no"
mother: "well would you wear a watch if I bought you one?"
daughter: "no, I don't like watches. they're stupid"
mother:still in the stall "you're JUST LIKE your father! he doesn't wear watches! he doesn't wear sweaters!"
daughter:even more sullen "I wear SWEATERS!"
**************
My grandparents have collected so much shit over the years, it's unbelievable. containers full of emery boards. Plastic knick knacks they got free from gas stations and prescription medications. Old pill bottles as pencil and pen bottles, for HUNDREDS of pens and pencils. An entire closet full of shoeboxes filled with recipes clipped from magazines and newspapers (recipes she never made, by the way)
But my mom can't find the pearls she bought her. Or one of the hummels. Or the set of tableware with the green and gold stripe. Those she might have lost. Or broken. Or just given away to some relative who stopped for a visit. Grandma wasn't very sentimental.
I picked out a lasagna pan she never used, and some yarn for knitting. and a few other odds and ends.
Mom and Dad are going to sell most of it at a garage sale in the spring. and maybe some stuff on ebay. When we all got home, my parents and brother went through a big box of pins and buttons, while I tried to find them on ebay to see if they were worth anything. A coin from the 1939 world's fair. an "I back Ike" pin. Might get a few bucks here and there for the stuff. Nothing of Antiques Roadshow caliber, though.
The find of the day was an old travel journal my grandfather kept of their vacations a long while back. Details of the flight to Hawaii in 1978, when they apparently had much better airplane food. He wrote how they entertained themselves on the flight by playing cards, and how grandma trounced him utterly, and how she MUST have cheated, because that's the only way she could have won! Hehe...some things never changed. She always beats him at cards, and he always stormed off, accusing her of cheating.
He wrote about my first visit to their house. I must have been around 2 (probably not long after the hawaii trip). They took me to SeaWorld and Lake Pymatuning, where I got to feed the carp and ducks. I actually found an album with pictures of the trip. I had curly hair. What the hell happened to my curly hair??? I feel cheated.
**************
Afterwards, mom and I went out to dinner with some friends of hers from high school. Dad waited for my brother, who was driving down from visiting his gf's family in Erie. It was a relief to get away, to laugh, to relax.
*************
I drove home. Mom doesn't like to drive at night. No problem for me! But it snowed north of pittsburgh, and was STILL snowing. And the roads weren't completely clear. I'm used to driving at night, but I haven't driven on a highway in the snow in a loooong time. Managed not to flip us, though. And I got a white day AFTER christmas, anyway!
