My sister found my blog!
So I’m minding my own business, blogging as usual, and suddenly I get a comment from my sister Beth. (We are estranged only because I’m an old recluse. She has gone through a sort of “purgation of the memory” as far as our childhood reminiscences go, while I have retreated from the family in an effort to “forget” these things. Although I think about them, continually trying to make sense of it all.)
Beth has about 50 kids - not really - she only has 7; Benj, Chris, Dina, Mark, Rob, Kelly, and Todd (Todd looks like Kevin Costner). Four of the kids are married with children, while three of the boys remain bachelors - without children - see, they are all good kids. The entire family is a very good family. The kids are each other’s best friends. Though they get angry with me, they like me, “they really, really like me”.
Beth can’t remember…
Beth wrote a comment, “I never thought of Nana as a classy lady, just a grandma.” Oh! My! Gosh! Beth! Nana used to dress like the picture up above - certainly she wasn’t Grace Kelly - her shape was a bit more voluptuous, more like Doris Upson in “Auntie Mame” - she would hit you with her handbag if she heard this coming from her favorite grand-daughter.
The photo above is Dior’s New Look, which inaugurated in the late 1940’s but was most popular in the States in the mid 1950’s. The dress we see above would probably have a low cut back - which Mom said showed how fat Nana was. (Now you know Mom could be bitchy…) Nana wore a silver dress much like this one shown, with black gloves, when she got off the plane on a trip from San Francisco. I thought she was like a movie star. (Gosh! I sound like “Ugly Betty’s” nephew - although I’m sure you don’t watch that.)
Okay my dear sister, one Nana memory for you on this post.
It was a stormy summer night in St. Paul, Nana was visiting with her new husband and we were all at Mom and Dad’s house. Tornado warnings had been issued when Dad said, “Honey, we are out of ice, Nana needs more ice for her drink.” Skip and Judy and Linda and I got in the car to go get ice. On the radio we heard of a possible tornado touchdown near Lake Phalen, not all that far from us. The rain was horizontal, lightning continually flashing - it was like a hurricane. We pulled into a service station asking for ice.
The attendant was so frightened and screamed above the thunder, “Whata ya nuts? We’re in a tornado here! Take what ya want!” We picked up the ice - for free - and returned home to the party, and Nana greeted us as we walked in, soaking wet from the storm, “Just in time kids!” - shaking her empty glass. Not one of them realized we had risked death to get her ice.
Nana had to leave shortly after that so she could get up and go to Mass with uncle Art and aunt Mary Jane the next morning. (They worried about the ‘open bar’ at the Nelson’s and picked her up after the tornado.)
March 24th, 2007 at 4:54 pm
I love stories of your Nana. I always thought Grace Kelly was too thin anyway. Grace came from a plain old Irish family from Philadelphia. Her father was brick layer.Yes, they had some money but they were not main liners. Her mother was a tough lady who had no respect for the jet-set no matter how much money they had.She told oleg Cassini that he could not marry Grace because he was divorced. Grace was sad but then she met her prince.
March 24th, 2007 at 5:23 pm
Interesting how Beth is showing up just when you really need family and friends.
And maybe to create a little nervousness to tame some of your blogging excesses.
I have a brother in California who reads my blog but probably hasn’t gone to the effort to track me down by my comments in St Blog’s parish pages.
But he does keep me honest when my memory as to our childhood years proves to be faulty (at least by his recollections).
I have another brother here and a sister here who I haven’t told about my “Catholic blogging” since it might be an issue for them.
Maybe I should make that a Late-Lenten-Resolve to tell them at Easter. Put a little excitement, and God, in their lives.
March 24th, 2007 at 5:50 pm
Ray - I’m the one with the memory in the family - Beth honestly can barely remember anything - I’m not kidding. I’m surprised she remembers that I’m alive.
March 24th, 2007 at 8:52 pm
With seven kids grandkids, a husband and other people in her life, maybe it’s Terry’s job to remind her that Terry is alive.
Just as it is Ray’s job to remind Ray’s siblings and other relatives that he is still alive.
March 25th, 2007 at 6:43 am
My grandmother B. was “Nana” too.
March 27th, 2007 at 7:52 am
My grandma was EBBA…old Swedish name and she actually had a ‘glamour shot’ done of herself before there were ‘glamour shots’! She used to show up with gigantic jars full of costume jewelry for us girls to play with when we were little. I don’t remember her fully dressed..she was always running around in her slip and putting on her make up. We would sit in side by side recliners watching Lawrence Welk together and she would say “I danced with him”
She painted on her eyebrows and had stoles she would wear…she was a neat freak and I loved cookies but they made me nervous with the crumbs she would get on her hands and knees to pick up…it seemed wrong to do something that would make your grandma get on her hands and knees for. She would wear Mary Tyler Moore slacks–circa Dick Van Dyke and scarves at her neck…always had her hair done and one time saved me from a spank when I spilled ink on her rug…dad thought I should get one grandma said it was no big deal and she would buy another…cheap! I think of her most everday and am firmly convinced if she had lived she would have been a confidant and would have helped save me from my rebelious teen years…I listened and thought everything she said was GOLD!!
I love her very much and pray her almost every Mass.
March 27th, 2007 at 8:11 am
I think I love your EBBA - Thanks Therese.