I, myself, had 3 grandmas because my paternal grandparents had a d. i. v. o. r. c. e. as Tammy Wynette would say. And then my Grandpa remarried. So there were 3 grandmas. It was a good thing, it was. What could be better than a grandma's love?
THREE GRANDMAS' LOVE, that's what!!
All of my grandmothers were special to me in different ways and at different times in my life.
My mom's mother, my Nana, was our childhood grandma. She spent more time with us than the other grandmas during that period. Probably because my mama was her baby and she wanted to be with her. As we grew a bit we got to spend 2 weeks each summer at Nana's house, just us and some of our cousins. No parents around. We had the best times! We browsed through Nana's attic. We tried on her clothes, her jewelry, her makeup. She would make us the Chef Boy-ar-dee boxed spaghetti that we thought was sooooo much cooler and better than that crappy homemade stuff!
One of our favorite things to do at Nana's house was to pull down all the blinds and make the living room as dark as could be and then watch Dark Shadows.
Oh, I loved that show!!!
O. m. g.! Was it ever a fabulous daytime soap opera! And did you know they are making a new Dark Shadows movie? And they are going to screw it up by casting Johnny Depp as Barnabus Collins.
Normally, I think casting Johnny Depp in anything is a good call. But as Barnabus? No way. Barnabus is the paterfamilias, the old dude, the head vampire of the dark Collins family. Johnny Depp would be much better as the hot, sexy, younger Quentin Collins that was played by David Selby back in the day.
See what I mean? Does Johnny Depp look old enough or scary enough to play Barnabus Collins?
Now look at David Selby as Quentin Collins:
Wasn't he hot? What is Tim Burton thinking? Is he thinking ol' Mr. Depp is OLD Mr. Depp?
Anyhoo, back to the Grandmas and their cussing. So Nana had a few favorite go-to cuss words that I remember. She didn't actually swear very much, but she was quite creative with the one she did use.
1. Son of a bitch bastard Pete
2. Helldamnshit (all one word. Her two daughters, my mom and aunt both use this one)
3. If any one around her swore she would say "Stop that cussing, it sounds like hell"
That was pretty much it for her. She didn't smoke or drink either.
My other grandmas never cussed. Actually, my Grandma Violet that died last November used to call people "that ol' rip" instead of bitch or whatever other word she might have been thinking. But other than that I never remember hearing either of them cuss.
Did any of your own grandmas cuss?
My paternal granny grew up in Hell's Kitchen NYC, was tough as nails and married a sailor(the second time around)so you KNOW she swore!lol
ReplyDeleteHer 2 favorite sayings were, "Go shit in your hat!" and in reference to the neighborhood children running thru her yard, "Go home ya lil' sonsabitches!"
She died the fall after I graduated from college and was feisty to the end.
And another thing.....I remember that Barnabas was played by Jonathan Frakes. Now how sad is it that I know that?lolol
ReplyDeleteI don't remember my Gramma ever cussing although whenever my Grandpa would put on airs, she would call him a "Pompous Ass" to knock him back down to earth. On the other hand, she may have been cussing whenever she started speaking Slovak and Polish.
ReplyDeleteOoooooh, I LOVE "Dark Shadows!" I would come home from kindergarten and my mom would make me a peanut butter and honey sandwich and we'd watch Dark Shadows together.
I dunno, I like the idea of Johnny Depp as Barnabas. A younger, sexier Barnabas than Jonathan Frid was.
Rachel McAdams as Angelique?
Salma Hayek as Josette? No wait. Josette was much younger. I'll have to peruse the celebrity rags to find a good Josette.
I remember my grandma saying "I'll be damned" quite a lot. I didn't live near either of them, so didn't get to know them well.
ReplyDeleteMy kids, however, are close to all FOUR sets of grandparents. (My two sets of parents, paternal grandparents and my husband's parents)
You're right, love from so many Grannies is not a bad thing!!
My memaw(maternal) did not cuss at all. I would just imagine that Grandma (paternal)did since she dipped snuff....gagggg.But, with my mother around, no one cussed!
ReplyDeleteLMAO! I, too, had 3 grandmothers. That was definitely fantastic, and same thing - all brought such a different, wonderful dynamic to the family. None cussed (in front of me) that I remember :)
ReplyDeleteSadly, I didn't have those kind of grandmas. I had one grandma, a crabby old Irish woman, with one leg shorter than the other because in her youth she'd fallen off a bar stool while intoxicated and shattered her leg and hip. They didn't put her back together too well back in the day and so she had one leg significantly shorter than the other. To compensate, she had one big ass shoe, like a platform, while the other shoe was normal.
ReplyDeleteAnd I know this is a fabulous story and I have many more of my Grandma and her eccentricities, but my mother would kill me if I posted them on my blog.
Anyway, that grandma did nothing but sit on the couch, watch the White Sox and chain smoke all day. If we bugged her, she would roll her eyes and say in her Irish brogue, "For the love of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, how many of you are there?" There were 7 of us.
My other grandma had, are you ready? 56 grandchildren. She had 9 children of her own and they all had huge families. I was lucky she remembered my name.
I used to watch Dark Shadows, too, until my mother had to ban it. I was a little too young to be watching and it would give me terrible nightmares. I don't remember the cast of characters, just how awesomely frightening it was. And hopefully, they'll make Johnny's character sexy and hot. And if they don't, Barnabus will be sexy and hot anyway. Johnny can't help it. The sexy just oozes out of him.