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I taste like mango chutney. I spent the day at my Grandmother�s house. My Grandmother is from Humbolt, Tennessee and has the most outrageous stories about her childhood. She says, �churins� instead of children and calls me Undruh. Hope and help are the same word for her and she makes a swishy-sighing sound whenever she exerts energy. I spent my childhood and early adolescence in reverent fear of her. I spend my early adulthood trying to understand how a woman who has seen so much in her lifetime remains so steadfast in opinions I hold as outdated. While at her house today I swept the floor. Later, my brother breezed in (to drop the car off and ask for money) and my mother and Grandma convinced him to mop. He mopped (grumpily) and then began to complain that the floor hadn�t been swept well. I was insulted, but my mother and Grandma told him just to mop as best he could and that it�d be taken care of later. My Grandmother turned to me and said, �You�re not a good sweeper and that makes it hard for your brother.� I ignored her and the way that she and my mother fawned Bernard�s (begrudged) contribution. When he was gone and I was re-sweeping the floor my Grandmother said, �Undruh, you�ll have to get much better at these things if you ever want a husband. He will expect everything to be perfect and a good wife does that.� For the splittest of seconds I thought about swishing around and telling her that my wife would be more adept at keeping a clean house� but then I though against it. I mean, that would be an unfair assumption to make about a future partner. I also refrained because 1. I didn�t feel like bursting Grandma�s big traditional southern heart today and 2. because my mother chimed in, �Andrea will probably chose a husband to do those sorts of things for her.� Grandma grunted. [It�s not a man�s place, you know.] And I said, �Or a maid� at which everyone sighed. Crisis averted. Sweeping resumes. (smiles) A maid� yesss� complete with a little French maid�s uniform. . How Rude! - Wednesday, Sept. 22, 2004 - 12:16 PM One small step but no giant leap. - Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2003 - 11:17 AM Where's George? - Thursday, Sept. 25, 2003 - 12:48 PM |
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a Nifty design 
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