Our conversations are made more memorable and lively by the frequent use of quotes that have special meaning to us. For example if motoring down the road behind some challenged driver, one of us might say, "He is driving erotically." which would be followed by gales of laughter as we recalled that this quote is from sister #1 as she described the reason why the Highway Patrolman stopped sister #2 as she left Sardine Canyon and started into Cache Valley. We were confident that sister #2 was not driving topless but swerving due to fatigue. But the sister #1 is famous for her quote worthy malapropisms.
Of course we all have our own favorite quotes for which we have become famous. "Anything natural is not to be scorned." is one of my own quotes of which I am particularly proud. A family camp-out spawned my brother's famous "Let sleeping bags lie." in response to whether we should wake our Mother; and my husband's horrifying query re his young nephew's scrambled eggs covered with ketchup, "What is that, an abortion?" We also loved Cora's comment on my attempt to prepare her for Auntie's morning diabetes-testing ritual, "In our country we call that diarrhea." That left me speechless as in the "Joe vs the Volcano" favorite quote, "I have no response to that."
Actually TV and movies are a source of many of our favorite and oft-used quotes such as "I know you can get the job, but can you do the job. I'm not arguing that." also from "Joe vs the Volcano". And from "The Muppets take Manhattan": "Do you believe in inter- species dating?", Mr. Monk: "Suck it up, Sharona.", Ben Stein: "Bueller?", Obiwan Kanobi, "I feel a great disturbance in the Force." This last quote has also been used this way: "I felt no disturbance in the Force".
Children in the family have created a great legacy of memorable quotes, besides the aforementioned diarrhea-diabetes. I remember one Christmas Eve driving by the neighbor's celebration, with so many cars parked on either side of the street you could hardly get past. Darling daughter #1, age three at the time, said dryly, "Eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow you die." In answer to our astonished but amused inquiry as to where she had heard that, she replied, "Goofy said it." Also darling daughter #2 looking at her father's bald head asked him, "Did the birds eat your hair Daddy?"
Children are so innocent and spontaneous with their comments. Our young nephew who was watching Sesame Street ran excitedly to his mother and asked, "Got cello, like Yo-Yo Ma?" This quote caught our imagination as over the years we thought of the stimulating effect this performance had had on him. Despite his early interest in the cello, he went on to be a gifted pianist, composer and scholar. I use the past tense because this quote is now used "In Memoriam".
I felt a great disturbance in the force.
"We felt a great disturbance in the Force."
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
"Stuff"
One spends a lifetime accumulating stuff only to realize at some point that there is no more room. Parting with stuff becomes painful. But honestly do you really need belts hanging in your closet that no longer fit your maturing shape? How many pitchers are too many? Or pictures for that matter. There is a finite amount of shelf space and wall space after all. I decreed to my husband a few years ago that we could add no more books to our collection as we were out of space. We solved that dilemma when we bought eight more bookcases!
I live in a great fear that the stuff will take over my life like a growing alien invasive blob from a'50s Science Fiction movie. Also lurking in my subconscious, as I pass the bedrooms vacated by our children, is the horror I felt when reading Agatha Christie's description of living with her mother and grandmother who could not bear to part with any of their possessions so they had bedrooms remodeled into closets full of shelves and cupboards in which they could store their "stuff". Whole rooms became unusable repositories/museums to their past. Surely I haven't succumbed to this. After all there is still a usable bed in each room even though every inch of space under the beds is filled with memorabilia. And hey, I can still close the closet doors and shut out the shelves groaning with "Stuff".
I had vowed to never have my mother's drawer full of miscellaneous collections of things that were ultimately unusable because no one knew they were there. Growing up we had a whole kitchen cupboard that was referred to as the "Thing" because it was always covered by the flotsam and jetsam of life, e.g., "Where is my algebra book?" "It's on the 'Thing'. " or "I need my gloves." "Look on the 'Thing'."
But to be honest I admit that a recent kitchen remodel found me sorting through just such a drawer. "Why did I keep that?" or more often, "What is that?", I kept asking myself as I navigated through the drawer contents. But in the back of my mind like an annoying pop-up ad was that old thought handed down to me from my ancestors who lived through the depression: "You'll never know when you might need it." "No, no, no!" I scream, "Banish that thought. Freedom at last! I will throw it all in the garbage." Did anyone see me do that? I repent and retrieve it because it really is true that you never do know when you'll need it.
I hear my grandmother telling me, "Remember the time you threw that banana away and the next day you wanted to make banana bread..."
I live in a great fear that the stuff will take over my life like a growing alien invasive blob from a'50s Science Fiction movie. Also lurking in my subconscious, as I pass the bedrooms vacated by our children, is the horror I felt when reading Agatha Christie's description of living with her mother and grandmother who could not bear to part with any of their possessions so they had bedrooms remodeled into closets full of shelves and cupboards in which they could store their "stuff". Whole rooms became unusable repositories/museums to their past. Surely I haven't succumbed to this. After all there is still a usable bed in each room even though every inch of space under the beds is filled with memorabilia. And hey, I can still close the closet doors and shut out the shelves groaning with "Stuff".
I had vowed to never have my mother's drawer full of miscellaneous collections of things that were ultimately unusable because no one knew they were there. Growing up we had a whole kitchen cupboard that was referred to as the "Thing" because it was always covered by the flotsam and jetsam of life, e.g., "Where is my algebra book?" "It's on the 'Thing'. " or "I need my gloves." "Look on the 'Thing'."
But to be honest I admit that a recent kitchen remodel found me sorting through just such a drawer. "Why did I keep that?" or more often, "What is that?", I kept asking myself as I navigated through the drawer contents. But in the back of my mind like an annoying pop-up ad was that old thought handed down to me from my ancestors who lived through the depression: "You'll never know when you might need it." "No, no, no!" I scream, "Banish that thought. Freedom at last! I will throw it all in the garbage." Did anyone see me do that? I repent and retrieve it because it really is true that you never do know when you'll need it.
I hear my grandmother telling me, "Remember the time you threw that banana away and the next day you wanted to make banana bread..."
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Defined by the past
Sometimes I have the feeling that I no longer belong in this world. Sadly the feeling began about a decade ago when I watched helplessly as the world began to plan to celebrate the arrival of the 21st Century. I had been anticipating this event for over 50 years since a grade school teacher told us that we would live to see a new Century. But amazingly in this era that considered itself enlightened - an era of satellites, computers, graphing calculators and the internet - simple mathematics had been abandoned and the new century would be celebrated not 100 years after the beginning of the 20th Century, but 99 years. Surely, I thought, someone would correct this error. How embarrassing this must be to go forward with plans for the world-wide extravaganzas a year early. But then I read that it was only purists of the "high culture" mentality that were calling for the celebrations in 2001, i.e.,don't bother us with the facts.
Admittedly I loved the worldwide Y2K celebrations in the various countries beginning in places like Fiji and New Zealand. Nevertheless, I still recalled the voice of my teacher, Mrs. Hendricks, explaining to us why we would celebrate in the 21st Century in 2001 and not 2000. It was then that I began to have the nagging feeling that a person such as myself did not belong in this new Century. My problem being that I have one foot firmly and permanently stuck in a past that among other things defined things differently and did not tolerate fuzzy math.
Admittedly I loved the worldwide Y2K celebrations in the various countries beginning in places like Fiji and New Zealand. Nevertheless, I still recalled the voice of my teacher, Mrs. Hendricks, explaining to us why we would celebrate in the 21st Century in 2001 and not 2000. It was then that I began to have the nagging feeling that a person such as myself did not belong in this new Century. My problem being that I have one foot firmly and permanently stuck in a past that among other things defined things differently and did not tolerate fuzzy math.
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