Careless Whispers

My youngest sister was recently divorced. She began dating a guy I really did not like. I caught myself balling up my fists whenever he stood next to her.

He was involved with the Nazi party of the area. It turns out that his childhood best friend was the head of the group. He was just following his friend. Dangerous situation

He dropped out of the party eventually. He did not really believe in that stuff. He only wanted friends to be with. Tells us a sad tale about society I believe.

His birthday was coming up. It had taken time but we grew to like him. My sister asked my husband and me if we would go to a party for him. I refused the invitation.

It would be held at his parent's house. They did not approve of his friends either.

My sister kept asking and I kept refusing. She told me she wanted someone she could talk to there.

None of the Nazis would wear their uniforms if they attended. Would we please go? I gave in and said yes. There would be normal people there too and we would not stay long.

It began as a rather boring affair. We were all sitting and talking.

Then in stormed the stormtroopers IN UNIFORM. I signaled to my husband that we would be leaving soon.

In the meantime a greasy little man in uniform took a liking to me. I suppose I should mention that except for my dark hair I look like I could qualify for Hitler's master race.

This greasy little man kept coming over and whispering his propaganda in my ear and leaving. Soon here he was again.

Finally I turned to him and sweetly (I think I even batted my eyelashes) and loudly said, "Didn't he tell you I'm Jewish?"

That greasy little man backed away from me so fast with his hands and arms in front of him like I was burning him.

My husband was roaring with laughter. So were a lot of other people. 

As soon as he could breathe I took my husband (and my sister) home.

Rant

It has been a while since I have had a rant. I will do it now.

Because my mother insisted that I use proper grammar I am annoyed by the many grammatical mistakes I hear. I sit and correct people on television. It drives my children insane when I do..

Let me say before I begin that my grammar is not perfect. Sorry Mom. She especially hated when I would say, "a whole nother thing."  I know better but for some reason I continue to do it.

Nuclear is pronounced as it is spelled. It is new klee ar not new cue lar.

When a person buys a house they usually hire a realtor. That is a re all ter. Not a re lah ter. 

Cavalry is a military term for soldiers who are on horses. Calvary is an area outside the gates of Jerusalem where crucifixions were done.

It is off en not off ten. The t is silent. Look it up.

Calm has a silent l. It is not pronounced call mmm. It is com. 

Jewelry. Not jew lery. It is jewel ry. Please.

Supposably is wrong wrong wrong. The correct word is supposedly.

People keep saying mano y mano. They mean man to man. However mano a mano means hand to hand. It still refers to a conflict between two people and the difference is slight. Just say and use it correctly.

Pronouns are a particular peeve. I, me, and myself are the examples I will use. I is a subject pronoun as in 'I am a girl.' Me is an object pronoun as in 'Silly songs make me smile.' Myself is a reflexive object pronoun as in 'I will get myself a drink.' 

Now comes the preachy part. Never say something like 'Me and my brother went to the game.'  Me is not a subject. 

Never say ' Jenny serenaded him and I at the party.' Try saying the sentence without  'him'. Then you would use me. That stays the same with 'him'. And changing 'him' to 'he' only makes it worse,

Myself takes a bit of explanation. It is used in place 'me' when the whole sentence is referring to self. An example is 'I bought myself a box of chocolates'. Myself can be used as added emphasis. 'I had to clean the yard all by myself.

Inserting any subject pronoun to the place of an object pronoun makes me want to scream. Martin took he and I to the movies. It is him and me.

The new way of referring to small children as kiddoes is actually old. I used to hate it when Grandma said it. I suppose it is no worse than kids which I use. I still do not like it.

Larynx. It is our voice box. The way we make the sound for our words. Pronounced lare  inks  not lare nix.

Have you seen the Life Alert commercial that tells us that it saves a life every 11 minutes? I keep picturing the person who dies, uses Life Alert, survives, then dies 11 minutes later, on and on. Life Alert is a good product. I wish they would think about their wording.

I apologize for my rant. Thanks for listening.

Missed It By That Much

 My father deeply loved all his children. There were seven of us.

I was due to be born 2 days before my mother's birthday. When I still had not been born then Daddy hoped I would wait another week and a half to be born Of course I did not.

The following year my first brother was born two months (and two days) after Daddy's birthday. My second brother was born eight days before my first brother's first birthday. Irish twins. I was barely two years old. My poor mother.

Daddy really really wanted a child born on his birthday. 

Shortly after my fourth birthday my sister was born. One day after Daddy's birthday.

When I was six another brother arrived. His birthday was four days after Daddy's. When he was almost five years old he was so worried about who would take care of his mommy when he started school in the fall. Sooo......

Right before my eleventh birthday my second sister was born. It was the day after the Fourth of July, For years she thought all the fireworks were just for her.

I was almost fifteen when my final brother was born. It was two weeks before Mom's birthday. I was old enough to visit the hospital to see my new brother.

We have a tradition in my family. When a new baby comes home we line up according to age to greet our new brother or sister. The baby is gently handed to the youngest child to hold for the first time. That child carefully hands the baby to the next child. 

When the baby gets to the oldest child that child carries the baby to be laid in its bed for the first time. Because I am the oldest I was the first to carry each of my siblings.

Queen

My oldest son is a loyal fan of the musical group Queen. He can tell me almost anything I wish to know about them.

Unfortunately he was too young to go to a concert when Freddie Mercury was still alive. Still he is in contact with remaining members.

Because of his contact he was able to buy 4 tickets at a reduced price to a concert when Paul Rodgers was singing with them. He asked me to go and I agreed. My oldest granddaughter wanted to go so she and her father (my youngest son) used the other two tickets.

When we arrived we had four seats from the aisle on in. Normally I sit on the aisle in protector mode. My granddaughter was about 14 so she was not very tall. She asked if she could have the aisle seat so she could see.

A man who looked to be in his late 30's came in and had the seat in front of my granddaughter. He made a great show of taking off his jacket and trying to flirt with her. She was a young girl and not interested. She ignored him.

I watched him closely. He was looking for a conquest.

Her father also noticed as did her uncle. My youngest son moved to an empty seat behind his daughter. My oldest son had me change seats with him so he was next to his niece. 

Dad just sat and glared at the man. Uncle stood with his arms crossed and a threatening look on his face.

The man began to squirm. Then he was sweating. Finally he could take no more. He grabbed his jacket from the back of his seat and left. 

I think that pervert learned not to mess with our little girls. 

Wrap It Up

Like most children we went to Mom when we were hurt. It seemed like Mommy could make it better more than anyone else.

There were seven of us. It seemed like there was always one with a scrape or a small cut.

And there were bigger wounds that were not big enough for a doctor to look at. A lot of those were open wounds. She cleaned them up and calmed us down. 

Then it was Daddy's turn. For some strange reason he loved making bandages. So out came the gauze and adhesive tape.

When he was through a scrape to the elbow would look like your full arm was in a cast. We loved it. We got a lot of attention. 

So Mom fixed the wounds. Daddy decorated them.

Things That Make Me Wonder

This is about random things that I do not really understand,

People go to the beach or a tanning salon to make their skin browner. When meat is exposed to heat it becomes brown because it is cooking. Why would a person want to cook themself?

Why do people run through those narrow streets in front of a bunch of angry bulls? You know someone will be gored.

Why do some people say congraJulations instead of congraTulations?

When a person is 'high' it is because brain cells are being damaged. Drugs, nicotine, and alcohol damage your brain. You are killing brain cells.

I understand about tribal customs and shore leave. Really. I do. I still cannot understand going through all that pain to mutilate your body to get a tattoo.

Sometimes people look for just the right piece of land to build a home. They want to live a more secluded life. They build a luxurious home and are happy. Suddenly they invite a family member to build close by to live there with their family.

Soon a friend decides to build and move in with their family. After a period of time there is a small community. What happened to seclusion?

A small bare piece of land will not support the growth of anything. I will try planting but nothing happens. Then one day a dandelion grows there. Where did that come from?

No one loves music more than I do. Maybe as much but not more. So how come I can't sing?

What do you wonder about?

A Full Morning

My little brother was about three years old. At that time there were only five of us and he was the youngest.

My brother lived a pretty good life. The rest of us were in school so he had Mom all to himself.

After we ate breakfast  the rest of us were off to school. Then my brother's adventures started.

First Mom would give him a penny. As Mom watched he went down the street and turned the corner. That was when Mrs. Bull took over. 

Mr. and Mrs. Bull owned a small grocery store. And they had the best assortment of penny candy.

Mrs Bull watched my brother from the corner to the store. He would go in and choose his penny candy for the day. 

After he paid for it Mrs Bull watched him walk to the corner and turn onto our street. Mom was waiting and watched hum come down the street.

It was time for Captain Kangaroo. After that was Ding Dong School.

One morning just as it was time for Captain Kangaroo to start he suddenly jumped up. He yelled, "Quick! Turn it off!  I have to go to the bathroom and I don't want to miss any of it."

It was a good life.