Shawna has been eating 90% of each feeding with the pumpkin on the food! Great news! I have been making up for the 10% by giving more treats than usual but I think I am using good treats for our girl. And, she has only had one accident in the house this week so things are good!
My sister, Sister Maureen CSJ, sent a note about our Grandma not returning to Ireland for a visit. Ah, family stories can be such fun.
As my sister explained, Grandma was (how shall I say it?) tight with a penny. Grandma and Grandpa did not drive a car, in fact they did not own one. They lived two doors away from the trolley (later bus line) line so they could get around, but a car was too much. This also caused my Mom to want to live within walking distance so that visiting would be so much easier.
Mom did drive and often took Grandma shopping. I can remember often going on the Saturday grocery shopping trips. Sometimes, Grandma would not go but instead ask Mom to pick up a few things. When Mom delivered, Grandma reimbursed her to the penny for the items purchased. And never, never offered gas money or even a 'tip' for the service or a "keep the change." It was always to the penny. (This benefitted both my sister and I because Mom would send us to the local "mom and pop" market for items as needed. And she always let us "spend the change." I can remember picking up 3 half gallons of milk and getting a dime change from a dollar bill.)
The theory now is that Grandma didn't want to go back to visit the relatives for a very simple reason. The immigrants who left Ireland were expected to send money back for those who stayed behind. After all, the streets in America were paved with gold! But Grandma was, as I mentioned, tight with a penny. So sending money for some unidentified expenditure did not fit her image of what money was all about--especially her money. The supposition is, therefore, that Grandma was more than a few dollars in arrears in supplying funds to the family. And, any visit to the old country would highlight the rather noticeable lack of payment for, just guessing, six and one half decades--just for a number. One does not really want to go visit people to whom one owes money!
My parents and my sister visited Ireland after Grandma died and some members of the family still lived in old, old dwellings with dirt floors. I don't think the money would have gone to waste. Of course, to an Irishman, drink is not a waste by definition.
My sister also related that after Grandma died, she and Mom spend days going through every scrap of paper that had been filed, stored or otherwise was laying around Grandma's house. Why? Because one innocuous envelope contained $800 in cash (early '70s), quite a nice amount of money (my new Mustang cost $2,600 just a few years earlier so $800 was some real money!) Maureen reported they did not find anymore but knowing they might caused them to inspect every possible nook, cranny, document and envelope!
And for my long-term readers, you know the story of my Mom's stash of money and Mary's stash of...deodorant! Click here for that story.
Ciao
P
No comments:
Post a Comment