dual personalities

Category: family

December 22, 2015

Flyover good times

by chuckofish

“He saw clearly how plain and simple – how narrow, even – it all was; but clearly, too, how much it all meant to him, and the special value of some such anchorage in one’s existence. He did not at all want to abandon the new life and its splendid spaces, to turn his back on sun and air and all they offered him and creep home and stay there; the upper world was all too strong, it called to him still, even down there, and he knew he must return to the larger stage. But it was good to think he had this to come back to, this place which was all his own, these things which were so glad to see him again and could always be counted upon for the same simple welcome.” (Kenneth Graham, The Wind in the Willows)

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Hope you are enjoying your countdown to Christmas! Try to slow it down and enjoy the simple things.

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December 18, 2015

“A flock of blessings light upon thy back.”*

by chuckofish

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Today is the birthday of my dear dual personality! I wish her peace on earth, good health and tickets to the Star Wars movie!

Ha ha.

They say the movie is worth seeing, but I say ho hum.

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I can wait. A long time.

Anyway, to get back to my sister’s birthday, we are having a little party tonight for some of daughter #2’s friends who are in town for a wedding. But I will be thinking of my dual personality and wishing she were here laughing it up with me.

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Dual personalities festively attired in red and green circa 1983

I’ll be toasting her and sending my love.

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In other news: daughter #1 arrives on Saturday! Hope she bundles up for the trip home!

*Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

3 Comments
December 3, 2015

“Every Christmas it’s the same. I always end up playing a shepherd.”*

by chuckofish

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Well, as they say, it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

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Lots of old friends are showing up.

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I’m sure it’s the same at your house, right?

I watched A Charlie Brown Christmas the other night, but not the 50th Anniversary Special which was un-watchable. I mean I tried, but woof. As always, I enjoyed A Charlie Brown Christmas which I was no doubt watching for the 50th time!

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Indeed, I remember watching it for the first time 50 years ago and loving it so much. All my friends watched it. I became a huge Peanuts fan after that. I had a lot of Peanuts stuff.

I insisted on reading the book aloud at our family Christmas Eve celebration the next year (everyone read something) and annoyed my older brother by trying to read in the voices of the kids on the television special. He was extremely intolerant of me in this respect. I felt his judgement keenly. (I was in the fifth grade and he was a cool tenth grader.)

Siblings. How do we survive the judgement of our older siblings? (Well, I guess my dual personality can tell you.) That was the last year we had our family reading and sing-along on Christmas Eve. Our older brother went to a party at his girlfriend’s house the following year, and was always busy elsewhere after that.

C’est la vie. Funnily enough, I think our brother resurrected this tradition for his own family. I’m sure they never read A Charlie Brown Christmas.

*Shermy in A Charlie Brown Christmas

7 Comments
November 30, 2015

The days are surely coming

by chuckofish

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Advent is here, can you believe it?

This lovely long weekend I celebrated Thanksgiving with the boy’s in-laws, went to a “Rock N Roll” craft fair in terra incognita,  “shopped local” and online, bought my evergreen wreath from the local Boy Scout troop, and got out all my Christmas decorations. I also got some decorations up, but I have a long way to go. The boy came over for his birthday dinner (honey mustard chicken) and put up our outside Christmas lights–yay!

I went to church–Advent I–and we were warned:

“And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and upon the earth distress of nations in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves, 26 men fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world; for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 27 And then they will see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. 28 Now when these things begin to take place, look up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”

We didn’t sing this hymn, but I wish we had. You go, Charles Wesley!

And now–back to the salt mines.

5 Comments
November 27, 2015

Omnes grandinem puer!*

by chuckofish

Tomorrow is the boy’s birthday.

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The boy with the OM in their denim phase

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The boy in overalls and camo boots with his uncle and sister

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The boy wearing badges

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The boy’s the one on the right.

It may be true that “Most young men are such bores. They haven’t lived long enough to learn that they are not the wonders to the world they are to their mothers.” (L.M. Montgomery)

Well,Screen Shot 2015-11-25 at 4.42.43 PMI still think you’re pretty cool.

Have a great birthday and here’s mud in your eye!

*All hail the boy!

7 Comments
November 25, 2015

Swiftly fly the years

by chuckofish

As you know, we are a family that loves our traditions. For the last twenty-five or so years, we have watched Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987) every Thanksgiving.

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We will happily watch it this year.

We will watch (some of) the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade and probably Miracle on 34th Street (1947) at some point over the weekend.

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We might watch The Wizard of Oz (1939) which, when I was growing up, was always shown on television the night of Thanksgiving.

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We are not a family that brings out the musical instruments when everyone is gathered. (Sadly, we can’t do that.) And we don’t play games. We tend to open up the DVD cabinet. À chacun son goût.

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We will also celebrate the boy’s birthday this weekend and marvel at how that little tyke grew up into a fine young man.

Ah, sunrise, sunset!

Oy.

2 Comments
November 13, 2015

Have a nice weekend

by chuckofish

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Middle age is when you’re sitting at home on a Saturday night and the telephone rings and you hope it isn’t for you.  ~Ogden Nash

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Maybe I’ll see what the boy’s up to.

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What are you up to?

8 Comments
October 29, 2015

Running [a few] red lights on Memory Lane*

by chuckofish

It almost being Halloween, I thought I’d share a picture of the costume that epitomized the zenith of our mother’s costume-making endeavors.

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In 1956 she made a Donald Duck costume for our older brother without a pattern and without all the add-ons that are readily available today. I think she even made the hat/mask. She poured all of her not negligible creative powers and seamstress-y talent into it. It was not easy to do and she was very proud of it.

I hope our brother was proud to wear it. Does he look proud? Somehow I think he would have preferred to have been armed and dangerous and Davey Crockett.

I hope our mother received lots of high-fives. Doubtful. This was mid-century California after all where I’m sure those newfangled rayon-taffeta store-bought costumes were all the rage.

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A few years later she made a pretty awesome black cat costume for my brother and a clown costume for  me.

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But after that, she was done (except for a witch costume which we used for-ever after.)

Well, Sic transit gloria mundi…

On another note–happy birthday and a toast to Dan Castellaneta, who has voiced the character of Homer Simpson on The Simpsons for 28 seasons. Zut alors. Or should I say:

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“Everyone knows rock n’ roll attained perfection in 1974; It’s a scientific fact.”

–Homer, aka the OM

*Dire Straights, Telegraph Road

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October 26, 2015

Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah

by chuckofish

My oh my what a wonderful time in flyover land we’ve had while daughter #1 has been in town!

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Here she is wearing a vintage ensemble put together from items unearthed from the back of her childhood closet.

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We went to an estate sale, ate out, checked out the new IKEA store (where I bought some more stemless wine glasses), blew a fuse when simultaneously blow-drying our hair, went to church, took multiple walks, went to Ted Drewes, shopped,  updated my iPhone and synched it with my laptop, bar-b-qued with the boy and daughter #3 and watched more old home movies, and generally displaced the OM who didn’t grumble too much.

Sadly, she heads back to NYC tomorrow on the 5:55 a.m. flight, because all good things, as they say, must come to an end.

Sigh.

4 Comments
October 16, 2015

“I’ll be the boy in the corduroy pants, you be the girl at the high school dance”*

by chuckofish

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This weekend the OM and I will celebrate our 35th wedding anniversary.

What crazy kids, eh?

*Tom Petty

5 Comments