Since When?

Since when did I become OLD???  A couple of things have occurred in my life just recently to beg the question.

Exhibit A:

I now sport an Lily Munster-inspired grey silver stripe in my hair!!  Since when did my hair colour NOT cover it??  I need a word with my hairdresser.....  And my Mother, whom I believe sports the same fashion statement......

Exhibit B:

I have a bevy of medications and supplements to supplement my breakfast.  This makes me think of my grandparents, and watching them, as a child, line up their tablets next to their cereal bowls.  Oh dear....

Whenever we made the trip to Port Macquarie to visit my grandparents, my sister and I would share one of the spare bedrooms.  With its springy mattresses and beautiful timber bedheads, divine old wardrobes and dozens of clocks (my Pop made grandfather clocks), we would settle in for our stay. 

Each and every morning, my Poppy would totter in to their bedroom with a pot of tea for my Grandma.  He was besotted with her til the day he died, and vice versa.  This memory brings a smile to my face.  He would also give her a hug and kiss, and every now and then - a gentle little grab of her behind!

These memories give me hope - hope that even when I AM OLD, I will still be young at heart!

Anything making you feel old?  Do you have memories of oldies to light up your face?

How to Say Goodbye?

This weekend past was one worth treasuring.  Both of my boys played their first games of basketball, Cadyn was a superstar, and revelled in every minute.  Lochie, at the age of 13, was a little anxious, but held his own on the court and made me proud that he was starting a sport when most other boys had played for years.  My girls made me smile as we talked about sleepovers and friends.  Sunday brought a family outing to Ikea, and excitement at the changes that were happening around us - new house, which means new bedrooms.  New school, which means new friendships.  And to top off this wonderful weekend, my husband and I headed out to gold class for a hilarious movie - "The Dictator".

The end of the movie brought some relief - my bladder could not take any more laughing.  But it also brought tears - as we were told that my husband's beautiful Nanna had passed away.

We were not surprised, she had been sleeping this past week, and we had been given the week to reflect on her 93 years of life.  But it still stung.  Seeing my Mother in Law surrounded by her three boys made me smile, after the tears. 

The predicament I find myself in now, is how to say goodbye?  Not for myself, but for my children?  Chelsea, all of nine years old, crawled on to my lap last night and cried for her Great-grandmother.  They had a special bond, being that she was born on the same date as Nanna - only 84 years later.  As I looked through photographs last night I noted that each birthday we had celebrated with Nanna was captured with Chelsea blowing out the candles.  This year was no different.  Only four weeks ago we all gathered for a celebratory lunch and Chelsea blew out Nanna's candles.

As preparations are being made to farewell the "Matriarch" of the family, I am debating whether our children should attend her funeral?  DO children attend funerals?  Do I give them the choice to attend or do we just make the decision for them?  Although I know it will inevitably be sad - I also think that 93 years of amazing living is one to celebrate.

What would you do?

Nanna  

10.5.1919 - 3.6.2012

Another Nanna Post

You may have read this is some form, somewhere, somehow on some sort of technological gadget, but I only received this via email today.  So, sticking to my seemingly Nanna-like behaviour of late, I am going to share it with you.  It literally made me laugh out loud.  I am also going to copy and paste it on to the 13 year old's Facebook and may even "tag" all of his friends in it?  Or would that make me REALLY look like a Nanna?  Enjoy....

  

   
   "If you are 36, or older, you might think this is hilarious!

When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious diatribes about how hard things were. When they were growing up; what with walking twenty-five miles to school every morning.... Uphill... Barefoot... BOTH ways...yadda, yadda, yadda 

And I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was no way in hell I was going to lay a bunch of crap like that on my kids about how hard I had it and how easy they've got it!

But now that I'm over the ripe old age of forty (PLEASE NOTE - THIS IS THE ORIGINAL AUTHOR OF THIS - NOT MEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!), I can't help but look around and notice the youth of today.  You've got it so easy!  I mean, compared to my childhood, you live in a damn Utopia!  And I hate to say it, but you kids today, you don't know how good you've got it! 

1) I mean, when I was a kid we didn't have the Internet.  If we wanted to know something, we had to go to the damn library and look it up ourselves, in the card catalogue!! (how many of you know the Dewey Decimal System???

2) There was no email!!  We had to actually write somebody a letter - with a pen!  Then you had to walk all the way across the street and put it in the mailbox, and it would take like a week to get there!  Stamps were 10 cents!

3) Child Protective Services didn't care if our parents beat us.  As a matter of fact, the parents of all my friends also had permission to kick our ass! Nowhere was safe!

4) There were no MP3's or Napsters or iTunes!  If you wanted to steal music, you had to hitchhike to the record store and shoplift it yourself!

5) Or you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio, and the DJ would usually talk over the beginning and @#*% it all up!  There were no CD players!  We had tape decks in our car.  We'd play our favourite tape and "eject" it when finished, and then the tape would come undone rendering it useless.  Cause, hey, that's how we rolled, Baby!  Dig?

6) We didn't have fancy crap like Call Waiting!  If you were on the phone and somebody else called, they got a busy signal, that's it!

7) There weren't any freakin' cell phones either. If you left the house, you just didn't make a damn call or receive one. You actually had to be out of touch with your "friends". OH MY GOSH !!!  Think of the horror... not being in touch with someone 24/7!!!  And then there's TEXTING.  Yeah, right.  Please!  You kids have no idea how annoying you are.

8) And we didn't have fancy Caller ID either! When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was!  It could be your school, your parents, your boss, your bookie, your drug dealer, the collection agent... you just didn't know!!!  You had to pick it up and take your chances, mister!

9) We didn't have any fancy PlayStation or Xbox video games with high-resolution 3-D graphics!  We had the Atari 2600!  With games like 'Space Invaders' and 'Asteroids'.  Your screen guy was a little square!  You actually had to use your imagination!!!  And there were no multiple levels or screens, it was just one screen.. Forever!  And you could never win.  The game just kept getting harder and harder and faster and faster until you died!  Just like LIFE!

10) You had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what was on! You were screwed when it came to channel surfing!  You had to get off your ass and walk over to the TV to change the channel!!!  NO REMOTES!!!  Oh, no, what's the world coming to?!?!

11) There was no Cartoon Network either! You could only get cartoons on Saturday Morning.  Do you hear what I'm saying? We had to wait ALL WEEK for cartoons, you spoiled little rat-bastards!

12) And we didn't have microwaves.  If we wanted to heat something up, we had to use the stove!  Imagine that!

13) And our parents told us to stay outside and play... all day long.  Oh, no, no electronics to soothe and comfort.  And if you came back inside... you were doing chores!

14) And car seats - oh, please!  Mom threw you in the back seat and you hung on.  If you were lucky, you got the "safety arm" across the chest at the last moment if she had to stop suddenly, and if your head hit the dashboard, well that was your fault for calling "shot gun" in the first place!

See!  That's exactly what I'm talking about! You kids today have got it too easy. You're spoiled rotten!  You guys wouldn't have lasted five minutes back in the 1970's   or any time before!

Regards,
The Over 40 Crowd"

Relate much?  Or are you a young whipper-snapper whom this makes absolutely no sense to?