Grandma and I are no strangers to pitching fits. When I was a kid, I could get riled up about anything from where we were eating dinner to the disaster of the missing Barbie shoe. Everything shattered the earth and the apocalypse was upon us. I would spend dreary afternoons pouring my soul into my diaries and doing my best Emily Dickinson impression. Turns out my hysterical moods are inherited from Grandma as she was amazingly talented as staging her own productions as well.
"How is the new apartment? Do you like it as well as a house? I suppose when I come home I won't be able to have one my good old tantrums if I want to. Do you know you(r) neighbors as yet?"
Initially I thought that Grandma asked about their new neighbors out of desire for them to have a supportive apartment community. Now I'm thinking she asks so her parents can prepare the new neighbors for my Grandmother's arrival. It is definitely going to be a noisy one.
Grandma received word about her holiday leave form Personnel. It appears her Commanding Officer forgot to share some of the leave guidelines with my Grandma.
"A letter came through yesterday on leaves. It says that not more than 14 days is allowed during the holidays. Well that really puts a crimp in my style. ... I'll be sick if that will be all the time I can have at home after spending all the money to come all that way. I don't know what is going to happen now but I had better get what I want or I will really raise the roof. If that should happen, my only getting 14 days, I will at least have Christmas day at home. I would like to have New Year's Day as well."
It will wake Grandma four days to travel from Miami to Missoula one way. The idea that it would take me that long to travel anywhere is baffling. I flew to Japan and it took me a day and a half. That was around the world not across the country. Thanks to the universe for making air travel so much cheaper than it was back then. If it cost my Grandma nearly $1400 in todays dollars to take a train, I do not want to know what it would have cost her to fly there. I shudder at the expense.
Grandma and I will close this entry the same way she closes this letter. We will introduce a new character in my Grandmother's life in Miami. A fellow Montanan from Flathead, MT is seeking out Grandma's company and trying to share in their love of Montana. Grandma doesn't appreciate her efforts.
"...then I went out and visited that lady. She is a typical person form Flathead. ... She was a great talker and I couldn't get a word in edgewise. So of course you know that went over big with me."
These letters help me understand where some zanier aspects of my personality come from. Grandma was flamboyant and was a wealth of pizzaz. Grandma had so much pizzaz that she gladly bequeathed some of it to me.
The world surely must have seemed bigger back then, everything feeling farther apart and harder to reach than now. It makes your grandmother's adventures all the more impressive!
ReplyDeleteShe never knew it but she was a pretty impressive lady! Thank you!
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