Lunch With The Ladies

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Today I took a break from my daily drudge of domestic duties, writing, entertaining my furry friends and accepted an invitation to have lunch with Mother and Grandmother. Besides getting me out of the house, my mother was kind enough to pay for my lunch and though I did not realize it at the time I would later determine it had been very entertaining.

It amazes me that no matter how hard we try or how hard we fight the genetic makeup we each possess; we all become our parents. This is not, as I imagined earlier in life, a curse but rather a chance to look in mirror we seldom realize is there.

Any who, the thought occurred to me on my drive home how amusing it is to have lunch with two previous generations. My mother a product of the fifties takes pleasure in the simpler things in life and finds the most obscure items to amuse her. Such as free gummy bears for the ride home or like today as she commented; “imagine going through life in that skin?” She was speaking of the gentleman walking to the buffet line and she had a point. The gentleman had the worst mullet I had even see, tattoos on both forearms and in general looked like a throw back from several generations. We both laughed.

My Grandmother on the other hand is a member of the greatest generation as history has it and runs on perception and appearance. What I realized today though was that age changes these perceptions and what would have earlier been a no-no to discuss or comment on is now fair game. Those things as a child I would have been made to apologize for, later in life you get by with. Like mowing over someone’s feet with your walker.

Political correctness is just thrown out the window. People, earlier in life, she would have said needed pity due to their size, are now just fat. Those slightly slow people that use to be special are now “just not right.” It is funny to me listening to the perceptive changes, when I know in her heart what she means. I realized with age you look for the simplest explanation.

I can tell you this with certainty though; having the opportunity to look in that generational mirror I am already planning my fallacies. My walker will most likely be required to have a caution sign, along with a warning beeper and yes, anything I deem not editable I will spit back at you. Cocktails will be at 10 in the morning, it will be “BYOD” bring your own depends and walkers will be chained until the nurse administers the Breathalyzer.


Going UP