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09/17/2004 Entry: "MI-5"

MI-5, Family Flavored. If you'd like to play along, and don't have a website, leave your answers in the comments section here.
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1. Do you have a special relationship with a particular aunt/uncle/cousin? Explain.
This is not about favorites, mind, just about a special bond. My Aunt Ginny and I have always had a special bond. And I have a special bond with my sister (although for the purposes of this question, that's not really what it's about).

2. Currently, who is your oldest living relative with whom you have a significant relationship? That would be Ma. She was born in '26, I think.

3. Who is the oldest relative you can remember? Not some 3rd uncle thrice removed from Calcutta you've never seen, but someone you remember.
Grammy was my father's paternal grandmother. She was 94 when she died I think. I too, like my sister who left the comment, remember how hot she kept her home. She had a wood cookstove in the kitchen, and it seemed like it was always running.Yet the dogs always curled up under it to sleep. Grammy also made gifts for everyone at Christmas time. I think a red afghan she made for me is still kicking around somewheres.

4. Tell us about a particular memory involving a relative older than you.
I remeber this one time I went with Uncle Roger to cut trees on his property in Union on Sennebec lake. Dad had me cut trees behind our house with loping shears, and I was pretty handy clearing brush. So I went with Uncle Rog to help him out. We stopped at South End Exxon, and he bought me a cup of cocoa from the machine. At that point of my life, I had not yet developed the ability to ride in a car with a cup of hot liquid. I ended up getting it everywhere every time he hit a bump in his firmly riding pickup. He gave me his vinyl jacket and spread it on my lap to keep me from suffering any more 2nd degree burns.

5. Tell us a special time spent with a relative younger than you.
Hmm. This is harder than I thought. Nothing really stands out in my mind, though I did have fun with cousins David and Sarah at many BBQs. On Mom's side of the family, all the boys are older, so they don't count in this question, although I do have many memories with KC and Tommy--building tree houses, riding dirt bikes, shooting .22s and stuff. Again, though, they're older.

Replies: 6 people have rocked the mic!

1. Although I don't want to "pick a favorite", I think I really had special relationships with my cousins Lisa and Melanie. We were all about the same age, and grew up right around the corner. We were pretty much always together. Even though we have not been as close as we've grown older (simply because "life just gets in the way" not because of any "falling out"wink, whenever we do get to see each other, it always feels like we've never been that far apart at all. I guess that makes it special.

2. I guess grandmother, Ma, would be my oldest living relative. (No offense, Ma.) Being the first grandchild, and since we lived right next door to each other, I've always liked to think that our relationship is special. We now teach Sunday School together, and I don't know what I'd ever do without her!

3. I guess Grammy Batty would be the oldest relative I remember. She died in her mid-90s, and I have lots of memories about her: how hot her kitchen was, how she would rub the rheumatism out of her dog's legs, how she crocheted afghans and slippers for everyone in the family.

4. I love the memory one time that I had a splinter in my finger. It was when we lived in the trailer, so it must have been around 1971 or so, and I would have been about 3 years old. My grandmother (Ma from #2) had to come over, hold me in the rocking chair and lovingly wrap a blanket around me for comfort while my mother carefully removed the splinter. I remember it like it was yesterday.

5. The first memory that comes to mind is how I taught my cousin Sarah how to be a "Junior Cheerleader" when I was in high school. Aunt Ginny made her a uniform to match mine, and I taught her all my cheers. "Up with victory and down with defeat, Rockland Tigers can't be beat." (I quoted it just for you, my dear brother Bill. I knew you'd want to remember it, too!)

Posted by Lisa @ 09/17/2004 09:34 AM EST

Oops--I somehow got a smiley in there by mistake. I didn't want anyone to think that there was some kind of "hidden meaning" in something I said....Sorry.

Posted by Lisa @ 09/17/2004 09:35 AM EST

Just for the record. Grammydied at 96. She would have been. Now that I think it through, you are right. Sorry for doubting.

Posted by Dad @ 09/18/2004 08:46 AM EST

1. I guess the most special relationship that I have would be with Ashley. He's not really a relative, but I can't remember when he wasn't a major player in my life. He was a second father to me, having lived with my family since I was two until I was sixteen. I thought everybody had two fathers. But...no one can break my heart like Billy. I am so proud of him.

2. My mother is my oldest living relative. She and Aunt Ruth are the only ones left from a family of ten. Aunt Ruth is pretty special too.

3. The oldest relative that I can remember is my maternal grandfather. He was born in 1880. He was known to be a grouchy man, but he always had Milky Ways in the drawer of the table beside his chair. He chewed tobacco. I found that kind of "yucky" as a child...still do.

4. I loved my Aunt Flossie. When she was in her fifties, she got cancer and moved in my grandparents so that they could take care of her. My grandparents claimed that they never fought. One day, Aunt Flossie and I lay on the floor in her room above the kitchen, listening through the grate which connected to the ceiling above Grammie's rocker. They were having a rather heated exchange. We laughed so hard. Then we sneaked down the back stairs and surprised them. You should have seen their faces!

5. I have so many. All of my nieces and nephews have been pretty special. The most recent thing that really sticks in my mind, is lying on the bank at Ma's house with my grandnephew, Eben,then about three, looking for elephants in the clouds. He made me feel young again. By the way, we did see an elephant in addition to a herd of other animals and birds.

Posted by Aunt Ginny @ 09/20/2004 10:06 AM EST

1. Annie Haggett. We shared the same worries about our families. we could relate. Her family was very important to her, as mine is to me.

2. My younger sister Ruth.

3. My grandmother. I was seven when she died. I just remember that she was sick and lived with us. I remember that the day she died, my sisters and brother thought all that extra space was really something. We slid around on the living romm floor, relishing the room we now had.

4. Walking with my brother Roddy down by the Spruce Head bridge and commenting everytime we passed the big rock that it was growing bigger. I think of that still when I pass that rock. I still think it might be growing.

5. I have so many, how do I choose? Two I can remember. Mike hung me a May basket and I had to chase him all over town every year, and Lisa coming over for years to watch the Miss America pageant. She said we had to have cinnamon buns, I think, so I made cinnamon buns. We did this until she got married. This year when I saw it was on, I thought of Lisa.

Posted by Ma @ 09/20/2004 08:17 PM EST

Just so you know, Ma, we still had Cinnamon Buns. That's why I was out in the pouring rain on Saturday--I had forgotten to get them. I made Dwane and Eben eat them, too. (It wasn't hard to convince Dwane that he had to eat them.) Eben even stayed up and watched the entire pageant!

Posted by Lisa @ 09/21/2004 07:04 AM EST

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