“Is it not delightful to have friends come from afar?”” Confucius
“Since we are not solely material creatures, it is a mistake to place all our hopes for happiness on external development alone. The key is to develop inner peace.” Dalai Lama
I was bouncing around You Tube the other day when I came across a song that I hadn’t heard before called “Tell My Father” being sung by John Barrowman. You can find it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bl2izLPgwv0&feature=related . I happen to be a fan of his and I have his Broadway CD and his Andrew Lloyd Weber one on order. I love musical theater and I love this man’s voice and the fact you can understand the lyrics when he sings. The thing that surprised me however was the fact that this song actually made me think of a woman when I heard it. I was thinking of my maternal Grandmother Una Mae Hughes. The connection was the Civil War.
I think my grandmother has to be one of the biggest characters I have ever met. She only had a third grade education. She married young and had ten children not all of who lived to be adults. She was headstrong, opinionated and loved to talk. My mother would talk about when grandmother and her sisters would get together and all three would talk at the same time each proclaiming it was her turn to talk.
I tried to keep in touch with Grandma when she was alive. I wrote her frequently and called her on the phone all though conversations were not the most accurate description of the phone calls. It was more like I got in “Hello Grandma” and then listened for the rest of the time. I loved to do stitchery and she had a space over her desk where she hung the various framed stitchery pieces that I had made her. I tended to go towards ones with flowers since she loved flowers. She was so proud of those and showed them off to everyone who came by.
One thing Grandma was so proud of was her Dad who fought in the Civil War as a Yankee. Grandma maintained a prejudice against the South and Johnny Rebel gray until the day she died. Her children paid extra to make sure she was buried in a blue casket. I think they were afraid that if they buried her in a gray one that she would come back and haunt them. Of course the history about the Civil War and Grandma’s version didn’t always mesh. She told someone after watching “The Blue and the Gray” that the rebel part was all right but the Yankee part was different because her daddy was there and he was an Admiral. Being from land locked Indiana that of course wasn’t true he was actually a Private in the Army but Grandma wasn’t one for letting facts get in the way of a good story.
Grandma was a life long Republican and anything that happened that she didn’t like was the Democrat’s fault. She complained once that the neighbor’s Democrat dog kept her awake with his barking. When asked how she knew the dog was a Democrat she replied, “it has a big mouth doesn’t it?” As in the Civil War she never let logic or facts get in the way. I don’t think she ever realized that her favorite son-in-law, my Dad, was a life long registered Democrat and I didn’t tell her I was one.
Grandma had her faults but she loved her grandchildren. She had mellowed considerably when we came along. She was funny and to this day she brings a smile to my face.
“Since we are not solely material creatures, it is a mistake to place all our hopes for happiness on external development alone. The key is to develop inner peace.” Dalai Lama
I was bouncing around You Tube the other day when I came across a song that I hadn’t heard before called “Tell My Father” being sung by John Barrowman. You can find it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bl2izLPgwv0&feature=related . I happen to be a fan of his and I have his Broadway CD and his Andrew Lloyd Weber one on order. I love musical theater and I love this man’s voice and the fact you can understand the lyrics when he sings. The thing that surprised me however was the fact that this song actually made me think of a woman when I heard it. I was thinking of my maternal Grandmother Una Mae Hughes. The connection was the Civil War.
I think my grandmother has to be one of the biggest characters I have ever met. She only had a third grade education. She married young and had ten children not all of who lived to be adults. She was headstrong, opinionated and loved to talk. My mother would talk about when grandmother and her sisters would get together and all three would talk at the same time each proclaiming it was her turn to talk.
I tried to keep in touch with Grandma when she was alive. I wrote her frequently and called her on the phone all though conversations were not the most accurate description of the phone calls. It was more like I got in “Hello Grandma” and then listened for the rest of the time. I loved to do stitchery and she had a space over her desk where she hung the various framed stitchery pieces that I had made her. I tended to go towards ones with flowers since she loved flowers. She was so proud of those and showed them off to everyone who came by.
One thing Grandma was so proud of was her Dad who fought in the Civil War as a Yankee. Grandma maintained a prejudice against the South and Johnny Rebel gray until the day she died. Her children paid extra to make sure she was buried in a blue casket. I think they were afraid that if they buried her in a gray one that she would come back and haunt them. Of course the history about the Civil War and Grandma’s version didn’t always mesh. She told someone after watching “The Blue and the Gray” that the rebel part was all right but the Yankee part was different because her daddy was there and he was an Admiral. Being from land locked Indiana that of course wasn’t true he was actually a Private in the Army but Grandma wasn’t one for letting facts get in the way of a good story.
Grandma was a life long Republican and anything that happened that she didn’t like was the Democrat’s fault. She complained once that the neighbor’s Democrat dog kept her awake with his barking. When asked how she knew the dog was a Democrat she replied, “it has a big mouth doesn’t it?” As in the Civil War she never let logic or facts get in the way. I don’t think she ever realized that her favorite son-in-law, my Dad, was a life long registered Democrat and I didn’t tell her I was one.
Grandma had her faults but she loved her grandchildren. She had mellowed considerably when we came along. She was funny and to this day she brings a smile to my face.
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