“I quit smoking like that, cold turkey,” said my grandpa. “I was working at the A&P, polishing the floors at night and sometimes we’d have some beers. I used to smoke cigarettes but I switched to cigars because the smoke wouldn’t get in my eyes. They were longer, you know. One night I bought a box of cigars and I was sick, I had a touch of the flu. I lit one and it made me sick.”
“I can’t stand that, what, rust, blood, in a can. What’s that?” said my grandma. She had a stroke last year and her words are screwy.
“Blood?” I said.
“Beer?” says my sister.
“Yeah,” my grandma says.
“I gave out all my cigars to all the guys I worked with,” my grandpa said. “Those guys, they said I was foolish. That I would just buy a box of cigars the next day. But they were wrong. I never smoked again.”
“I can’t abide by that stuff,” my grandma said. “You know, I know what I’m saying but I just can’t say it right. The rust, the blood in a can.”
“Yeah, I know what you’re saying , Grandma,” I said.
“We’re sorry we gave you back to your mom,” they said. They raised me until I was five.
It all turned out for the best, I said.
In Other News
A wonderfully written, and long essay about why public schools suck my ass.
Cheap dinners:
Mix two cans of tuna, sauteed onions, a can of cream of whatever soup, a handful of those crunchy canned onion thingies, and half a bag of frozen peas with a bag of cooked egg noodles. Add cream, milk, sour cream if you have it. Bake. Sprinkle with more crunchy noodle thingies and bake a few minutes more.
And: bake a can of chili over a block of cream cheese until bubbly. Dip chips into it – eat with salsa.
If you aren’t sick of your chickens eggs yet, bake yellow squash and zucchini in the oven drizzled with some oil and spices, serve with fried eggs, tortillas, salsa. Wrap.
We are always broke…..
See, that sounds, good, but it also sounds like what I was raised on. It’s Thai food for me, I think.
why put peas in casseroles? I’ve always wondered that. Take something yummy like tuna and ruin it with little green things that are hard to pick out! Is it to make the casserole go further or to make it more nutritous? I can’t stand those little squishy green things.
It seems that you are going through a rough time. I know words won’t make it better, but I wish there was a way to wiggle my nose and take away some of the stuff that is so hard. I’m seeing this in many blogs, people are having a hard time. And I wish it weren’t so.
:)
Peas are the best veggies, ever. I loves me some peas.
Is your Nanna always so surreal? I think it’s poetic, sort of beautiful but very sad, too. I love your Nanna.
Yes, there are many tangents now. Always.
This reminds me a lot of the conversations I had with my Nana and my Grandma. It is a sweet story in its own way…I like the part about giving you back to your mom (I lived with my grandparents for my toddlerhood.) I think maybe she wasn’t saying anything about your mom but that she missed you when they gave you back? Her mistakes make sense in a weird way.
I probably would’ve thought your grandma was referring to Irish stout. It’s to do with its iron content, like blood and rust.
But I do hope your grandma’s continuing to recover from her stroke. It must get so frustrating to try to express what you’re thinking, but have your own brain mangle it up for you.
No, she was making a comment about my mom. She is a bad mom.
do public schools only suck YOUR ass, or are other asses involved too?