More Writing Prompted by.... Someone Else? or Not...

Yes.
This is yet another post that was prompted by...


You guessed it... The Writer's Workshop at Mama Kat's Losin It


I have a ton of topics that I want to write about... 
That I thought up on my own, but...


I just can't seem to get motivated...
to do anything...
at. all.


So... here is a little something based on prompt number...3? for this week...
Enjoy!


3.) Tell us something you learned about a grandparent that surprised you.


So, this is the part where you would expect me to say that I was surprised to learn that my grandmother was a flapper in a speakeasy...
But she wasn't.


Or that my grand dad was a fighter pilot in the war... 
But he wasn't.


I cannot recall when I learned this little tidbit about Grams, but I do remember thinking...
Wowsers!


Apparently, Grams and Granpa got married when Grams was very young. I think I always knew this, but I didn't really KNOW it...
Know what I mean?


Just like I knew that growing up in the hills of Ohio in the 1920's was hard... 
no, it was REALLY hard.


But just how hard I didn't understand.


The story goes that Grams met Granpa at a barn dance. 
They liked one another.
They dated? ( or stepped out or courted, whatever they called it back then...)


Grams and Granpa were married on August 23rd. 
It was Granpa's birthday... his 21st to precise.
Grams' birthday was August 16th.
She was a young girl... he was an older man... guy... boy... 
whatever...



But this is where the story gets ...
let's just say odd, or fuzzy.

Grams was one of many children... My mom would be able to say how many and name them in correct order in a hearbeat... I, alas, am not that good... I have to cheat and look at the family genealogy she wrote to get it right.


So, there were a bunch of kids and Grams was one of the younger ones. Her dad was off working somewhere else... like in another state or a different town because, well, that's where the work was. 
Probably a coal mine or steel mill.


Anyway...and here is the fuzzy part....
the kids were farmed out to families in the area... relatives or not it seems...
because there were too many mouths to feed? 


Apparently this was not an uncommon occurrence back in the day...


And then there was a flood.
And some of the little ones got washed away?
And then there was a fire. 
And some of the little ones perished?


And somehow, someway, someone got Grams mixed up with one of her older sisters?


She grew up believing her birth year was 1920... 
so she got married in 1937... when she was 17... right?


Wrong... evidently when she applied for a Social Security number...
as an adult... 
Mom of 3...
because she needed one for a job...


She was informed that she was born on August 16, 1923...


And if you do the math correctly...
and Granpa REALLY was celebrating his 21st birthday the day they got married...
and Grams REALLY was born in 1923... instead of 1920...


Then they got married 7 days after she turned 14...
Yeah... 
The reason, I was told when I questioned that no one knew she was 3 YEARS YOUNGER!!!, 
is this...


She was always big for her age so she easily passed for one of the older kids who had drowned or perished in the fire or whatever...

although how anyone could have mistaken a 3 year old for a 6 year old...
I don't care how big for her age she was...seriously?


It seems that there is yet another twist to this story...
and again it is, we'll say, fuzzy...


She knew her name was Kathryn Nancy... 
I mean you know your name, right?



But she was wrong! 


Yep, her name was REALLY Nancy Kathryn... 


you know, the one born 3 years later...


but they lost the family bible with the kid's names and birth dates in it...
I don't know, in the fire or the flood or ... whatever... so anyone could have been anyone at that point... 


Is it any wonder that tracking down the family tree is so time consuming???
confusing?
convoluted?


And don't even get me started on the side of the family whose family tree is really a wreath!


I know, right?

Writer's Workshop - Meet My Good Friends...

                              Welcome to another round of Mama Kat's Writer's Workshop!

For those of you not familiar with the Writer's Workshop it is basically a way to get new and perhaps even thought provoking blogging topics out there. Bloggers are encouraged to write a post using one of the topics listed for that week and then link it to the posts other bloggers have made using the same list of topics. Not only does this help to get the proverbial creative juices flowing, but it helps the blogging community to get to know another as well...

So, on to this week's topics of choice... for me, at least!

5.) Name a celebrity you would like to be your "in real life" friend. What makes him or her a perfect match for you?

The crazy thing about this subject is that I really and truly was discussing this just the other day with BratChild and HeMan Hubby... 

and not at the same time, but on 2 separate occasions within the same week..

So, this must really be the topic of which I must blog...

So just who is it that I would like to be my real life friend... celebrity-wise that is?

Well, I already know some real celebrities, but we're not close, at least not any more...

Ask any of my family members who my celeb friends would be and they will tell you straight away without having to take a breath ...

Paula Deen and Rachel Ray, of course! 

Every time I see Paula on TV or in a store display I say, 

"oh, look! It's my good friend Paula Deen!"

Because seriously, you all, if I lived in the Savannah area Paula and I would be friends...

There's just something about her sense of humor and sense of self...

that I admire and somehow make me feel like I could be myself around her and she would still be my friend...

But then, she is a charismatic woman who has made her fortune by making people feel good ... 

albeit with food...

so good in fact that they readily shell out great sums of money for the privilege of eating food prepared by Paula Deen...

I would stop by her house and whip up a batch of cookies or a butter rum cake...

we would discuss the merits of champagne vs. sparkling wine in a Mimosa...

and whether or not there is such a thing as too much rum in / on a rum cake, really?

Now that is a lady that I think I could be great friends with.

Rachel Ray, if I lived in New York, would be my good friend.

I can see she and I sitting on a sofa, in jeans and a raggedy sweat shirt from a university neither of us actually attended, sans socks...

drinking some Yellowtail Merlot or Shiraz from the totally wrong kind of goblet...

while eating popcorn and raisinets...

watching Steel Magnolias or It's a Wonderful Life on an all-day marathon.

We would just hang out and talk about nothing...

and everything...

marriage...

work...

and recipes...

What kind of sauce with calamari?

Remoulade or marinara?

Tempura batter or panko breading on that calamari or catfish bites?

 I think the reason that both of these lovely ladies appeals to me, 

draws me in and makes me feel like they could be my Very Good Friend...

Is that they seem to be exactly what they portray themselves to be...

regular people with regular lives...

who are famous...

who just happen to have found a way to make a living doing something that they love...

just like me...

aside from the famous part...

and minus the making a living doing something that I love part...

Other than that...

My Very Good Friends, Paula Deen and Rachel Ray, and I have a lot in common...

Or at least I think we will...

if we ever actually lived near one another...

and had the chance to hang out together...

and actually had something in common...

Yeah...

THEN we would be the very best of friends! 

All you can eat buffets... what a way to go

So, since my gall bladder was removed...
In December...

I just can't eat much of anything with any sense of security.

So what do I do?

I go to the All You Can Eat seafood buffet.

Yeah, probably not the best idea I have ever had but...
One can only eat so much Progresso light chicken noodle soup and Chobani yogurt.

One would think that after the attempt to eat out last month...
the one where I did not make it home fast enough...

I would learn my lesson.

And, in a way, I guess I did.

Now I only eat at restaurants within 5 miles of my house.

So... I sit here wishing I could go to bed because I am exhausted...
But my tummy troubles won't let me.

The lesson I should have learned is probably to stick to chicken soup and yogurt and relish the weight loss that has resulted from this very strict diet...

But similar to the pains of childbirth...
the memory of the pain and inconvenience of tonight's dining experience...
and the resulting 5 hours of misery...
will soon fade into the recesses of my aging brain and be forgotten...

and I will once again attempt to eat real food...

Hopefully, it won't be for a very long time...
gotta run!