Ladies Who Lunch

Last week, I volunteered to chauffeur my 70-year-old mother to see three of her sisters and two nieces.  I do this because my mom got a Tom Tom a couple of years ago and she would follow that thing into a lake if it told her to.  I sent her to B-town to get varnish one time and she wound up a 1/2 hour south of her destination on interstate.  Hence, I felt it would be best for all if I took her up to meet up with her family. 

My mom comes from a family of 11 kids.  One sibling died very young and the remaining children could not be more different.  Well, they are alike in some ways.  They are all very smart and witty and pragmatic but some are about as left-wing, tree-hugging, Barack supporting as you can get while others are Rush Limbaugh, Christian Coalition, outraged conservative as you can get.  They have collectively agreed that political discussions are off limits but they do like to needle each other from time to time. 

My favorite part is when they start discussing people they grew up with.  We used to look through my mom's yearbook and laugh at the funny names like "Charlie Sparrow" and "Crafton Meeker".  On this particular lunch date, I distinctly remember the names "Bobby Snicker" and someone named "Catfish" surfacing in the conversation.  I wanted to jump in and ask if he was named Catfish for how looked or how he smelled but didn't want to interrupt the entertainment that was fully in progress. 

I love all my aunts...no matter how different they are from one another or from me.  Sometimes I think I inherited more of their traits then I did my mom's.  My mom takes worrying to an Olympic sport level whereas I figure God is bigger than anything so no reason to sweat.  My mom is so careful to not say a cross word or offend anyone.  I stomp on toes (some unintentionally) more often than I care to admit and am generally a rather sarcastic broad.  But I am like my mom in that I will champion for the underdog and can type at the speed of light. 

So, without further ado, I give you:

My Aunt Dot - Designer Dottie - always in the designer labels and with perfectly manicured hands.  I used to pretend I had Aunt Dot nails and would rub my ring finger and thumb together like she used to do.  We got her hand-me-downs when I was growing up and opening the package from her always caused a delicious scent of her perfume to waft through the air. 

My Aunt Jan - Feisty Jan - she had to be feisty with that many older siblings!  She's a writer and master gardener and likes to bait my mom...like any little sister should do. 

My Mom - you can read about her above.  If I ever take up stand-up comedy, I will owe a lot of stories to being raised with the mother I have.  Much love, Mom, if you are reading this. 

My Aunt Ada - the Motherly Ada.  She was the oldest girl in family and no one has a cross word about Ada.  She always has this regal bearing about her - may have something to do with the fact that she was the tallest of all her sisters. 

I don't have a great ending for this blog post.  So I will just sign off instead...