Area man's extended family finds blog

¡AY DIOS MIO, CHILLING EFFECT! I hope they don't find out about that one time with the balloon animals, horse tranquilizer, and jellied cranberries...

It was a terrific trip out to SD with a big passel of family. The touristy bits went much as I thought they would, from banal to breathtaking. The day up on the prairie was touching beyond all expectations. Short story: Grandma and a classmate were reunited after nearly 80 years.

Sharing close quarters with 16 of anyone, let alone kin, can have its problems, but that all went quite well. Actually it helped disavow me of a bit of recurring paranoia, which requires a bit of explanation. A big thing I'm indebted to my grandmother for is not anything she did for me, but how she treated my mom upon the coming-out. There is the way you'd expect someone of the old school to take such news, and the way you'd want a mother to take it. Meanwhile, the political and religious spectrum of my aunts and uncles is quite wide, and things were touchy there for a time. Whether she meant to or not, Grandma set the tone, that there are more important things than dogma. So my paranoia, popping in on occasion, was that the acceptance of mom & bonus mom was facile. I'm reminded of the Godfather movies, where Michael protects Fredo as long as Mama Corleone lives. But watching their interactions en masse and for a longer period than previously afforded, I'm convinced it's all genuine.


And finally, the quote of the week:
"Things were really bad when you got down to the shiny pages of the Sears catalog." --Grandma on the lack of modern...erm...niceties.