Friday, January 22, 2010

When I was a kid it seemed like I had a million aunts and uncles. My father's mother Nana was one of ten children, five boys and five girls. The aunts were: Aunt Sadie, who lived to be 84. I have a note from her at age 80 when she was still working, watching three children. I had sent her a Christmas picture of the kids and she said she had red hair like Ria when she was a kid. Aunt Sadie always remembered our birthdays. A card carrying a dime would arrive right on time. She lived in Connecticut so we didn't see much of her, but you could always count on that card and that dime. Aunt Mae lived in Glenham, married to Mitt Moseman with three boys. She was a tiny woman with a gray bun, always wearing an apron, and most often sitting in front of the tv watching wrestling. Aunt Gert shared my twin sisters birthday, so every year she would come to their party, with TWO store bought cakes. Gert died young of cancer. Aunt Mina lived in California, so I don't remember even meeting her. I had even forgotten her name and that now Kathleen's granddaughter is named Mina, I find that interesting. The Uncles are less memorable, one died before I was even born. But I do remember stories about Uncle Sam and Uncle Teddy. These were just my father's aunts and uncles on his mother's side.

Nana had five children, Daddy, Joe who died young, Uncle Ed who died last year at 96 and two girls, Aunt El and Aunt Grace. Aunt El was my favorite aunt, made wonderful toll house cookies and gave beautiful gifts for all the holidays. Aunt Grace lived on Long Island, but later moved to Glenham so I got to know her better. She had her last two children, girls, late in life. At 41 years she had Margaret and at 45 she had Ellie. She was very cheerful, with a big smile and lived to be 84.

My Grandmother had a brother Joe, Great Uncle Joe that lived in the city. When we visited him and his wife Rose we were warned to be quiet because Uncle Joe had been gassed in the war, MUSTARD gas, which we thought was kind of funny. Her sister Mary lived in the city too, was custodian for an apartment building, lived in a basement apartment. I remember visiting and not seeing a handle to flush the toilet with. My mother showed me a string hanging from the ceiling that you pulled. Aunt Mary was a good cook. I remember her creamed potatoes with dill. Aunt Anna lived in New Jersey, married to Uncle Arnold. When they visited they would bring their dog, a little dachsund and Uncle Arnold would be told to go climb up Mount Beacon while the sisters talked. There was another sister Julia, but she lived in Arizona I believe so I only heard about her and saw pictures of her as a beautiful young woman.

Poppy had a sister Pauline that lived nearby, and Mrs. Pipi (we called her Mrs Peepa or Peepot) who lived in the city. There were two brothers, Uncle Steve and Uncle Cy but I can't remember them. Mrs. Peepa also was a good cook, and I remember eating golden rice at her house. How does it get this color? someone asked and the answer was goose fat. Delicious.

Bucky had two brothers, Uncle Joe who married Aunt Rose. Aunt Rose was from an Italian family, a good cook, and put up with Uncle Joe's antics, with just a shake of her head, and an "oh Joe". Uncle Eddie married Aunt Muriel. She was from Montreal and spoke French and wore makeup and fancy clothes. She drank wine and smoked cigarettes and called him Ed Dee and he called her Mur EE ALE. They lived in Vermont and then moved to Florida, where for the past fifteen years or so I would visit them on our Florida trips. Aunt Muriel wore a hearing aid and Uncle Eddie would hollar at her...."turn it down, Mur EE ALE. You're buzzing".

So that's my aunts and uncles. I probably forgot some, but my point is that at one time, and it doesn't seem that long ago, I had aunts and uncles a plenty. Yesterday my Uncle Ed died in Florida. This leaves me with one uncle, Uncle Joe who is 90 and lives in Beacon and Aunt Alice who was married to my father's brother and is almost 90.

My kids still call my sisters and brother with the title Aunt or Uncle and John O'Leary, my godson at age 50 still addresses me as Aunt Linda. Aunts and Uncles are so special, and play such a part in our lives, but few books are written about them (oh there's Auntie Mame) and they are kind of the unsung heros and heroines of our families. Playing the role of our father or mother's sisters and brothers, they help complete the family picture. Rest in peace Uncle Eddie.
Rest in peace all of you.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

OK, let me report to you on The Eskimo Twins. When I first started to reread it, I was reading as a cynical, feminist - the first chapter introduces the twins, Menie and Monnie, (Monnie is the girl) and to quote: "They would have thought it luckier still if Monnie had been a boy, too, because boys grow up to hunt and fish and help get food for the family." I snarled, "No wonder I have no self esteem, brought up in an Irish Catholic family, one of five daughters whose father used to say, "in China they drown baby girls" and then I had to read this garbage to reinforce my feminine worthlessness." Oh, I was hard on Lucy Fitch Perkins.

Then I started to read it for the story, so what if the women had to pull the dead bear back into town. So what...women have been cleaning up messes that men started forever and will be doing it forever. So what if the medicine man is a pain-in-the-ass that uses his power to control the villagers (there are only five families) and gets to keep the best pieces of the kills. He's so fat he gets stuck in the tunnel leading into Monnie's igloo. The kids know he's a phony..Menie says, to his mother, If the Angakok (medicine man, leader, whatever) can go anywhere he wants to, why couldn't he get out of the tunnel?" Like the kid exclaiming the Emperor has no clothes on, Menie wasn't taken in by the old liar. Maybe Lucy was telling us to question authority.

The story starts in the winter, dark all the time, then it becomes summer and the whole village climbs into the Woman Boats and goes to a green, grassy, flower filled valley, where the salmon are spawning. They pack everything they own into these boats (kind of like us going to Cape Cod) and set up tents there and fish and hunt and play for four months. Their lives are so simple, without night and day, they just call the passage of time "sleeps" - five sleeps ago this happened or two sleeps ago that happened. And the love and care they have for each other is heartwarming, each sharing what they have, each pulling his own load with an eye out for their neighbor at all times.

Back in their winter home, the mother tellls the children, "The Giants are always waiting before the igloo and we must work very hard to keep them outside" - and they know she doesn't really mean giants, she means the Hunger and Want are always waiting to seize the Eskimo who doesn't work all the time to provide for himself and his family. Now that's a lesson we have not learned or taken to heart. What's in it for me? How can I beat the system? Never heard or thought of from an Eskimo.

So, all in all, I am still happy with the Eskimo Twin book, maybe I even enjoyed it more than 60 years ago. And today, it even hit 34 degrees, first day above freezing - and you know what? it's even lighter earlier. Cape Cod here we come.

Monday, January 4, 2010

Sunday, yesterday, was the fourth day in a row that I didn't go out of the house, just once next door to Sabra's and a trip to the Tivoli Thrift Shop on Saturday. But no car out of the garage. Yesterday it started to get to me. I looked at all the Christmas curios (junk) in the window and thought only of clutter. I looked at the manger scene on the nearby table and thought "that looks more like an oversold rock festival than a manger scene". (I can't resist buying more and more manger figures, there are about 5 Marys and the Wise Men are a crowd, not three.) Anyway, I guess that is what "Cabin Fever" does to you- you get sick of your surroundings.

When I was a kid going to the Howland Library the children's section was way in the corner, you had to pull a cord to get the light to go on so you could find a book. At one time I was hooked on the Twin Series, 26 books by Lucy Fitch Perkins (1865-1937). She wrote about twins around the world, The Irish Twins, The Dutch Twins, Japanese, Mexican, even cave twins. The twins were almost always a girl and a boy (one time they were both boys) and I got drawn into their worlds, so different from mine. The book I loved the best was the "Eskimo Twins", the girl was Monnie and the boy was Mennie. They lived in an igloo, freezing cold, dark half of the year and yet they had the best times....playing in the snow, tracking polar bears, jumping on a fur skin held by the men in the village. I loved their life and wanted to be an Eskimo. A typical scene in the igloo would feature their mother sitting in a corner, making a needle out of a whale bone, their grandmoter chewing on a fur to tenderize it....God it was so exciting.

I just looked up the author, that's why I have that little bit of information, and her books were reprinted in the early 2000's. Then I checked the Tivoli Library, and sure enough, there was the Eskimo twins, so I requested it, and will let everybody know if it still has the appeal that it did 60 years ago. Also, it just might make me appreciate the winter a little bit more.