Monday, March 02, 2009

Fun Monday # 105 Mothers and daughters!



Jo over at Chocolate and Other Things is our hostess this week; she says

March 2nd is my Mom's birthday and was her mother's birthday as well. For this week's Fun Monday, tell me something fun about your mother and/or her mother. What fun, weird, laughable memories do you have of your Mom or your Grandma?

I'm not quite playing by the rules.....this is my mother as a 2 year old.Below is a picture of me (about 10 months) with my mother. Not sure I can see any resemblance! Apparently I just got up and walked across the room at 11 months- my mother says she never allowed me to crawl because the floor was stone and she worried I would hurt my knees! I then ran everywhere- no wonder I was making up for lost time. Isn't there something quite important about the crawling stage of development! I wish this photo had been in colour because my mother had wonderful deep auburn hair.
The picture below is of my mother with Taffy, a rescue dog we had back in the 50's. I have used this in a previous FM memories post so sorry if you've seen it before.
Taffy loved sitting on my mother's knee when she settled down for a nap. My mother would sit under this old eiderdown, that my father brought back from India after the war, even when temperatures were really high. We could never understand it, but she has always felt cold! The Photo below is of my mother's mother. Sadly I never really knew my granny very well. We did visit her when we were young and I remember these visits very clearly. One thing that really sticks in my mind (I was about 7 at the time) is the fact that in the outside privy (they lived in a cottage in the middle of a wood) there was no toilet paper but just neat squares of newspaper. Now that's what I call recycling!
My granny died when she was 57 and she came to live with us for her final weeks. My brother and I were never really told she was ill (Bright's Disease) and we were forbidden to go into the sitting room where she had a bed. Being curious kids we used to creep in sometimes and I think she was pleased to see us. Then suddenly we came back from school and she was gone. I don't really recall any explanations, until years later. My mother tells me she had a very hard life but she never complained. This picture is of a family outing, I won't bore you with all the details but you might manage to work out which is me, my mother, brother and my gran hiding behind her sister (who really brought her up).
Now what I suddenly noticed yesterday, when I was looking through old photos, was what is on the table in the back ground. I have looked at this photo many times over the years and never picked up that the jug on the table is the Clarice Cliff that I have sitting on top of the unit in my dining room (see below).
This jug was given to my granny by her sister, Daisy, who was really more like a mother to her. I remember this jug from my childhood and always liked it. My mother has since given this jug to Sam, which is why I am storing it for her.
So that's it.. nothing very interesting but, nevertheless, they are my memories. I'll be around to share yours later.

Archives:
2008: Manresa Los Gatos
2007: Fun Monday-6

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