The other side of the family tree

These Wednesdays seem to always sneak up on me. Time really does fly the older you get. So two weeks ago I wrote about my Dad's side of the family, who I actually went to visit this weekend in Memphis. It was a lot of fun and as always I ate my brains out. So this week we dive into the other side of the family tree which is my Mom's side, for those of you not paying attention.

So, my Mom's side of the family is on the other end of the spectrum. Which is great for me. My Dad's side of the family more on the strict/southern Baptist side of things, my Mom's side....not so much. Which in turn, made me a perfect in the middle type of person. So, thanks to both sides for making me perfect.

What to say about that side of the family, I will say this, it is never boring. My mom grew up with three sisters and one brother. Her oldest sister and brother where like 15 years older than her and her other two sisters so it was almost like two sets of families. Needless to say, I didn't spend a lot of time with the older siblings. However, her brother, my Uncle Kenny is a character who needs a blog or show of his own. My uncle Kenny and his wife back in the day who's name was Elane or Lane or something(like I said I didn't see them often). Anyway, they didn't mind helping themselves to a drink or two at the family functions they came to, especially Elane. Lets go back to Christmas day about 16 years ago. Elane and Kenny came to our Christmas we had every year at my Grandparent's house. They had a few drinks and Elane had a little more than the rest, Elane being a hair stylists of sorts, decided that she wanted to give my 6 year old brother a haircut. My brother didn't take kindly to this so he decided to avoid her. Now, it wasn't a big house so he didn't have to many places to hide. So, minutes later she caught up to him and then pursued a cat and mouse chase around the house between my 45 year old Aunt and my 6 year old brother. OH, and did I mention that my Aunt was holding scissors! HAHA, it was very funny watching my brother run from a bowl cut from my drunk Aunt. Meanwhile, in the TV room my uncle who at the time was heavyset and had a cane would be changing the channel from A Christmas Story the movie and the swimsuit competition they had on. Why was he switching the channels? Well, my mom would come into the room and yell "Kenny, turn that off. The kids don't need to see half naked girls!". So my uncle would change the channel until she left, then the swimsuit competition came back on, and when he really liked a girl he would twirl his cane in the air and scream WOOHOO! Those were the good ol' days.

My Mother has two sister who are close to her age. One of them is great and who we have fun with at most holidays. Her and my Uncle welcome us in with great food and fun. The other sister I don't see anymore. My Grandparents on that side of the family have passed on. They were great though. My grandma, was a smoker and in her cigarette case would always have some smokes and gum. The first thing we would do when we walked in the house to visit her would be give her a kiss and ask for some gum. Oh and her pantry was always stocked with pop, chips, and spaghetti-o's. Later in her life she had trouble walking so I never really had her cooking, but the second best was the junk food pantry. She always had great stories that she would tell us and she LOVED Macgyver! She was kind of like the oracle in the movie The Matrix. She was a wise grandma. She died when I was 14 but I would like to say that if she lived longer that she would have been one of the people in my life who I could go to about things in life and get her advice. You know stuff that I couldn't tell my parents but would like some advice from an experienced adult. I do miss my Grandma a lot, she was great. My Grandpa was on the quieter side and worked a lot so, a lot of my memories of him aren't really funny. He kept to himself in his office with his Jazz records and war stories. He was a good man who had a lot of stories that he could tell you. Like the time he was in WWII in a medical tent when that tent got blown up and blew him in the air and he lived to tell the story. Good Stuff.

I am sure that I will have many blogs about stories from this side of the family. Trust me there are many more where that came from.