Grandparent's Day

Sunday was celebrated as "Grandparent's Day". I realized when I woke up that this was my first one as a grandparent. I wondered how Derek will remember me when he is older. I wondered since I had such a strange relationship with my own grandparents. I know that unless Joe and I move closer to Derek, my relationship with him most likely won't be the way I'd love it to be.

I didn't know either set of my grandparents very well. In fact, my paternal grandmother was almost a mystery to me as I don't remember spending much time with her at all. My first memory of time with her wasn't until the time just before we moved to Japan in 1961. I remember her home in Missouri, I remember her living near railroad tracks and I remember attending Vacation Bible School at her church. (That is my first memory of any organized religion also). I remember her coming to visit us in Florida and visiting at the home in Brookfield. Other than that, I don't have many memories of her. I do remember that her looks never seemed to change and that she always seemed to be afraid to show affection. And, I don't remember my paternal grandfather at all since he died of back cancer when I was four?

I did spend more time with Grandmother and Granddaddy McGhee - mom's parents, but only because we had more opportunities to visit them from time to time. I even vaguely remember one of my great-grandmothers. Though I have memories of them, they are not all good ones. My first memory is being spanked with a switch from a tree by my granddaddy because I didn't want to carry a fish back to the house. I remember my Grandmother calling me "Caroline". I remember how she used to make homemade biscuits the same way morning after morning and how fascinating it was to watch how she did it. I remember walking out with out to the barn with her and watching how she milked the cows. That was always fascinating for me as a "city kid". She even let me try milking the cow. I remember her frying hog's brains with eggs for breakfast for my Granddaddy.

My funnest experience with Granddaddy was the time that he loaded me and bunch of my other cousins and sisters in the back of his pickup truck. He drove us down some old country, clay road which was very, very hilly and then floored it. The ride was fantastic! It was like our own personal roller coaster. Up and down the hills we went, hanging on to anything possible and squealing and screaming and Granddaddy giving us the ride of a lifetime. I look back at it now and wonder how we all survived. I remember Granddaddy feeding his fish in the pond with the leftover morning biscuits.

Corey has been lucky in one aspect of his life, I think. He's been able to establish a real, genuine relationship with him maternal grandparents. He's gotten to really know them, spend quality time with them and grow to love them. Unfortunately, that was not possible with his other grandparents. His other grandfather had long died and Les never really had much desire to return to Louisiana for visits. So Corey saw his Grandmother Nora when he was about two years old and when she came to visit us in Georgia when he was around 4.

Though Joe has four beautiful little granddaughters, he has only had limited access with them also. Their parents don't do anything to encourage a relationship. There are never telephone calls from the granddaughters to speak with their grandfather. If Joe sees them, it's because he makes the effort to fly and spend some time with them which is getting harder to do considering his health problems in the last couple of years. I've seen the hurt in his eyes.

So, I wonder from time to time what will be my own relationship with Derek? Thus far, I'm grateful and thankful that Corey and Nikki have tried to involve both Joe and I as much as possible. There are the phone pictures and videos which make us smile and laugh. There are the opportunities to listen to him on the telephone as he cries or laughs or coos. We look forward to our next visit with our grandson in about a month so that we can make new memories.

It's National Toilet Paper Day

...I always feel so "wiped" out! Ha, Ha, Ha. Let's just plunge in and flush the reason behind celebrating this day shall we? Are you bowled over by the fact that there is such a day?

Toilet Paper Day is celebrated every year on August 26 keep reading and I'll explain WHY?!? Grab a seat - maybe even in the: reading room. the throne, the powder room, the can, the head, for some appropriate ambiance - and let's whoop it up!

Let's start with a statistic. Market research has said that there is a 98% Household Penetration Rate for toilet paper in the United States. That means that 98% of U.S. households buy toilet paper. I'll give that a moment to sink in...ninety-eight percent of U.S. households buy toilet paper... So, what on earth are the other 2% using?? Ewww...!!! Nasty!!! I don't think I even want to go any further with that at all!

But, let's not go too crazy just yet. Perhaps that rebel 2% are instead using all those catalogs that clog your mailbox almost daily. Maybe they are taking recycling very, very seriously. (Remember recently that Sheryl Crowe, the singer, said we should only use one square at each sitting)? And, you may recall (or if you're not old enough, you may recall reading about) the alternate use put to the old Sears & Roebuck catalogs? Or maybe you're more familiar with one of the spinoff catalogs that made the rounds: Rears & Sorebutt.

I can remember going to my Grandmother and Granddaddy McGhee's home located on the top of the hill when I was younger. I can remember that when Mother Nature called, the answer to the flushable toilet was the outhouse. It's a wonder that I didn't develop some type of kidney infection while visiting at her house from not using the outhouse as often as I probably should. When I finally did utilize the outhouse, I was always so afraid I would fall in, so my hands stayed firmly planted by my sides until it was time to acquaint myself with "the catalog" since there was no toilet paper. I also remember spending the night at Aunt Rachel's home with my girl cousins and sisters. Aunt Rachel did not have an indoor toilet either. Being a "city girl", if I needed to go to the toilet at night, everyone went. Hey, I wasn't some dumb, crazy fool who was just born yesterday. It was dark outside and things might get you. After all, we were out in the country and I do mean country. The only light outside was hopefully a bright moon and the stars. So here we would all go creeping out into the dark with a flashlight. Using the outhouse was even worse at night because once you sat down with your butt hanging over that black hole, visions of other things started entering your mind about what might be down there. Consequently, you did what you needed to do quickly. Besides, if you sat too long over that big, black hole during the summertime, you were most certainly guaranteed to have multiple mosquito bites on your derriere. Well, Gmom and Gdad McGhee finally got an indoor toilet in 1961 when I was 9 years old, if I remember correctly. Darn it all, no more outhouse. I seriously think that neighbors and friends probably came for a visit just to see and use their new plumbing.

Sorry, I strayed about the celebration of National Toilet Paper Day. The use of toilet paper is important (being kinder to one's behind, and all), but it's also very important how it's used. Or, more specifically, how it comes off the roll. That's right: the dreaded Roll Dispenser Controversy. Forget about how you squeeze the toothpast...marriages may have ended due to squabbles over how to hang the toilet paper! When one installs a roll of teepee on the dispenser, should the paper dispense from over the roll or from under it? I say it should be over-the-roll. However, Joe holds the opposing view, insisting - not through word, but through dispenser-filling deed - that the correct installation is under-the-roll. I say nothing to him, since I don't want to point out his mental deficiency about this, but quietly and with authority, I make the correct change. If it was meant to go under-the-roll, designs would never have been invented. I personally think the designs were invented to help the over-the-roll challenged persons hang it incorrectly. Why do you think they invented "quilted" designs? It was to help even those with bad eyesight hang it correctly. Think of it as "braille toilet paper". (So Joe should have no excuse on how to hang a roll correctly other than maybe he's afraid that if it hangs over the top, he will catch the end of the roll in the top of his pants. Ever see "Smoky and the Bandit" when Buford T. Justice walks out in the restaurant dragging the toilet paper)?

Other personal toilet paper facts:

(1) The strangest toilet paper I've ever used was while I was in England. It was almost like a thin waxed paper. I've never seen anything like it. It was so unusual that I even brought a sample of it back to the States with me. Hmmm, I'll have to see if I sill have it around somewhere.

(2) One of the first Japanese sentences I ever learned was: "Benjo wa doko desuka?" Translation: "Where is the bathroom?" I learned this in school before we headed out on a field trip. Japan did not have segregated bathrooms. So you took your life in your hand when using a Japanese public toilet.

(3) The funniest toilet experience was one I had with Corey. When I took him with me to Europe in July of 2000, we did some sightseeing in London. We were outside the Tower of London right next to the Thames River when Mother Nature called. I had seen pull chain toilets from previous visits to England, but Corey had not. The look on his face was priceless when he came out of the bathroom. He had almost been afraid to flush the toilet for fear the tank might come down and then there was the sound of the toilet flushing up there!

(4) I hate using the toilet on an airplane. I swear it feels and sounds as though your butt is being sucked away from your body!

And now, as our little celebration comes to an end, I'll leave you with a teepee claim to fame and why we celebrate National Toilet Paper Day. In 1867, brothers Edward, Clarence, and Thomas Scott began selling a type of toilet paper from a pushcart in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The end result all these years later? A thriving paper product business, with grateful (and clean) behinds everywhere. (Well, at least 98% of them anyway...).
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How many men does it take to change a roll of toilet paper? We don't know - it's never happened.

"I've learned that life is like a roll of toilet paper, the closer you get to the end, the faster it goes!" -- Andy Rooney

Two Generation - McGhee Side

I believe this is the only picture I have of Corey together with his Grandmother and Granddaddy McGhee at their home.

Grandmother wore a bonnet like that for as long as I can remember when she was outside except when she was "going to town" or to church. I remember as a little girl her putting on her bonnet when it was time to go milk the cows. I don't remember Granddaddy ever not wearing a hat outside either and he always wore the overalls and was bare-footed. He could stomp down blackberry bushes with his bare feet and it would never hurt him.

Four Generation - Cattell Side

This is a four-generation shot taken in December of 1983 when Corey was turning one year old. My grandmother, Louise Cattell Mix, had come to visit and this was the last time I ever saw her alive. She died one year later on December 22, 1984.

I really didn't know this grandmother very well as I never spent much time with her. I can remember going to her home in Missouri before and after we moved to Japan, she made a visit to our home at Eglin AFB, Florida and this visit to Brookfield, Georgia. I'm sure there were more times that I saw her as some of my baby pictures will attest, but my memories are only those I stated.

That's my Grandmother Cattell (Mix) on the left, Dad, Me and Corey being held by his granddaddy.