Confessions of a Modern Romance. Not Mine.
I don't want to brag, even though this is my blog, but I remember my sisters and cousins being more confused about things as kids than I was. I am pretty smart, but all kids have things they misinterpret or don't understand because they're new here.
For example, one year I went bowling with friends for my birthday and my sister was upset because she was sure she wouldn't get the same size bowl as everyone else.
Adorable, right?
The only thing I can really remember not understanding as a kid, that I understand now as an adult, is a doozy. I still can't believe it took me so long to make sense of this. Quite literally, years. Anyway...
When I was a kid, my Grandma had a friend; Mr. Sam. We loved Mr. Sam and Grandma O'Connor. They were such good friends. He gave us lots of presents, and he worked at the apartment complex where she lived which was convenient because he could just take a break to see us when we'd come by. He always made sure there were lots of cookies in the kitchen and we always got a couple of loonies (that's a dollar if you forgot I'm Canadian) before we'd leave.
When my Grandma died, we picked him up and he drove with us to Canmore for her funeral. My Dad's cousin, Joy, introduced him to everyone as "Irene's partner" which, as a sensitive 15 year old, I thought was a really lovely way to describe their relationship.
They were partners. They'd been friends my whole life, probably longer, to call them partners made sense.
Partners in crime, partners in life, partners in cowboy attire. They both wore pantsuits and had a penchant for cowboy boots and hats. I mean, how often do you run across another person in the middle of a big city who loves to pair their cowboy attire with a pantsuit? I don't think I ever saw either of them in a t-shirt but they never looked out of place to me.
Confession: I was 24 years old when I realized that Grandma and Mr. Sam were an item.
When I realized they lived together.
Like, together together. Like, romantically. Like, go Grandma. Get it girl.
I felt so naive, I was so embarrassed! It just hit me one day; Grandma and Sam, Sam and Grandma. How long had everybody else known? Surely, everybody else knew. But I called my sister anyway because I had to tell somebody.
How embarrassing, right? Our whole life, there was this man, who loved us, who we loved, and I had no idea he and Grandma were shacking up! So I'm relaying all this to Erin and she's laughing at me until I say, "I just realized Grandma and Mr. Sam were living together. Like, in a relationship."
And there's silence.
She didn't get it either!
I had just ruined her image of Grandma and Mr. Sam by exposing their modern romance!
We confronted our parents together, demanding to know why they kept this from us. Did they disapprove, did they not like Sam? Why were we never told about this relationship that was present in our lives? And then our little sister spoke up.
"I knew that."
Of course she did.
According to Mom and Dad, they never kept it a secret. Sam and Grandma had been together since my Dad was in high school. When my parents got married and started having us kids, Sam wanted to be "Grandpa". And while I laugh (and blush, frankly) because I didn't pick up on the subtle clues any earlier, I know it doesn't really matter. Sam was always part of our family.
So tell me. What didn't you pick up on when you were a kid? Any good bowl/bowling stories? Or cowboy pantsuit stories? I love either.
For example, one year I went bowling with friends for my birthday and my sister was upset because she was sure she wouldn't get the same size bowl as everyone else.
Adorable, right?
The only thing I can really remember not understanding as a kid, that I understand now as an adult, is a doozy. I still can't believe it took me so long to make sense of this. Quite literally, years. Anyway...
When I was a kid, my Grandma had a friend; Mr. Sam. We loved Mr. Sam and Grandma O'Connor. They were such good friends. He gave us lots of presents, and he worked at the apartment complex where she lived which was convenient because he could just take a break to see us when we'd come by. He always made sure there were lots of cookies in the kitchen and we always got a couple of loonies (that's a dollar if you forgot I'm Canadian) before we'd leave.
When my Grandma died, we picked him up and he drove with us to Canmore for her funeral. My Dad's cousin, Joy, introduced him to everyone as "Irene's partner" which, as a sensitive 15 year old, I thought was a really lovely way to describe their relationship.
They were partners. They'd been friends my whole life, probably longer, to call them partners made sense.
Partners in crime, partners in life, partners in cowboy attire. They both wore pantsuits and had a penchant for cowboy boots and hats. I mean, how often do you run across another person in the middle of a big city who loves to pair their cowboy attire with a pantsuit? I don't think I ever saw either of them in a t-shirt but they never looked out of place to me.
Confession: I was 24 years old when I realized that Grandma and Mr. Sam were an item.
When I realized they lived together.
Like, together together. Like, romantically. Like, go Grandma. Get it girl.
I felt so naive, I was so embarrassed! It just hit me one day; Grandma and Sam, Sam and Grandma. How long had everybody else known? Surely, everybody else knew. But I called my sister anyway because I had to tell somebody.
How embarrassing, right? Our whole life, there was this man, who loved us, who we loved, and I had no idea he and Grandma were shacking up! So I'm relaying all this to Erin and she's laughing at me until I say, "I just realized Grandma and Mr. Sam were living together. Like, in a relationship."
And there's silence.
She didn't get it either!
I had just ruined her image of Grandma and Mr. Sam by exposing their modern romance!
We confronted our parents together, demanding to know why they kept this from us. Did they disapprove, did they not like Sam? Why were we never told about this relationship that was present in our lives? And then our little sister spoke up.
"I knew that."
Of course she did.
According to Mom and Dad, they never kept it a secret. Sam and Grandma had been together since my Dad was in high school. When my parents got married and started having us kids, Sam wanted to be "Grandpa". And while I laugh (and blush, frankly) because I didn't pick up on the subtle clues any earlier, I know it doesn't really matter. Sam was always part of our family.
So tell me. What didn't you pick up on when you were a kid? Any good bowl/bowling stories? Or cowboy pantsuit stories? I love either.
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