What's up with Whatsit

Going home again

We went to Clarke County today to see my grandmother's 90-year-old first cousin. She and her husband were married for 52 years: he died in 1995. She is the matriarch of our family now, the repository of the memories.

We tried to go see my aunt, Pauline (who never wanted to be called Aunt Pauline, I have never known why) but she wasn't there. She is 80 years old and says that she spent so many years at home raising children, then helping with grandchildren, that she is entitled to some time away. She has lived in the same house her whole life: her grandfather built it. I never have been able to get the exact date it was built out of anybody. Her husband, Martin, was there. He was sitting on the back porch. That's some serious old-school country-people right there - just sitting on the back porch watching the grass grow. Nothing wrong with that! He's made it into his eighties for a reason. He is the opposite of Pauline. He spent his working years driving a truck for an oil company. I don't think he cares if he ever leaves home again or not. He never got a day off or took a day off that I know of. I asked him one time when I was a teenager if he got Christmas Day off. His response: "If it's not on Monday, I don't."

We also stopped by the cemetery where my grandparents and various other relatives are buried. We pulled the flowers out that we had left last time and there were wasps in the vase. Anna Claire got stung. When we buried my grandmother there in January, the caretaker, a man my family had known for decades, called my mother and harassed her for some $300 fee that she had never heard of that was supposed to go to the upkeep of the cemetery. She is going to call him tomorrow and harass him for her $300 worth.