Parent & Parent II
Well the Parent meeting thing went ok. Every one seem to get on with every one else. J's mum has started referring to me as son, which is just weird. It turned into a bit of a wander down nostalgia lane. Although to be fair my mother is spending so much time down there at the moment I think she has moved in.
Photos albums were swapped. I have come to the decision that any photos of me in the 70's should be burnt. I think poor J's mum was very confused by the end. Given that we used to move every two years it was very disjointed tour of my early years.
Then we got on to family histories. The strange thing is that on my mothers side the family is Irish (well by the time you get to my mum 3rd generation Irish I think). Now I didn't know this until last year. Although to be fair I should have spotted something was sus when my mother used to talk about being in the London Irish Marching Band (she used to be the drummer and had one of those large round drums) and had Irish dancing lessons.
What I did know was that my, now let me get this right, my great great grandfather was a master rigger for tall ships - apparently quite a job in them days. He was the master rigger for Scotts ship the discovery according to family lore and was by all accounts a bit of a bastard. Given his job his death was ironic in that he died after falling down the stairs the night before his wedding (a few drams too many me thinks). I should add before anyone questions my parentage it was his second wedding.
This unfortunate incident did however keep his wealth in the family which would be great if I was now wealthy too, but I'm not. The family lost the money due that Hitler fella. I knew there was a reason the Germans annoyed me. According to my mother while he wasn't rich he had wealth. But this was primarily in a lot of nice things - the kind of ostentatious wealth that is oh so useful - not. Any way some now long lost relative lived in London at the time of the blitz and kept getting bombed. Personally I would have moved after the first time but she was made of sterner stuff. The problem was that the wealth, for what it was worth, wasn't so durable.
My dad's side is a bit of a mystery. He keeps it very quite. From what I can piece together somewhere in there I think are either some travelers, or possibly some romanies. But definitely a house made from Huntley and Palmers biscuit tins....don't ask because I have never really got down to the bottom of it.
Families are strange. You grow up surrounded by them so much so that you don't notice the ways they have shaped you. Listening to my mother go back in time I couldn't help think that my family was an British version of something that William Faulkner would have written about, and I liked that.
Photos albums were swapped. I have come to the decision that any photos of me in the 70's should be burnt. I think poor J's mum was very confused by the end. Given that we used to move every two years it was very disjointed tour of my early years.
Then we got on to family histories. The strange thing is that on my mothers side the family is Irish (well by the time you get to my mum 3rd generation Irish I think). Now I didn't know this until last year. Although to be fair I should have spotted something was sus when my mother used to talk about being in the London Irish Marching Band (she used to be the drummer and had one of those large round drums) and had Irish dancing lessons.
What I did know was that my, now let me get this right, my great great grandfather was a master rigger for tall ships - apparently quite a job in them days. He was the master rigger for Scotts ship the discovery according to family lore and was by all accounts a bit of a bastard. Given his job his death was ironic in that he died after falling down the stairs the night before his wedding (a few drams too many me thinks). I should add before anyone questions my parentage it was his second wedding.
This unfortunate incident did however keep his wealth in the family which would be great if I was now wealthy too, but I'm not. The family lost the money due that Hitler fella. I knew there was a reason the Germans annoyed me. According to my mother while he wasn't rich he had wealth. But this was primarily in a lot of nice things - the kind of ostentatious wealth that is oh so useful - not. Any way some now long lost relative lived in London at the time of the blitz and kept getting bombed. Personally I would have moved after the first time but she was made of sterner stuff. The problem was that the wealth, for what it was worth, wasn't so durable.
My dad's side is a bit of a mystery. He keeps it very quite. From what I can piece together somewhere in there I think are either some travelers, or possibly some romanies. But definitely a house made from Huntley and Palmers biscuit tins....don't ask because I have never really got down to the bottom of it.
Families are strange. You grow up surrounded by them so much so that you don't notice the ways they have shaped you. Listening to my mother go back in time I couldn't help think that my family was an British version of something that William Faulkner would have written about, and I liked that.
posted by gerbil at 11:43 am
5 Comments:
Yes indeed, families are strange. Each one is unique in its own way.
That is interesting about your great uncle (?), which had a rough occupation, to fall down stairs and lose his life just a day before he married which so happened to keep the family's money in the family.
The time was about right, for Sherlock Holmes to be summoned from the void to find out what really happened.
I'm glad the families seemed to get along.
I will have to remember to hide our family albums if one of our sons shows up with a potential wife and her family.
They have a termendous impact on who we turn out to be. Sometimes that can be unintentional- as in the case of a kid not following paths laid for them by others....
thats from an American lapsed Catholic who descended from Irish Orangemen....
ET as i said by all accounts he wasnt a nice man so i wouldnt be suprised. What you should do is have a special album with the most embaresing ones, i had to go through it so should others;) Share the pain thats what i say.
Steve, Catholic.....Orangemen....how...how just how does that work?
Early fmily histry had it that the first group that came over were Orangemen through and through. They came over before the American Revolution . That would by about 230 years before i came along....
and converted to Catholicism - though i havent been to mass in over two years....
Thats about the size of it....
wow...there can't be many that have followed that path.
I too come from a catholic background, strange how your only ever a lapsed catholic, again I never questioned why my family were catholic while everyone else Anglican...so really my irish history thing makes so much sense.
I lost both my grandmother and an uncle earlier this year. Its weird although i am not religous at all i did found the whole ritual thing comforting. It felt important to have the family in one place and to celebrate their life. Its the same with my planned wedding. As a child i recall going to many large catholic weddings. End result I want a ritual in which all my family and friends are there to mark it as an important event, something i'm not sure J gets as I don't think she had that in here history and as such I think she would rather we ran away and got hitched.
You can choose your own path in life, but you can never leave your family.
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