Dear Group, OK, I just promised my grandniece and her girlfriend Stephie that I would write a story about them. They're both 15 years old and heaven help us with 15-year-old girls! This is how the evening started. My niece Deb and her older daughter Dawn came over to my house to tidy up a few things for me. Things haven't been going all that great for me this past week regarding my recuperation and it' s only on rare occasions lately that I can make the mental effort to even answer some of my email messages. It wasn't a good day for me but Deb and Dawn showed up at just the right time for me, things got tidied up and the three of us then sat down at the kitchen table and had a chance to talk about my situation, Deb's situation and Dawn's situation. Hey let's face it, in the year 2000 families have problems that weren't even invented when I was a kid! We had a serious conversation but it was always tinged with a sense of humor. Lives tend to be a bit tragic and I guess it takes a sense of humor to see the funny side of it. And that's the way our family has always dealt with such "stuff." When the phone rang, I answered it and I wasn't surprised that it was Deb's younger daughter Amanda calling her mother. A few minutes later the phone rang again and so I just asked Deb to answer it. Sure enough, it was Amanda again. BTW, that happens all the time when the kids know that Mom is over at my house. Well, don't ask me the details of who drove Amanda and her girlfriend Stephie over to my house but the next thing that we knew the two of them burst into the house fighting over who was going to get to hug Auntie Vee first! Frankly, with my still foggy mind, I don't know which one won! But the two of them sure livened up the party. They both seemed to delight in telling me outrageous things that they knew I would react to from a "little old lady's" prim and proper point of view! But at the same time, they also know that I'm a bawdy old broad, who can give them tit for tat. Hey, I didn't earn Amanda's respect to the point of her giving me the title of Phat Auntie Vee, because I was just the prim and proper sister of her grandmother, you know! (BTW, if you don't know the meaning of "phat," just ask a 15-year-old!) And when they all got ready to leave, Amanda and Stephie had the same fight all over again. Who was going to give Auntie Vee the first hug or the last hug or who got to get the biggest kiss from me. And as the two girls were about to close the kitchen door behind them, both of them asked me to write a story about the two of them and post it to the list. I told them to read the story I wrote last night about the tea party under the spirea bush and to picture the two of them in that story. They promised that they would. But do you know what? In this day and age, I doubt that they can actually picture themselves in such a setting. I doubt that little girls have tea parties of that nature nowadays. But I do know one thing. I'm Amanda's great-aunt, the sister of her grandmother. All that I recall of my own great-aunts (born in the late 1800s) were that they were tolerant of me and I knew that I wasn't supposed to speak unless spoken to. I sure didn't have the fun that my own grandniece and I-and her girlfriend Stephie-have been having recently. Oh, how I would have loved that! If Great-Aunt Annie Riley and I could have had a conversation about her past with her marriage to Uncle Will who she met when the carnival was in town where he was featured as a "the strong man" and just up and married him. Oh, what stories she could have told me! I've since realized (from what I wrote as a teenager) that Uncle Will was present as a little boy when President Lincoln gave his Gettysburg Address at the cemetery at Gettysburg and that when Lincoln passed through the crowd, he patted little Uncle Will on the head. Just think what I could stories I could tell Amanda and Stephie right now! I have the feeling that they want to just hear me gross them out-tit for tat-but at the same time both of them love me for what I am. Just a bit of a crazy "Auntie Vee" who doesn't quite fit the mold of being a sister to ANYONE'S grandmother! It sure makes you want to think, doesn't it? vee

Thanks for sharing Vee. Nancy ----- Original Message ----- From: "Vee L. Housman" <housman@adelphia.net> To: <NYNIAGAR-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Saturday, September 02, 2000 9:45 PM Subject: Amanda and Stephanie > Dear Group, > > OK, I just promised my grandniece and her girlfriend Stephie that I would > write a story about them. They're both 15 years old and heaven help us with > 15-year-old girls! > > This is how the evening started. My niece Deb and her older daughter Dawn > came over to my house to tidy up a few things for me. Things haven't been > going all that great for me this past week regarding my recuperation and it' > s only on rare occasions lately that I can make the mental effort to even > answer some of my email messages. > > It wasn't a good day for me but Deb and Dawn showed up at just the right > time for me, things got tidied up and the three of us then sat down at the > kitchen table and had a chance to talk about my situation, Deb's situation > and Dawn's situation. Hey let's face it, in the year 2000 families have > problems that weren't even invented when I was a kid! We had a serious > conversation but it was always tinged with a sense of humor. Lives tend to > be a bit tragic and I guess it takes a sense of humor to see the funny side > of it. And that's the way our family has always dealt with such "stuff." > > When the phone rang, I answered it and I wasn't surprised that it was Deb's > younger daughter Amanda calling her mother. A few minutes later the phone > rang again and so I just asked Deb to answer it. Sure enough, it was Amanda > again. BTW, that happens all the time when the kids know that Mom is over > at my house. > > Well, don't ask me the details of who drove Amanda and her girlfriend > Stephie over to my house but the next thing that we knew the two of them > burst into the house fighting over who was going to get to hug Auntie Vee > first! Frankly, with my still foggy mind, I don't know which one won! > > But the two of them sure livened up the party. They both seemed to delight > in telling me outrageous things that they knew I would react to from a > "little old lady's" prim and proper point of view! But at the same time, > they also know that I'm a bawdy old broad, who can give them tit for tat. > Hey, I didn't earn Amanda's respect to the point of her giving me the title > of Phat Auntie Vee, because I was just the prim and proper sister of her > grandmother, you know! (BTW, if you don't know the meaning of "phat," just > ask a 15-year-old!) > > And when they all got ready to leave, Amanda and Stephie had the same fight > all over again. Who was going to give Auntie Vee the first hug or the last > hug or who got to get the biggest kiss from me. And as the two girls were > about to close the kitchen door behind them, both of them asked me to write > a story about the two of them and post it to the list. I told them to read > the story I wrote last night about the tea party under the spirea bush and > to picture the two of them in that story. They promised that they would. > > But do you know what? In this day and age, I doubt that they can actually > picture themselves in such a setting. I doubt that little girls have tea > parties of that nature nowadays. But I do know one thing. I'm Amanda's > great-aunt, the sister of her grandmother. All that I recall of my own > great-aunts (born in the late 1800s) were that they were tolerant of me and > I knew that I wasn't supposed to speak unless spoken to. > > I sure didn't have the fun that my own grandniece and I-and her girlfriend > Stephie-have been having recently. Oh, how I would have loved that! If > Great-Aunt Annie Riley and I could have had a conversation about her past > with her marriage to Uncle Will who she met when the carnival was in town > where he was featured as a "the strong man" and just up and married him. > Oh, what stories she could have told me! > > I've since realized (from what I wrote as a teenager) that Uncle Will was > present as a little boy when President Lincoln gave his Gettysburg Address > at the cemetery at Gettysburg and that when Lincoln passed through the > crowd, he patted little Uncle Will on the head. > > Just think what I could stories I could tell Amanda and Stephie right now! > I have the feeling that they want to just hear me gross them out-tit for > tat-but at the same time both of them love me for what I am. Just a bit of > a crazy "Auntie Vee" who doesn't quite fit the mold of being a sister to > ANYONE'S grandmother! > > It sure makes you want to think, doesn't it? > vee > > > > > ==== NYNIAGAR Mailing List ==== > Check the GenConnect boards for Niagara County! Stop by > <http://www.rootsweb.com/~nyniagar/query.html> for links to all seven. > For other counties, see <http://genconnect.rootsweb.com/indx/NY.html>. >