Family

Katie and I went down south to see my Momma for mother’s day, and then we went out to visit my father’s mother – Pat. Pat lives in an old wood house down by the river. There are dogs and chickens on and under the porch and the front yard is swept dirt.Pat is old – bordering on very old. She wears men’s khaki pants, tennis shoes with no socks, long sleeved work shirt, smokes unfiltered cigarettes and drinks whiskey out of a coffee cup. She is a tough old bird. She always made me a bit nervous when I was little. After Momma read me the Hansel and Gretel story I always associated Pat with the witch and was afraid she was going to cook me and serve me to the family.Momma says Pat is finally living her life exactly like she wants. She’s buried a husband and three sons in her lifetime. We were talking about her this weekend and Momma said that Pat married a stupid man, had a houseful of stupid children and it’s hard to get over that. I reminded Momma that she herself married one of the stupid children. After she told me not to be smart she sighed and said – that’s how she knew it was hard to get over. Drunk, lazy, shiftless and ignorant were all curable – stupid wasn’t.I’ve decided not to blame Pat for my father being a drunken idiot bastard, but I’m still not convinced she won’t cook and eat me.