Family Stories

Thank you for the kind comments on the tale of my late grandmother. I promise, I didn't need to add, it is all absolutely gospel truth, and she would have told it just the same.

Aileen - it was similar for us, although I think it had got to a rotating stock by the time she passed and at least the sugar was still usable. What a waste of all that sugar!

My grandmother wasn't anywhere near as intelligent as her husband or her inlaws (most of whom were scarily insightful), and she had her little ways, but she could tell a good story and I heard quite a few when I was little, overhearing what she confided in other women 'of a certain age'. I think I learned how a good story should go then. Some of them baffle me to this day. According to my grandmother, only men and lesbians can whistle. Straight women cannot whistle and they shouldn't even try because it isn't ladylike. I can't whistle, actually, but I have no idea whether it's because I just don't have the patience to learn or because I've married a man. She was also desperately superstitious and had a fit if I put a left shoe on first or stirred the cake mix the 'wrong' way.

It's nice to share stories about my grandmother. She was a lovely, loving woman who was wonderfully generous and while she had her little ways, don't we all?

Someone told my grandmother that mice were scared off by washing powder. They really aren't. They told my grandmother that if mice ate washing powder, they would die. I don't know if the person passing on this pearl of wisdom was confusing it with washing soda, which may or may not be fatal, or whether my grandmother misheard, but she decided to try it. They lived at the time in a tin bungalow, with a huge garden, near a river and in the countryside. They were always going to get mice, so my grandmother was keen to try this out. She wasn't going to use her expensive Ariel washing powder, however. Instead she bought some cheap stuff that she scattered liberally around.

The mice loved it. They couldn't get enough of it. They came back for more and brought their friends. Not only did they find the bag of cheap powder, but they also broke into my grandmother's box of Ariel and continued to intermittently raid it right until they changed to liquid laundry soap. Back in those days, Ariel was expensive but it was the only brand she would use and the mice ate all they could get their tiny paws on. She was furious to see it spirited away by rodents who had no business being there. However at least she could share a tip to not to use washing powder to scare away mice.

I hope bear will be able to tell stories about me when I'm gone. And I really hope that if he does have stories, that he tells them well.

Hugs to all, and thank you for giving me excuses to talk about my grandmother.