Thursday, March 30, 2006

Skipping Around the Rules

RULE 7 -- After the age of 30, it is unseemly to blame one's parents for one's life.

Easy for Roger Rosenblatt to write in Rules for Aging.

Let him put on a satin green skirt and dance the jig with ones Mother in front of the most distinguished constituents of the community. Including your friends. Let this happen to you year after year! While you wait for your cue to get up and make a dancing fool of yourself, your Father is signing old Irish love songs in the spot light.

Let Roger compensate for being shipped to another town to attend high school because your parents are hell bent on you receiving a Catholic education! (if only they knew this was not the Catholic schools of their generation!!)

Let Roger cope with his parents being involved with most every aspect of our lives from the time we were in the cradle till we were kicked from the nest...with our walking papers.

Coaching the swim team, car pooling to school, taking us and friends to camp, dragging us to museums, making us go to Mass, and for God's sake, limiting the amount of television we watched.

No No No ... I can never give up blaming them for who I am today!!


 

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

PS.....I love the Irish jig. LOL! Too cute!

Anonymous said...

You tell him. LOL!
He's wrong again. I think the years with our parents effect us for the rest of our lives. First, we do whatever they say and then we revolt and we are their opposites and then one day, after 50, we hear ourselves saying the very things they did and said. No matter how you look at it, they mold our behavior to a degree for freakin' forever. Was this author raised by woolves? : )

Angela

Anonymous said...

Sounds to me like you are thanking them, not blaming them :)
xoxo

Anonymous said...

LOL  My parents gave me life. Without them I would not be here! I'm sure glad that mine took the active part and molded me! Of course, I melted a few rules here and there and for a few years they dropped their jaws at my chosen life styles-note plural. They just sat and waited.
Tess

Anonymous said...

Oh I am so jealous....when I go to our St. Patty's Dance at church I am so jealous of the girls who did the Irish step dancing as children and can do it now (including one woman who I kid you not is in her late 80s.) I always wanted to go to Catholic school but didn't. I guess the grass (or skirt) always looks greener on the other side! lol I did have an uncle who sang the songs and was the ultimate entertainer. Both of my grandparents were one of eight children and we thought it was odd to see a SMALL family! lol Mary you were blessed. :)

Anonymous said...

That must have been a spectacle doing the Irish jig to an audience.    I gave my trombone recital with a neighborhood girl at the piano.   The song was the "Blue Danube" and after my complete 3 minutes or whatever I was done having completed what I thought was the entire song.    Everyone was quiet when we finished thinking there was more to the recital.    Finally there was some forced applause.     I did not get a good review from the band director needless to say.    mark

Anonymous said...

Aww man, you mean according to Roger I can't use that one anymore?  Sigh.  
Lisa

Anonymous said...

I love how the tone completely changes in the last two paragraphs to tongue in cheek.  We all know and adore what a completely wonderful person you are today (not kidding at all).  Great addition to this Rules series which has me laughing and thinking.
*debbi*

Anonymous said...

    OH, my gosh .... how could I have missed this one?  Did you ever bring back memories for me ! Each and every year, I had the honor of dancing the Irish Jig for good old Father Mackey, our pastor.  Being the good Catholic school girl that I was, I practiced night and day to perfect my steps.  Funny, that was forty-some ( ahem ! ) years ago, and I can still do that damned dance .... lol    I loved seeing this pic of you and your Mom.  Thanks !   Tina