Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2008/09/27
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Daniel, You had one impressive grandmother. Great story. Len On Sep 27, 2008, at 9:18 AM, Daniel Ridings wrote: > On Sat, Sep 27, 2008 at 10:58 AM, Frank Dernie > <Frank.Dernie@btinternet.com> wrote: >> the vast majority of >> people who can afford these cars would be scared rigid long before >> they had >> reached anything like their chassis limit whereas even my Mum can >> do the >> "full throttle down the straight for a while" routine. From a >> purist point >> of view I am unable to admire these things. >> Frank > > :-) My grandmother was no purist. She was a tough old lady who, as a > Catholic, divorced a gambler in the 40'ies, leaving her to raise a > Catholic (many kids) family and take care of her aging father all on > her own. > > Taking care of her aging father led her to owning and running two > nursing homes (about 40 or 50 patients in each) and administering a > staff to boot. She worked around the clock. Took in mental patients > from Alton State Hospital that she took a liking to and gave them jobs > cooking or cleaning. Let them house up in a crook and crany of the old > brick building from which Abraham Lincoln once held a speech. Worked > around the clock, I said that, be she did double time around the > clock. > > I moved in with her (yes, she took care of all the grand-children when > needed too, she died leaving 104 children, grandchildren, great > grandchildren and greatgreat grandchildren) when the family moved back > to the US from Japan and I didn't want to do a 6 month stint in > Oklahoma before my father was debriefed and declared clean. > > She told me, in her sly way, meaning I shouldn't pass the info on to > my mother or uncles, what she did at 2 am when she finished a work > day. > > She'd go out into her huge, heavy Lincoln Continental (with suicide > doors) and head out west of Greenville on 159. There's a stretch out > there in the woods and cornfields that runs straight as an arrow for > about 10 miles. > > She'd floor it. She'd keep it floored for 10 miles. > > Then she would turn around and drive back at leisurely pace, with all > of the day's stress out of her system, and go to bed (only to rise > again at 6 am). > > They day she realized that she'd have to give up her Lincoln was the > day she got old. She made the decision herself, but she always missed > that flat-out speed experience. > > She died in her high ninties, just a couple of years after her > maternal aunt. The ladies in our family are toughies. > > But she wasn't a purist :-) > > Daniel > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information