MARY'S FORGET-ME-NOTS
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Part 1. Time Marches On
On Thanksgiving of 1964, as I looked around the dinner table at Bellevue Country Club, I realized that I am now the oldest living one of our branch of The O'Donnell's and can go farthest back in Lore- I love story telling, and this Trait is an inheritance from Grandma O'Donnell - of whom there was no better -
Long before I learned to read, she told us all about "The Wolf and the Seven Goslings", "Red Riding Hood" "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves" and most of the "Fables of Aesop". Nowadays, some would classify these as Horror Stories - but they differ from the present T.V. violence, since the folk tales usually have a satisfactory ending -
Good Triumphs Over Evil
A child could go to bed with the comfortable feeling that the Old Wolf would get his comeuppance in the end. Grandma was stern with her rebuke - "We can't all be as smart as you are!", and she was gentle when we were good -
Lastly - I vaguely remember her lulling Launt to sleep with this beguiling refrain-
Hi -oh - Terrier -- Hi - Hi - oh!
It was during one of these story telling sessions, while I was listening rapturously, that Anna slipped behind Grandma's rocker and snipped off every curl from Ed's head - just before we were to have our pictures taken. We thought later that the winsome picture of Ed, without Fauntleroy curls, was better in the end.
We often recall Grandma's speech, and it gives us a secret code which we still use. For instance, we know that an "Amadhaun" is a mannerless lummox and a "slitherer" is a waster and a wanter. Our mother's natural gaiety also lightened many of our grimmer moments and her sayings still warm our later days. One of her favorite jokes gave me the inspiration for "Family Lore". This was it--
"And what about your Genealogy, Mr. Dooley? Who was it you sprang from?" And to this, Mr. Dooley replied indignantly:
We sprang FROM no one!!
We sprang AT 'em!!
We sprang from the O'Donnells and the Burkes -- and a fine spring it was.
So, for children, grandchildren and great grandchildren, I'd like to leave a few impressions - and maybe you could add a few of your own.
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