Monday 29 November 2010

Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah or The Case of the Curious Calm

     There is certainly not any great celebration.   There is almost no mention of anything.   Those of us who were surprized by the  intensity of the disorders during the past few months, and even those who always assume the worst about Mexicans and Mexico....all are surprized....

   It reminds one of the Allan Sherman song back in the 1950's...."Hello muddah, hello faddah" which describes an upper-middle and/or upper class Jewish child's lament at being exiled to up-state New York for a portion of the Summer.   If you wish, you can click on to this link  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2Hx_X84LC0  if you  might have forgotten or perhaps never knew of this iconic American comedy song.
     If for some strange reason you went ahead and clicked onto this little ditty you know it reveals the lament of a kid from Brooklyn Heights trying to "rough it" at a luxury Summer camp somewhere up the Hudson.     You heard the part about "Wait a minute, it's stopped hailing....kids are playing, boys are sailing",  and then he asks his parents to disregard the negativism previously expressed in the "required first letter back home"....An Episcopal Bishop at Camp Capers (Diocese of West Texas) gave me a "gold star" when were discussing this song....When asked if anyone could come up with any different twist to the lessons presented by this boy's lamentations.....unwillingness to adapt, unappreciativeness towards his parents' concern and expense, the overstating of how a person suffers in a plush church camp in a beautiful setting, etc.......I raised my hand and offered a bit of a different answer, "He was also lazy, because he decided to change the meaning and intent of the entire letter with a quick sign-off, instead of simply writing a brief...'Having a wonderful time, wish you were here, miss you all!' on a fresh piece of stationary".    Bishop Dicus laughed (to my relief), and declared "All last Summer and during these first sessions this Summer, no one has given us that observation!   Excellent...very perceptive!"
     These are things people do not forget... so we must be careful what we say to the young people with minds full of mush.   I beamed for the rest of my very pleasant episode in the West Central Texas Hill Country.

     But that is where we are right now in a way...."Wait a second....It's stopped hailing.....".     It is probably best not to be-labour the point, things might change to-morrow, and it will still take at least another two years to put the "organized delinquincy" matter back at  least into the lesser shadows.    But for right now....it is rather much like the clearing of the skies around Bastogne at Christmas in 1944....when the skies were filling with hundreds of C-47's dropping parachutes with  ammunition, food, mail, replacement parts and the certain news that Patton was coming over the horizon.      Our Patton is in place in Tamaulipas, some 17,000 strong at this time.....and all good men rejoice.

     Your humble servant will be going up to Central Texas to do some baby-sitting while our granddaughters' parents go up to the Unholy Land ....oddly enough....on business.   They will be in Washington D.C. for a couple or three days....and the other Grandparents are going to be out of town as well....so we have been tapped to go back into the parenting market.   I have promised not to tell the granddaughters...."DO WHAT I SAY OR I'LL RIP YOUR ARM OFF AND BEAT YOU TO DEATH WITH IT"....as I did with my own two children.   My daughter thinks that such things are little too much for two and five year old girls.     My daughter gave me a 7,211 page compendium, single spaced, of the things that I cannot do that I normally do, that are generally found to be offensive or disgusting by polite and civilized members of  society.     I have to memorize all of it before my arrival at their home in a week or so.....and recite it verbatim before a Notary Public  before she turns her children over to us.
      Actually, it is true that her other grandfather and her greatgrandfathers are better men than I.   This following inclusion was sent to me by my daughter....after my granddaughter had sent a thank-you note to her great-grandfather for Veterans' Day.   It is an expression of gratitude of an old hero to his great-granddaughter and I think represents the best of what is America.

         Dear Gabriella;
Once upon a time your Gramps was an American Aviator who flew a very large Airplane called a "Flying Fortress".
We flew over far away countries and because we did this the people of these countries were soon able to live much happier and safer lives.
Every American soldier who ever helped America help these people all over the world are called "Veterans". That is why we celebrate Veterans Day. . .To Remember and Thank those Veterans and to think a little bit how they helped those people all over the world.
This is why I am writing this letter to you, Gabriella. . .for calling your Gramps to thank him for being a Veteran. It's a very special feeling for me to know that My loved ones understand what we did so many many years ago.
Please thank your Father and Mother for helping you make one of the most cherished phone calls of my life.     All of our Love Gabriella,
Your Very Proud Gramps


'Nuff Said!
El Gringo Viejo