Thursday, June 22, 2006

R.E.S.P.E.C.T

So the cruise was soooooo much fun. Here is a picture of the wedding:

(by the way, my sister made my dress)

Except for the part where my grandma went crazy. Well, she’s been kinda crazy, but she went BALLISTIC on the way home. She went off on E’s family, E, my mom, and of course me. According to her, I am “NASTY” (pronounced NAAA’ StÉ™) I’ve always been nasty. For those who are not familiar with southern slang, nasty means that I am rude and incredibly mean. I guess that’s better than an “ol’ ugly heifer”.

She and I were helping my mom with her daycare and my grandma was about to re-warm up the bottle after the baby had been drinking out of it. For those of you who are familiar with child care, know that this spreads bacteria and the baby can get sick from it. Well, after telling her this, she promptly reminded me that SHE had been doing this longer than I’ve been alive. I probably said something flip like “Fine, make the baby sick”. And she said: “Ol’ ugly heifer” and stomped up the stairs to re-warm the bottle.

This time she went off on my because I was trying to protect my mom from her wrath. This is how it happened: On the bus ride back home, my grandma heard something. She kept bugging the bus driver about it. He got so frustrated with her, that he pulled over very quickly to the side of the road. The people in the back (including me and E) didn’t know what was going on and thought that maybe my grandpa, who has diabetes, got sick. So a couple of people came up to the front of the bus to find out. Well, my grandma didn’t like this. She sharpened her lips and said “Ain’t none of their BUSINESS, what’s going on”. E reached out and touched her arm to sooth her and she snatched her arm away and started yelling at him. My mom told E to just leave her alone and my grandma turned on her. She viciously pointed really close to my mom and called her all sorts of disrespectful. I felt like she was being really mean to my mom and I felt bad for her. So I stood in front of my mom saying “Whoooole up. This is my momma right hur.” So she turned on me. That’s when she called me nasty. She told my mom that I am going to treat her the same way she is being treated by my mom. My mom finally spoke up and said that if she acts the way my grandmother acts, she HOPES I treat her the same way.

Then I went to ask the bus driver what happened (b/c I still didn’t know). But I had to pass by my grandmother, who was still standing in the aisle. She said told me: “You better sit down somewhere, before I KNOCK the Devil outta you!” I just smacked my lips and walked past her. She moved out of my way and the bus driver told me what happened.

Is that disrespectful? What was I supposed to do, just go and sit down like a little punk? Then she would think that she has me under her thumb and that all she has to do is hoot and holla and everyone is just going to bend to her will just cause she is old. Pshhhhh.

I guess I have a problem with the respect. What does it really mean? That I should not be rude to my elders? I shouldn’t be rude to anyone. Right? Or does it mean that if we are in an argument, they automatically win because they are older?

Seriously, what does ‘respect your elders’ really mean?

1 comment:

Gypsy said...

I think you hit it with ,"being under ones thumb." Times have changed. Respect you earn and being assertive and standing for what you feel is right isn't being...Naaaaasty