The Day Hell Froze Over

A fellow blogger, Mama Kat (@ www.mamakatslosinit.com), inspired today’s post. She challenged her readers to write a blog about “A Thanksgiving to be Remembered.” It didn't take long for me to come up with my most favorite (& funny) memory of Thanksgiving.

The most memorable Thanksgiving I ever had was the year that my Grandma learned a whole new vocabulary. A vocabulary that would normally have moms running to get the bar of soap and washing the mouth out of the offender. THAT kind of vocabulary.

A little background – my Grandma was one of the most religious, straight-laced women I had ever known. She was EXTREMELY strict about her faith – no drinking, no smoking, no dancing, and NO swearing! Not even “darn” was allowed! My cousin and I spent the summer with her when we were both 12 years old, and Grandma would wake us up every morning at 5:30 a.m. for Bible study. Yeah – it was like that. You can imagine how two 12-year old girls enjoyed getting up before the freakin’ sun every morning during our summer vacation to study the Bible.

Anywho – a family tradition after Thanksgiving dinner was to pop a DVD in and sit back and relax and watch a movie together.

And several years ago, it was my turn to pick the movie out, and I wanted everyone to watch Quentin Tarantino’s “Pulp Fiction.” Yeah – that one – the movie where every other word is a 4-letter word; the F-bomb is dropped more than all the bombs in WW2 – and the movie is bloody, violent, sick, sadistic, twisted – but oh, so funny, in a weird, Quentin Tarantino way. One of the best. movies. ever. (Yeah, I’m sick.)

Now, Grandma would never watch the Thanksgiving movie with us. She’d normally go and lay down after dinner and do the “too much tryptophan in the turkey” nap. So, this particular Thanksgiving, Grandma heads off to the bedroom to do her thing, and the rest of us trip down the stairs to do our thing – watch a little “Pulp.”

We’re kickin’ it – about a third of the way through the movie – when – the unthinkable happens - dum dum DUM…..in walks Grandma. We all shoot each other the “What the hell?!” look – and immediately following that, the “What the hell should we do NOW?” look. Do we turn the movie off so as to not offend Grandma? Or do we continue to watch it – the heck with Grandma, this is OUR tradition and we’re not changing it for anybody? Hmmmm…..what to do, what to do…meanwhile, the movie is playing on, the F-bombs are flying, and we realize that Grandma is………chuckling.

We weren’t sure that’s what it was at first. We all then gave each other the, “What the hell are we hearing?” look….as in, “Are you SERIOUS? Grandma’s laughing??!!?!” I don’t know that we’d ever heard her laugh before. Really.

Yes, hell froze over that day. We all sat back and relaxed and enjoyed the movie. Including Grandma. She loved it. How do I know? After it was over, she said, “That was one of the best darn movies I ever saw!” Yup. She said “darn.” Get the soap.

That was the only movie Grandma ever joined us for. We lost her last year – about a week after Thanksgiving, actually. So, no more opportunities to share a movie with her.

But – I bet she’s laughing in Heaven right now. Who knows? Maybe she’s watching “Pulp Fiction” with the angels.

Perhaps.

Peace.