One Grouchy Female, One Bratty Kid

My sister, Mary had a fabulous collection of 45's when I was young and I loved playing them whenever I got the opportunity.  Quite often we would discover great songs that never made the charts on the flip side of known hits.  But that's another story.

This memory is about my sister's mother-in-law in 1959.  She was English--a Great Britian transplant--who viewed most things American as uncivilized.  As with many mothers she was also certain no female was truly good enough for her son.  Add to that our large and boisterous family you can just imagine what she thought of us.  it didn't seem to matter that her son truly loved his wife and enjoyed his in-laws as she made life difficult for my sister with her snide remarks and haughty attitude.  I love my sister so you know I didn't like that, and I didn't like her; however, I was taught to respect my elders so I had to be polite when I was around her.

So--being the bratty baby sister, I had to come up with another way to show my displeasure.  Thus, whenever her and I were both visiting my sister I made it a point to play The Battle of New Orleans as often as I could without getting in trouble.  Singing along with it, I especially liked the refrain, "We fired our guns and the British kept a running, down the Mississippi to the gulf of New Orleans".  As you can well imagine she absolutely hated the song and would complain to my sister whenever I played it.  She would insist that I did it just to irritate her.  Mary would insist that it was a hit song and I didn't do it for any personal reason.  That's when I put on my best innocent look and move on to something else.  Did my sister know what I was really doing?  I don't know, I never asked

I would like to think that I've matured and become more tactful since then.  Yet, the memory still brings a big smile to my face