Saturday, Nov. 30, 2002
Educational Weekend, posted at 7:20 p.m.
Epiphany in Baltimore has moved to epiphanyinbaltimore.blogspot.com Things I learned over the weekend, spending Thanksgiving with my grandparents, my great aunt, great uncle, and an assortment of second and third cousins:1) It's fun to get drunk with Grandma and Grandpa.
2) My grandma and grandpa got married in 1950 when she was 16 and he was 21, after knowing each other six weeks. Great grandma and grandpa C. were none too pleased.
3) That side of the family has a sense of humor so raunchy that it would make Richard Pryor blush. I'll never think of the word "girth" in the same way again.
4) Drunk raunchy Balderdash is more fun than G-rated sober Balderdash.
5) I should see my 2nd cousins more than one time every twelve years. They're pretty fun.
6) It gets cold in North Carolina.
7) I can make quiche.
8) It would have been great to put stock in IBM in 1968, because then I might be as well-off as this particular uncle. Wow.
It was a good weekend. After being in the car since 8am, I'm now exhausted, and looking forward to a night going to bed early and catching up on sleep. I listened to Elie Wiesel's Night on the way down there, and thought about my grandfather (other side), who was a P.O.W. in the Auchwitz concentration camp, perhaps alongside Elie. I listened to The Autobiography of Malcolm X on the way here, and gained an understanding and respect for a guy I realized I didn't know that much about.
It's good to be home.