rodents

since poppop's death (or life!) in february, our family has had a different feel, which always seems to come with the absence of a family member. while some of these changes have been very sad, others have been rather interesting-even enjoyable at times.
yesterday we invited my grandma to the movies with us before our independence day dinner. i wondered if she would be able to stay awake for the whole film, but she only seemed to nod off during the credits. she laughed at all the right parts and was so appreciative of the invitation to go to the movies, as i highly doubt she would ever venture there on her own. the movie we saw was ratatouille. i was hopeful that this pixar release would not disappoint, which i am pleased to say, it did not. the story was clever and the characters, especially the rats, were quite likeable-some became likeable quite unexpectedly! even potentially questionable material-such as an illegitimate child-was handled tastefully and went over the heads of most children in the audience. i enjoyed the humor and even left the theater inspired to be a chef. what can i say? i've always loved cartoons.
another thing i've noticed in poppop's absence is grandma's readiness to share stories from her growing-up experience. a few nights ago we learned about the exciting opportunity for children in her town-obtaining gopher tails. the common way to catch these creatures was to grab them by the neck as they came out of their holes and choke them to death...then take of their tails and exchange them for a penny, or three or even ten, in town. it was a bit surprising to hear my grandma calmly describe this occurence. when asked if she ever killed the gophers, it was her turn to be surprised that we would suggest such a thing.
"of course not! i would never touch a live gopher. i just pulled their tails out."