My father, who was born in 1925, served in the Home Guard; he worked as an engineer in the shipyard in Greenock designing submarines, which was a "reserved occupation". He loved Dad's Army, and said he identified with Pike, as he was the young chap among all the oldies!
My son LL is going to be in a hard place, as he's the son of two parents twenty years apart in age--and his father is a youngest son, while his mother is an eldest daughter. So the spread of his cousins goes from roughly 65 years old to 20, and LL is toward the younger end.
As for deaths, he's already lost my mother and sister--and with her, contact with her children and grandchildren*. All that's left on my side of the family who will talk to us is my stepdad and my brother, his wife and two children.
We just lost another of Mr Lamb's siblings yesterday, leaving only two alive--both of Mr Lamb's parents died before I could meet them. LL's cousins on that side are also effectively estranged from us.* So he's going to be alone in the world when the two of us die, I suspect, unless he can keep connections with my brother's family.
* Both my birth family and my husband's have had some ... odd ... behaviors toward us, the couple who moved 1500 miles away. I knew my family had problems, but I didn't find out till last year that my folks had painted me as some sort of heartless evildoer in my absence, and I still don't know the grimy details of what was said about me, because it's going to be hard enough to forgive them as it is. So I didn't ask. Mr Lamb's family ... well, the problem there stems largely from us being an embarrassment. Our ministry is not the kind of shiny success they'd like it to be (our people are poor and uneducated, and we don't even own our own building, and Mr Lamb refuses to wear a suit, because he hates them). And so we get shuffled into a closet, and talked about in hushed voices.
It's been very odd, finding Jesus' words coming true (you know, the bit about losing family and home for him). Because it really sucks, and yet, he has sent us new "family" a hundredfold over--mostly people who need to be cared for, but then, bio-family would be the same, so no complaints. Mark 10:28-30
All of my grandparents were. My parents were 1919 and 1920. Both were one of five (surviving) offspring, all of whom went on to have families. I have at least 15 first cousins - I say 'have', some of them could be dead for all I know. Like so many Irish, they emigrated - England and Australia for the most part.
I have no family heirlooms, no written records - they went out into the world with bare literacy of a few years basic schooling in rural Ireland. Mr F, otoh, has an archive of his great-grandfather who was a sea captain. I'm glancing up at prints on the wall that he brought back from Japan in the early years of the 20th C.
(((Lamb Chopped)))
I am the youngest of 8 children and my sons (21 and 24) have 15 first cousins from about age 11 to 50, including four from my husband’s side. I was an auntie when I was 6 and a great auntie when aged 27.
I am now in my mid 50s but began to get a feeling of doom around a decade ago when my eldest brother had a stroke and was diagnosed with vascular dementia (he used to smoke like a chimney). It hit home to me that there would be a period in my life when I would be attending an awful lot of funerals of siblings. And so it began almost 2 years ago with the death of my sister in law, and last year a brother in law.
All of my grandparents were. My parents were 1919 and 1920.
Similarly, my mother was born in 1920. My father was born in 1913 and, being at the young end of a family of 13, had brothers who were killed in the First World War.
I have a lot of cousins on my father's side I've never met and a couple of years back was contacted by someone who was doing that side of the family tree. We are the same age, and our sons are the same age, but because she's descended from one of my father's older brothers we are cousins once removed.
I also have lots of cousins on my mother's side and I'm in touch with some of them - we met up at an aunt's funeral last summer and created a WhatsApp group, as you do. Said aunt was my mum's last remaining sister so we are now the top generation of the family which is a bit sobering.
My husband's an only child and my two brothers died "without issue", as they say, so our children have no cousins. Our granddaughter may be more fortunate in that respect as her parents both have a sibling who may in time have children of their own.
My father, who was born in 1925, served in the Home Guard; he worked as an engineer in the shipyard in Greenock designing submarines, which was a "reserved occupation".
My late father-in-law was a bit younger than that. He was a marine plumber at John Brown's in Clydebank.
My parents had me in their mid forties and I have three sisters considerably older than me. I was an uncle at the age of 8. It felt really strange that my dad saw active service in WWII where most of my contemporaries had parents who had been evacuated as children during the war
I reconnected with my five Scottish (paternal) cousins after far too long, and we are all now in the 70s and 80s. I suppose it was due to distance and the fact that we were all working and raising families in different parts of the country and the world. Getting together has been a joy, though one cousin has died and another is starting to deal with Alzheimer's. It has been especially good for me to feel closer to the people still in Scotland - I've never really come to terms with leaving, and hope I don't end up making the final return journey in an urn like my father did. My mother had two sisters, one of whom married and had a daughter, so I only have one cousin south of the border, and we've never been close.
Emphasising the passage of time, my maternal grandfather recounted his memories of the earliest London Underground locomotives throwing showers of sparks, and he was at the opening of Tower Bridge in 1894. He was born in 1886, long before the first manned aeroplane flight, and died in 1972, long after people had walked on the Moon. We didn't need Google back then - you just asked Grandpa!
Colonoscopies are nowhere near as bad as they were a few years ago. The preparation is the worst part, and even that has been improved a lot. I write with the authority of one who has had ample experience of the procedure, going back to the old BOHICA method...
Not sure what the fuss is about. I had a colonoscopy in my mid forties, so some 35ish years ago and, as I recall, it was a straightforward, painless procedure if a little embarrassing. I've certainly had gynae examinations that were more uncomfortable.
Anyway, they didn't find whatever they were looking for, so there has been no reason for a repeat.
Me either. I haven’t found them to be any big deal at all. (Well, except for that incompletely cauterized spot. But I got a very good story out of it. )
If you want stories, then my best was a completely presbyterian colonoscopy: the surgeon at one end, the anaesthetist at the other and the poor devil in the middle were all good friends from the same congregation.
Me either. I haven’t found them to be any big deal at all. (Well, except for that incompletely cauterized spot. But I got a very good story out of it. )
The only thing that put me off was the drinking the preparation solution. The colonoscopy happened under general anaesthetic so was no problem.
Mrs Feet had some bad experiences trying to have endoscopies and colonoscopies (immune to sedatives, allergic to numbing agents + past medical trauma) so they eventually agreed to do the two at the same time under general anaesthetic, which we termed a "bothendoscopy". The term "clinical spitroast" was considered but rejected.
I had one and am due another in a year or so. Not sure I wouldn't rather die. The procedure's fine, it's the preparation drinking that horrible stuff - and promptly vomiting it up again.
Mrs Feet had some bad experiences trying to have endoscopies and colonoscopies (immune to sedatives, allergic to numbing agents + past medical trauma) so they eventually agreed to do the two at the same time under general anaesthetic, which we termed a "bothendoscopy". The term "clinical spitroast" was considered but rejected.
I've had this! Wish I had thought of your last term.
Mrs Feet had some bad experiences trying to have endoscopies and colonoscopies (immune to sedatives, allergic to numbing agents + past medical trauma) so they eventually agreed to do the two at the same time under general anaesthetic, which we termed a "bothendoscopy". The term "clinical spitroast" was considered but rejected.
I've had this! Wish I had thought of your last term.
I had one and am due another in a year or so. Not sure I wouldn't rather die. The procedure's fine, it's the preparation drinking that horrible stuff - and promptly vomiting it up again.
I don't mind drinking it, but it's the consequences!
I had one and am due another in a year or so. Not sure I wouldn't rather die. The procedure's fine, it's the preparation drinking that horrible stuff - and promptly vomiting it up again.
The prep they used to give you was indeed vile, but the newer stuff isn’t nearly as bad. It’s not tasty, but it’s easily doable.
I had one and am due another in a year or so. Not sure I wouldn't rather die. The procedure's fine, it's the preparation drinking that horrible stuff - and promptly vomiting it up again.
The prep they used to give you was indeed vile, but the newer stuff isn’t nearly as bad. It’s not tasty, but it’s easily doable.
And vomiting isn’t supposed to happen.
The newer stuff is adequately vile. I would like if it didn't make me throw up, but it does.
I had one and am due another in a year or so. Not sure I wouldn't rather die. The procedure's fine, it's the preparation drinking that horrible stuff - and promptly vomiting it up again.
The prep they used to give you was indeed vile, but the newer stuff isn’t nearly as bad. It’s not tasty, but it’s easily doable.
And vomiting isn’t supposed to happen.
I would like if it didn't make me throw up, but it does.
That would put me off it.
For my second colonoscopy (12 or so years ago), I was given pills. They were horse pills, and you had to take a bunch of them plus drink lots of water. But they were a breeze.
By the next colonoscopy, I was told they weren’t an option any more.
I had one and am due another in a year or so. Not sure I wouldn't rather die. The procedure's fine, it's the preparation drinking that horrible stuff - and promptly vomiting it up again.
The prep they used to give you was indeed vile, but the newer stuff isn’t nearly as bad. It’s not tasty, but it’s easily doable.
And vomiting isn’t supposed to happen.
The newer stuff is adequately vile. I would like if it didn't make me throw up, but it does.
That happened to me too. I could not hold it down so had to do the old way as an emergency. To say the least, I was clean out on both ends.
I think I passed a new marker this morning, when I dropped a load of Steradent tablets out of that fiddly long tube they come in, and spent the next five minutes crawling around on the bathroom floor collecting them from where they had rolled into every corner and crevice.
When I had a colonoscopy - just the one, pretty clean, so no more expected - the liquid went in the other end. Which is also very unpleasant, but not involving drinking or vomiting.
Today I attended a presentation by our representatives about making our city more walker-friendly and improving bus service. I asked for a timeline, and they told me they plan to have the upgrades in 10 years. At 86, I noted I would most likely be dead.
Today I was just automatically given a “senior discount.” 😳
Back when I was 53, I was out grocery shopping with my 16 year old daughter. The girl on the checkout asked if a wanted the "senior discount", which is available only to 65+.
My 16 year old managed to stiffle her laughter until we were (just) out the store and then couldn't stop laughing for a good 5 minutes. They must have thought she was my granddaughter.
Today I was just automatically given a “senior discount.” 😳
Back when I was 53, I was out grocery shopping with my 16 year old daughter. The girl on the checkout asked if a wanted the "senior discount", which is available only to 65+.
My 16 year old managed to stiffle her laughter until we were (just) out the store and then couldn't stop laughing for a good 5 minutes. They must have thought she was my granddaughter.
When I forgot my purse / wallet the shop assistant had to show me how to use Apple Wallet. At least she said she'd had to show her mum as well. [Taking the win!]
The boy we hired to cut our lawn did not show up as promised on Monday, so I cut it myself and used the weed trimmer thereafter on Tuesday. Yesterday I could barely walk. Today is a little better. I am old.
I use a wheelchair and Darllenwr has been asked if his mother wants x several times.
I know he’s my toy boy — he’s 9 months younger than me - but he’s not that much younger !
I use a wheelchair and Darllenwr has been asked if his mother wants x several times.
I know he’s my toy boy — he’s 9 months younger than me - but he’s not that much younger !
It’s rude enough that they are addressing him and not you directly, without adding to the offence!
Spent Sunday and Monday crouched under the bathroom washbasin trying to stop the waste trap pissing water over the floor. Succeeded but back aching ever since.
I’m 57, myself, so only the first two apply to my 1970s childhood.
When you realize that all of the TV shows set in the past that you watched when you were growing up… are themselves further in the past than they were from the periods they were set in.
Happy Days, 1974-1984, was set in the 1950s, 20 years before. It started 51 years ago.
The Waltons, 1972-1981, was set in the 1930s and 40s, 40 years before. It started 53 years ago.
The Wonder Years, 1988-1993, was set in the late 1960s, 20 years before. It started 37 years ago.
That 70s Show, 1998-2006, was set starting in 1976, 22 years before. It started 27 years ago.
At some point we’re going to get a “nostalgic, back in the old days” show set in the 2000s, and my brain will break. This may have already happened.
Here’s something on the other side of the coin. I’m 60 and a volunteer tour guide at a local windmill. I’m the youngest by quite a long way. When I started a couple of years ago there was much rejoicing in the team that a “young” person had joined their ranks
Here’s something on the other side of the coin. I’m 60 and a volunteer tour guide at a local windmill. I’m the youngest by quite a long way. When I started a couple of years ago there was much rejoicing in the team that a “young” person had joined their ranks
A different take on it: I have recently got into tattoos. Part of the justification is that, while I will have them for life, that probably means they will have to last and look good for 30 years, which is fair.
I think that is reasonable to accept. My body will look fantastic.
A different take on it: I have recently got into tattoos. Part of the justification is that, while I will have them for life, that probably means they will have to last and look good for 30 years, which is fair.
I think that is reasonable to accept. My body will look fantastic.
The tatoos I need (prefferably in a prominent place) are my name, address, contact number and PIN!
I use a wheelchair and Darllenwr has been asked if his mother wants x several times.
I know he’s my toy boy — he’s 9 months younger than me - but he’s not that much younger !
That reminds me of my sweet Penelope. Some years ago we had a big snowstorm and I drove over to her place (when she was away) to clear the driveway. Because I knew she had elderly parents to look after.
My neighbour, who is in his late eighties, has reluctantly decided he can't continue to mow my lawn for me. Would I look too pathetic is I attached the whippersnipper to my walker to do the trimming?
A different take on it: I have recently got into tattoos. Part of the justification is that, while I will have them for life, that probably means they will have to last and look good for 30 years, which is fair.
I think that is reasonable to accept. My body will look fantastic.
My partner and I say that one of the things our relationship has going for it is that it doesn't have to last very long, given how old we already were when we got together -- by the time we get to the point of wanting to strangle each other, we'll be too old or too dead!
My father took up New Testament Greek in his 80s, my mother has settled for taking up horse riding on the grounds she always wanted to learn but never got round to it...
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My father, who was born in 1925, served in the Home Guard; he worked as an engineer in the shipyard in Greenock designing submarines, which was a "reserved occupation". He loved Dad's Army, and said he identified with Pike, as he was the young chap among all the oldies!
As for deaths, he's already lost my mother and sister--and with her, contact with her children and grandchildren*. All that's left on my side of the family who will talk to us is my stepdad and my brother, his wife and two children.
We just lost another of Mr Lamb's siblings yesterday, leaving only two alive--both of Mr Lamb's parents died before I could meet them. LL's cousins on that side are also effectively estranged from us.* So he's going to be alone in the world when the two of us die, I suspect, unless he can keep connections with my brother's family.
* Both my birth family and my husband's have had some ... odd ... behaviors toward us, the couple who moved 1500 miles away. I knew my family had problems, but I didn't find out till last year that my folks had painted me as some sort of heartless evildoer in my absence, and I still don't know the grimy details of what was said about me, because it's going to be hard enough to forgive them as it is. So I didn't ask. Mr Lamb's family ... well, the problem there stems largely from us being an embarrassment. Our ministry is not the kind of shiny success they'd like it to be (our people are poor and uneducated, and we don't even own our own building, and Mr Lamb refuses to wear a suit, because he hates them). And so we get shuffled into a closet, and talked about in hushed voices.
It's been very odd, finding Jesus' words coming true (you know, the bit about losing family and home for him). Because it really sucks, and yet, he has sent us new "family" a hundredfold over--mostly people who need to be cared for, but then, bio-family would be the same, so no complaints. Mark 10:28-30
All of my grandparents were. My parents were 1919 and 1920. Both were one of five (surviving) offspring, all of whom went on to have families. I have at least 15 first cousins - I say 'have', some of them could be dead for all I know. Like so many Irish, they emigrated - England and Australia for the most part.
I have no family heirlooms, no written records - they went out into the world with bare literacy of a few years basic schooling in rural Ireland. Mr F, otoh, has an archive of his great-grandfather who was a sea captain. I'm glancing up at prints on the wall that he brought back from Japan in the early years of the 20th C.
I am the youngest of 8 children and my sons (21 and 24) have 15 first cousins from about age 11 to 50, including four from my husband’s side. I was an auntie when I was 6 and a great auntie when aged 27.
I am now in my mid 50s but began to get a feeling of doom around a decade ago when my eldest brother had a stroke and was diagnosed with vascular dementia (he used to smoke like a chimney). It hit home to me that there would be a period in my life when I would be attending an awful lot of funerals of siblings. And so it began almost 2 years ago with the death of my sister in law, and last year a brother in law.
I have a lot of cousins on my father's side I've never met and a couple of years back was contacted by someone who was doing that side of the family tree. We are the same age, and our sons are the same age, but because she's descended from one of my father's older brothers we are cousins once removed.
I also have lots of cousins on my mother's side and I'm in touch with some of them - we met up at an aunt's funeral last summer and created a WhatsApp group, as you do. Said aunt was my mum's last remaining sister so we are now the top generation of the family which is a bit sobering.
My husband's an only child and my two brothers died "without issue", as they say, so our children have no cousins. Our granddaughter may be more fortunate in that respect as her parents both have a sibling who may in time have children of their own.
My late father-in-law was a bit younger than that. He was a marine plumber at John Brown's in Clydebank.
And Beyond Our Ken and whichever programme had the Jules and Sandy segment. They can still be found on YouTube and I listen to them occasionally.
Every year my doctor has to tell the driving licence authority that I am medically fit to drive.
Emphasising the passage of time, my maternal grandfather recounted his memories of the earliest London Underground locomotives throwing showers of sparks, and he was at the opening of Tower Bridge in 1894. He was born in 1886, long before the first manned aeroplane flight, and died in 1972, long after people had walked on the Moon. We didn't need Google back then - you just asked Grandpa!
I've never had one. My wife has had more than one, and polyps removed.
Anyway, they didn't find whatever they were looking for, so there has been no reason for a repeat.
I've had this! Wish I had thought of your last term.
You lot are FILTHY!
Probably why I keep hanging round here...
I don't mind drinking it, but it's the consequences!
And vomiting isn’t supposed to happen.
The newer stuff is adequately vile. I would like if it didn't make me throw up, but it does.
For my second colonoscopy (12 or so years ago), I was given pills. They were horse pills, and you had to take a bunch of them plus drink lots of water. But they were a breeze.
By the next colonoscopy, I was told they weren’t an option any more.
That happened to me too. I could not hold it down so had to do the old way as an emergency. To say the least, I was clean out on both ends.
Back when I was 53, I was out grocery shopping with my 16 year old daughter. The girl on the checkout asked if a wanted the "senior discount", which is available only to 65+.
My 16 year old managed to stiffle her laughter until we were (just) out the store and then couldn't stop laughing for a good 5 minutes. They must have thought she was my granddaughter.
When I forgot my purse / wallet the shop assistant had to show me how to use Apple Wallet. At least she said she'd had to show her mum as well. [Taking the win!]
I know he’s my toy boy — he’s 9 months younger than me - but he’s not that much younger !
I’m 57, myself, so only the first two apply to my 1970s childhood.
When you realize that all of the TV shows set in the past that you watched when you were growing up… are themselves further in the past than they were from the periods they were set in.
Happy Days, 1974-1984, was set in the 1950s, 20 years before. It started 51 years ago.
The Waltons, 1972-1981, was set in the 1930s and 40s, 40 years before. It started 53 years ago.
The Wonder Years, 1988-1993, was set in the late 1960s, 20 years before. It started 37 years ago.
That 70s Show, 1998-2006, was set starting in 1976, 22 years before. It started 27 years ago.
At some point we’re going to get a “nostalgic, back in the old days” show set in the 2000s, and my brain will break. This may have already happened.
Much like church.
I think that is reasonable to accept. My body will look fantastic.
The tatoos I need (prefferably in a prominent place) are my name, address, contact number and PIN!
I hope you will be getting yours before long
That reminds me of my sweet Penelope. Some years ago we had a big snowstorm and I drove over to her place (when she was away) to clear the driveway. Because I knew she had elderly parents to look after.
A neighbor asked if I was her father.
You know. The elderly parent.
My partner and I say that one of the things our relationship has going for it is that it doesn't have to last very long, given how old we already were when we got together -- by the time we get to the point of wanting to strangle each other, we'll be too old or too dead!
I won't mention "Muffin the Mule" as he (?she) was before my time.