Wednesday 3 March 2010

The Changing Clan

Sonata :
I love the way families expand . Not that ours has reached the proportions of this Belgian clan yet . Nor , actually , do we all have a trumpet .... not yet any way .

When I was little , everyone congregated at Granny's on Saturdays . A constant coming and going of relations , blending into a mass of teasing young adults , small wriggling children being force-fed calories by great aunts , and random less-frequently seen people like the regimental dancer who demonstrated the Sword Dance when asked nicely . There was the great-grandfather remembered as The Crooked Man Who Walked A Crooked Mile , the cousins who weren't but who may as well have been , and always some poor soul who might otherwise had to do without fifteen cups of tea , a warm by the fire and the chance to listen to an elderly uncle or two .
Now we're all scattered about and I cherish the times I can enjoy family get-togethers , big or small . Grandson needs to take his turn to be stuffed full of food , teased and listened to . My grandmother and my mother would have loved this little boy who wants to be a dipsy diver and who turns into a baby spider when tired .

4 comments:

Tattieweasle said...

I love the way that when my family gets together the memoires my mother has of her grandfather and the things they did together become the stories for her grandchildren; its a continuity which never ceases to surprise me!

rachel said...

Sounds lovely..... my family is so small; just the Lovely Son and I, and very occasionally, my sister and her husband. I would love a clan gathering like yours....

Tania said...

I often ponder the 'glue' that brings and holds a family together. But right now I am too distracted by the prospect of dipsy diving. How WONDERFUL!

Liz Hinds said...

I grew up in a home living with my mum, grandparents and great-gran and as she was mother of 8, our home was the one in which everyone congregated for high-days and holidays.

I love it now when all my family come home - and that my family is growing.