I sit here right now after the ambulance has taken away the criminal that is still remarkably alive after the attacks on Boston. Watertown is cheering and I have tears in my eyes. I am giddy.
Today I picked Curly Girl up from Grandma early because we are having a storm. I wanted to make it home before the traffic. The downside is that A) We couldn't go out and play ... and B) I really didn't want to go out and play because I wanted to watch the news.
She won't ever let me sit and watch TV so I planned painting and craft projects before dinner and and a long bath afterwards. So I could watch the news....
She had none of this. I kinda, sorta engaged but she caught on. She got irritated and yelled at me -- MOMMY! C'mon!!!
I had a flashback...
1973. I was 7. It was summer. I had control of the TV. Until the Watergate hearings. But SAM seemed to be in control of everything.
I had to Google tonight to know the exact name to whom I am referring. I just remember him as SAM. He was Sam Ervin. I hated him.
I had a clear schedule of Captain Kangaroo and Gilligan's Island. But this, before there was a 24 hour news channel, and before there was more than one TV in the house, interrupted my whole world. Mom said it was important, and she changed the channel against my will and sat there and watched SAM no matter how much I protested.
So, Curly Girl, a bit of history for you. My Mom, your grandmother, really thought she might be brought up in the Watergate Hearings. It's silly to think now, but she really worried about it. Your great-uncle Jack was a Secret Service Agent, and when he flew with Nixon to Knoxville to do a huge Christian gathering with Billy Graham (another reason I didn't like Republicans from an early age -- Nixon and Billy Graham took my Daddy away for weeks so he could sing the choir and I was bitter) Uncle Jack called my Mom from Air Force 1. My mother, from whom I apparently got most of my DNA and attitude, decided that might be a great time for her to complain about Nixon, telling Uncle Jack that she voted for Nixon for his second term because he said he would stop Vietnam, but it didn't happen and now her son (your Uncle Rob) was up for the draft. She demanded "What is he DOING? When is he going to STOP THIS WAR??"
Uncle Jack said, "Susie, Susie calm down!" And suddenly another voice came on the line who said...
"Jack-- does she know she's being recorded?"
So she watched those hearings like a hawk.No matter how much I needed to have my Gilligan time she worried her name would come up.
I also remember that no matter what, when Daddy came home every day, whatever channel I had on was turned to the news at 6. And Mom and Daddy would sit down and watch. They might have been diverted if I had been on fire or had a bone sticking out of my skin, but other than that, they watched the news.
So, all of this came flooding back to me while Curly Girl was protesting my watching the news, but I watched the news. Some might say I'm a bad Mom. I say it's a good example if done in moderation. I say that watching Watergate and the news every night ended up turning me into a newsy. Given the choice, I'm always on a news channel. I take pride in knowing what is going on. I go to sleep with news on and wake up with news on. That's how I like it, and I'm proud of that.
I wish I could ask my Mom if her objective was for me to know current events. I don't know if it was that thought out on her part, but it IS that thought out on my part. I want Curly Girl to have working knowledge of world events that are age appropriate for her. I want us to discuss events and get her opinion and share mine.
So, in the end, I guess I don't hate SAM (that much) after all....
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