Gladys is a Rambler

I don’t know if I have shared this with you but I’m old. No really I am. I am old as in I get mail regularly from AARP and my insurance wants me to take an updated driver’s program in order to qualify for a discount. I’m not shy about the fact that I’m old I’m just, well a bit disappointed it happened so fast.


One minute I’m young and hip; okay I was never hip, but I was young. The next minute I turn around and I’m a grandmother. Now don’t get me wrong I don’t mind being a grandmother. As a matter of fact I always said I would rather be a grandmother than a mother. What’s not to love about being a grandmother? You get to spoil the kid, love all up on them, buy them very loud messy toys and then when their diaper is dirty; you just hand them back to their parents. Yes, grand-parenting is the sweet life. The only problem is you have to be old, well older, to be one.

I guess you could be like my friend Betsy Sue whose grandmother was only 30 years old when she was born. See it went like this. Her grandmother was 15 when she had Letty, Betsy Sue’s mom, and Letty was 15 when she had Betsy Sue and then Betsy Sue had Wanda Kay when she was 15. So Wanda Kay’s great grandmother Ida May was only 45. What can I say, they came from the shinery.


So technically I don’t guess you have to be OLD per say but OLDER.

Okay where did I loose you? Did I loose you at the fact that this family who came from the shinery had baby girls every 15 years or are you scratching your head at what the heck a shinery (pronounced shein-er-ee) is?

Let me break this down for you. Where I grew up there are fields of these short little nothing mesquite trees that are only shin high. It is flat and scrubby with little or no character, unlike the people who live there, and is a pain in the rear-end to walk or ride horses through. That is what the shinery is. Now then as far as my friend goes you try and figure out her family tree, because I’m old and too tired to.

Now what was I saying? Oh yeah, that I like being a grandmother. I really do and that is funny because I’m really not good with kids. There is all that whining and crying and fit throwing then their parents come and take them away to make me stop.

I really love it when they are really little and sweet and they still have that baby smell. I like it when they are all cuddles and smiles and laughter and play. Yep that is what makes being a grandmother fun!