Thursday, July 29, 2010

Family Affair

Don't you just love it when a blast from the past comes and hits you in the face in the very best way? One of those unexpected little reunions that are just so sweet and fun? Like a little present?

So yesterday I go to the spin class that my Fitness Goddess teaches.

30 minutes of spin
30 minutes of weight/resistance training

A perfect mix...and wouldn't you know it, the darn club has gone and taken the class OFF the schedule!!!! I was really enjoying her class and getting another spin class in and poof! It's gone...

I'm going to complain like a squeaky door until they put it back on...or at least give me a Thursday spin class option.

Not many people were at the club today...it was pretty empty...seems like everyone has left Houston on vacation...except for me...

Even TCBITW (The Cutest Boy in the World) has gone with a friend to his Colorado ranch...He's gone with some friends...they are calling it "Camp for Wayward Boys"...I think the dads in charge are crazy...

moving on...

and back to spin class yesterday...

So I'm the only one in the class until this beautiful young girl comes walking in.

She's a teenager

She's sporting medals

really beautiful medals

one silver

one gold

Special Olympics medals...

VERY. SPECIAL. MEDALS.

I asked her if I could see them. She took them off and handed them to me. I'm looking at her trying to figure out where I have seen this girl and her medals. I mean, I have seen her before at spin, but there was something about the medals...

So she tells me she won them playing TENNIS

I cannot play tennis...we have been over this before in a previous blog...Tennis may well be my worst sport...just falling behind softball and bowling...

Remember...I was so bad that they didn't even make me play at camp even though it was on our schedule EVERY DAY?

So here is this child and her tennis medals...and in walks her mom...and even behind the sunglasses and (mumble) years...I know who mama is...

She is an old friend. And I tell her who I am and we share a great hug that only old friends who haven't seen each other in years can share...

Fitness Goddess and my new favorite Special Olympian look over and laugh...and Fitness Goddess says "I guess they know each other"...

And then I tell the beautiful child that I know who she is not just because of her mama, but because her GRANDMOTHER HAD SENT ME HER PICTURE ON FACEBOOK...A PICTURE OF HER WEARING THE MEDALS....

I am not always one to snap to who someone is by looking at them, but I do know "familiar" and it all fell into place...

It was lovely...and so fun to see my friend...and to get to see those beautiful medals on that beautiful child live and in person...

We had a great time in class (even though it was just the two of us and Fitness Goddess as instructor) and she was as much motivation to me as Fitness Goddess was...every time I wanted to put down the weights she would say "you can do it!"...I want her next to me every day...

I've known her family all of my life. Her great-uncle and my dad were the best of friends. It was one of those familial relationships where the line between what is "friend" and what is "family" was blurred. We spent holidays together. We traded kids on the weekends because they had kids the same age as us so we would pair up and some of the Shelton's would head to their house and some of them would head to ours to hang out with their similar-aged friend. We travelled together. We were in each other's weddings. We name kids after each other. So even though we don't technically share blood, they ARE family...

Since I like to function under the umbrella of anonymity here, we will call the family the CCC's---for Crazy C_______ Clan.

The CCC's were a large extended family. GC (my dad's friend) and his wife had 5 kids---4 girls and a boy. Before my dad remarried, we had 5 girls and a boy. Literally we were having birthdays about every 3-6 months...

GC had wonderful parents who let us Shelton kids call them "Daddy Gus" and "Meme" just like their own grandkids. GC has 2 sisters---I'm proud to say they love me enough to be my facebook friends and send me sweet messages. One of those sisters is grandmother to my new little spin partner...

So you get the picture? Large web of people...everyone loves everyone...

The CCC's are an amazing family...loud and fun and just the sort of people that if you had to be trapped in an elevator with someone---this is who you want to be there with. Any of them...

Easter was the best holiday growing up. We went to Meme and Daddy Gus' house for the best egg hunt in the world. But first we had to go to church...in Premont, TX.
And we had to dress alike. Always. Each family had to be a matching set of people.

I never did that to my kids...my sisters and I made a vow and we kept it...

So we would head to Premont (less than a half hour from Kingsville) and we would spend the night before Easter at the ranch. All of the extended family and cousins would be in. It was better than Christmas....even if we had to wear dorky matching dresses.

We would get up in the morning and the "Dressing of the Children" would begin. First would come hair---pulled into ponytails and braids so tight we would cry...or when we were older, pink sponge rollers pulled out and the girls brushed up.

Then the matching outfits...

And then off to church we would go with Daddy, GC, and various uncles. The mamas would mostly stay to get dressed for the egg hunt or to finish cooking.

We were never good in church. The priests would do the service in Spanglish. We were bad...we were too excited for what was to come...

After the longest Catholic masses in history we would head next door to Daddy Gus and Meme's house and would be held captive in the house until the dads and teenagers would get the cascarones hidden. It was a big deal when you were old enough to get to hide the eggs...

If you don't know what a cascarone is...well, it is a confetti-filled egg.

These eggs were amazing. A good number of them were plain, just dyed and topped with a colorful piece of tissue paper to hold the confetti in. But other eggs were special---they were hand-painted works of art. I still have 4 dozen of them. They are over 35 years old. They are marvels. I love to set them out at Easter and just look at them.

So once the eggs were hidden, we were released and the egg-cracking began. If you found a "pretty" egg (one of the hand-painted ones) you kept it safely hidden in the grass in your huge easter basket---I still have my basket....

But the other eggs, well, you got everyone you could. No plain egg went uncracked. Many a "wash and set" hairdo was upset by confetti in the hair.

My mother would find confetti all over the house even a week later.

Before getting in the car we were told to shake and really run our fingers through our hair. Confetti still managed to end up in the car and in the CCC's house. No amount of vacuuming ever seemed to get it up.

After the egg hunt we would run back to their house and change out of our matching Easter finery and head to the barn at the ranch for the greatest and grandest Easter lunch ever. I think there was probably 20 feet of table space laden with food. And I'm talking amazing food. EVERYTHING was unreal good. The women outdid themselves with that food. I still have dreams about that food...

We would stuff ourselves and then the adults and older kids and teens would have a skeet shoot while the rest of us hung out and played.

The most perfect days ever...

Once when I was an adult my mom, sister, and I joined the CCC's for Easter again...we hadn't for years but that year we went. So we (my sister S and I) plotted with some of the CCC girls to play a joke on our mothers.

We went out and bought matching Laura Ashley dresses.

My sister and I wore blue...the CCC girls wore a yellow version of our dress.

We did not say a word to our mothers. We just showed up ready for church in our matching dresses.

Our mothers busted out laughing. We even made the boys were matching ties. It was awesome...

So we went into church and sit down ready for the Spanglish mass. It was more Spanglish than ever...I think the priest even managed to change languages mid-sentence.

There was an overhead project for the songs...I'm not kidding...

But my favorite part...and this is what nearly got us thrown out of church....was the little vignette that was set up to the side of the alter.

Picture if you can a paper-mache heart---a large paper-mache heart that is about 20 inches by 20 inches. Around the heart is some barbed wire (the thorns). Below the heart is a large glass bowl of red jello (blood) and leading from the heart to the bowl is several strands of fishing line with droplets of the "blood" on them.

We all just lost it. We couldn't control ourselves. It was just hilarious to look at. And of course the minute one of us would start to laugh, we would all laugh. Our mothers even tried the old trick of pulling a tiny strand of hair at the base of our skulls but that didn't work. We would finally get control and then one of us would not be able to help ourselves and we would collapse into laughter. I cried because I was having such a hard time controlling myself. I couldn't even go up to communion.

The second we escaped we must have laughed for 5 minutes...it was that funny...I'm sure whoever made that little representation of Christ's heart meant it in all love and sincerity but in the middle of the Spanglish church, while wearing matching dresses, the adults in us became children. Even our mother's had a hard time not losing control.

When we moved on to the egg hunt I was 10 all over again. And even though I get hit with confetti eggs at our school/church festival every year, it's not the same as Easter Sunday in Meme and Daddy Gus' backyard.

But the food...now that was still heavenly...

So to all my friends who are members of the extended CCC clan...and most especially my young friend who is Queen of the Tennis Court (her medals prove it), I have only one thing to say:

I LOVE YOU ALL VERY MUCH AND I THANK YOU FOR SOME OF THE BEST AND MOST AMAZING DAYS OF MY LIFE!!!!!

I have many more stories of the CCC/Shelton good times but for now I will leave you with visions of cascarones and jello blood bowls...and 20 foot tables groaning with the most delicious food ever...

Inspiration Song: "Family Affair" by Mary J Blige...because that was what it was...a very big family affair...

bye darlings!

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