So Rae and I finished Mansfield park. It was as fantastic as ever. I love Austen’s Heroes and the way the moment of clarity they have when they suddenly realize they have been in love with our heroine all the time and must immediately ( or shortly confess it). After finishing up mansfield we packed up our gear and headed back to our seats. Robert had taken residence in our seat and we felt bad about kicking him out but it was bed time. He didn’t mind though and went back to sitting with his father. We got settled into our seats and set up the computer to watch another version of Persuasion while we fell asleep. However, we didn’t quite get that far we ended up talking to Robert and his dad instead until the guy behind us got angry because he was trying to sleep. Oops. Robert was super sweet. He gave Rachael and I these small penguin keychains call CuCu’s that have a laser that projects the date and time. How fun is that. Rae then promptly fell asleep and I watched the movie myself before heading to sleep. Despite having lots of leg room I had trouble getting comfortable on the train. We should have probably spread out but instead we both tried to curl up on the same seat. Lol. I woke up early the next morning as the sun was just beginning its rise over the mountains. There was an ethereal mist hovering over the landscape as we chugged along towards whitefish Montana. Not to long after that the conductor began walking up and down the aisle announcing “ Whitefish Montana, Next stop, Whitefish Montana”. We shook ourselves fully awake and began to gather up our gaggle of luggage. Robert offered to help us get our stuff off the train. Of course when the train did stop to unload Rae was in the bathroom. As we carted our luggage off the train, Robert kept saying “ so much luggage, so much luggage” in his chinese accent. I felt a bit bad since I was only traveling for a long weekend and coming from two states away when he was coming from across the pacific ocean and staying for two weeks and CLEARLY had less luggage than us. Someday I will be a better packer ( though Rae and I did share one bag of clothes, one bag for books and one for food).
It was nice and chilly, though clear in whitefish. The train had actually arrived several minutes early so grandma and grandpa were just around the corner ( wonderfully prompt as ever). Its always so good to see the. They scooped us up and we headed towards Kalispell to do some grocery shopping and eat breakfast. Cisclo’s a small down home restaurant was AMAZING for breakfast. They do a special for anyone who gets there before 8:30 am and today’s special was the spicy skillet which was essentially an omelet with spicy sausage and hash browns all mixed together served with yummy toast. You had better believe I killed that thing. This would prove to be a fat kid vacation in terms of food. Rae and I had an unlimited amount of oreos, ice cream, cake and pie not to mention good normal food in large quantities. Food at grandmas house is always so good.
At any rate our first day was a relaxing one, we ate, Rae slept on an off, I read a book, we visited with grandma and grandpa, ran up the hill to see Uncle Larry and Aunt sue. Had an amazing lemon birthday cake with raspberries and ice cream and watched Dances with Wolves. So evidently for years I have confused the movie white fang with the movie dances with wolves. I did not love dances with wolves. The ending was sad and it was a FOREVER long movie. We also heard some good grandma stories and Aunt Sue told us how she and Uncle Larry got married.
So evidently Aunt Suzie got married when she was 16 and her husband cheated on her. Despite the fact that she already had a son, Allen, the catholic church granted her an annulment but told her she could never get married or they would excommunicate her. Years later she meet uncle Larry in her 20’s. He’s driving trucks and she is a waitress. Aunt Sue’s family loves Uncle Larry and wants to know why she won’t marry him, since he kept asking her. She said she didn’t want to because she had already been through that, and I am guessing because the church told her she couldn’t get remarried. However her family was teasing her about it one night so bad that she told them she would go get married after they finished their game of cards if they would leaver her alone. He sister bet her 10 dollars she wouldn’t do it. Right after the card game Uncle Larry and Aunt Sue headed to Indiana to some town where you could get a quick license they were there in back in a matter of hours and have been together for 52 years. Consequently her sister owed her 10$. What is sad is that when she remarried she was officially excommunicated from the catholic church. But at the same time Frank Sinatra managed to receive an annulment from his current wife so he could marry someone else ( the same thing Aunt Sue did) and because of his wealth her was not excommunicated. Per Grandma Jeanine Aunt Sue has had a bit of a grudge against the church ever since, though I can see why. She still considers herself catholic though and sends what would be her tithes to a lot of different catholic missionary and relief efforts.
People’s stories are so interesting. For instance, my grandmother doesn’t have a birth certificate because when she was born the doctor though she was dead and went to work on her mother, because she was bleeding heavily. Because he thought she was dead he simply tossed her on the bed and left her. Her aunt and grandmother however didn’t give up on her and they took her back to the kitchen, put her in some warm water, then dunked her in cold to shock her system. Then they wrapped her up warmly and put her in the over to stay warm. Because of this grandma considers herself half baked :) and she was never issued a birth certificate.
When my Aunt Noni was born her family was living in their barn because their house was in the process of being built. She can truly claim to be born in a barn and get away with just about everything. Rae also found one of grandpa’s old letters to grandma. It wasn’t overly mushy but you can still see how he cared and I could imagine my young grandfather sending it to my young grandmother. My grandfather worked in Ohio and my grandmother was in nursing school in Tennessee and so their courtship was long distance. He would call occasionally - and talk while she cried because she missed him- send letters and occasionally visit. Grandma said on one particular visit they went to the drive in movie. Something Grandma had never been allowed to do because her mother said “ good girls do not go to drive in movies” though she would never tell her why. When they got there my grandfather fell asleep because he had driven 13 hours to see her and my grandmother spent most of the movie trying to look around and understand what was so bad about the drive in. She also told us about how they went to her black stripe dinner for nursing and ended up sitting in the drive way talking for hours and hours and not getting into the house until 5 am. She says nothing happened ( and I believe her,) other than he put his arm around her. Her sister, Jomeida was suspicious though, but upon taking off her corset and having all the powder fall to the floor, her suspicions were eased.. lol. Its funny to think of my grandmother doing that, though having seen pictures of them young I can see it in my head, just because I have moments like that myself. Especially when you are first getting to know someone you like and you cannot seem to get enough of their time or talk to them enough and you forfeit ridiculous amounts of sleep to innocently do just that.
We had a lot of laughter, food and good company the rest of the weekend. We played games, watched movies, went to church, toured a historical house, watched the kayak race and made some awesome Jane Austen inspired stationary. We’ll elaborate later. For the moment we are once again on the train headed home. Rachael has fallen asleep next to me. I can’t blame her. I fell asleep earlier while we were doing a suduko puzzle ( which we aced together Whooopaaa). When we get home in the morning, mom, christian and richelle will be there for the day and then dad and jacks may stop by in the evening. I have a feeling I may not get very much census work done. Perhaps some on tuesday. We shall see. No more Safeway work for me until June 20th. I cannot believe in 2 days I will be NC bound.
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