Keepin' It Real With The Mysterious Chicken

I was going to bitch and complain about my SEVEN HOUR FUCKING BUS RIDE TO KINGSTON last night, but I'm over it. (SEVEN HOURS ON A BUS THAT WAS ONLY MOVING FOR THREE!!!) I'm back home for the weekend to visit the rents and to take a jaunt to Grandmother's place. Three generations of my family had a lovely lunch in Chesterville (3 points if you know where that is) and I noticed with glee that Grandma had a 2004 calendar graciously supplied by the PC party of Canada. Way to keep it real Gran.

My Grandmother is almost 90 years old and is in remarkable shape. I can only hope to be as sharp and capable as she is in the 2060's (That's right people. I am going to live long enough to find out who really shot JFK). Grandma keeps track of what's going on in our family. She does a great job of staying in touch with all the cousins, siblings and grandkids that have come out of her's and my late grandfather's families. This is no easy task as they're both from families of ten children. She's traced our genealogy all the way back to the 9th century in some cases and has started collecting photos that date back to before confederation. As she was showing my a photo of my great-great grandparents and explaining to me why my great grandmother was known as Millie (there were two women in a farm household named Margaret McEwen, so my great grandmother went by her middle name, Miller), I started asking my mother about the history of my father's side of the family.

While Mum's side of the family is really well documented, my father's family remains somewhat of a mystery to me. My paternal grandparents have been dead for awhile, so I was never really able to quiz them like I do my Grandma. In fact, it turns out that I've been operating on bad information for quite some time. I knew that Nana was from St. John's, Newfoundland and that Papa was from Southport, P.E.I. I knew that Papa's family were farmers and that Nana's family had been "townies" (people who worked in the city, not on the fishing boats). For a long time I'd thought that my Nana had been born in Scotland, because she always told me she was British and always gave special attention to the Union Jack if she ever saw it flying. Hence I concluded that Nana wasn't born in Canada. She must have come over after. I discovered that Nana had been born in Newfoundland, but when she was born, Newfoundland wasn't part of Canada. It was still part of Britain. Apparently she used to say things like "Someday Canada will join Newfoundland" and this, I've learned, is a pretty common attitude amongst people living on the big bad rock. So this means that my Canadian-ity goes back at least 2 generations on all 4 sides!

So I have to make a apology for misrepresenting myself. I'm not as Euro as I'd thought I was. I'm old school Canadian all the way. Sorry to those who were kind to me because they thought I was something other than what I actually am. It a surprise to me as well. Needless to say, I have a new task. It's time to sort out where I've come from on all sides and stop making assumptions based on things I was told as a weeun.

In other news, please enjoy this and keep it real.

Today's sing-a-long song: "I's the b'y" Folk Song

HRH