My late mother watched what I think was entirely too much situation comedy television; it made her crack wise, like, ALL the TIME. Sometimes it got a little too much.
“Mom,” I would say, “you’re driving me crazy!”
To which she would reply,
That’s not a drive, it’s a short putt.
::sigh::
This post is part of Linda G. Hills weekly blog hop, One-Liner Wednesday. If you have a one-liner or just like them, follow the link.
A WRITING PROMPT FROM ME TO YOU: Somebody drives somebody else crazy.
MA
bikerchick57
September 29, 2021 at 9:19amThat is a lot of TV. Did your mom channel TV ads too? I’m wondering if she overused, “Where’s the beef?” like many others did.
Marian Allen
September 29, 2021 at 9:25amOh, yes, she channeled commercials. “Good to the last drop” got a lot of play.
bikerchick57
September 29, 2021 at 9:28amMaybe your mom was a frustrated stand-up comedian and you were her audience. Probably fond and funny memories now, but not so much back then.
Marian Allen
September 29, 2021 at 9:35amYou are so right on all counts. She WAS funny as heck. Back when I was young and struggling with self-esteem and self-actualization, zingers weren’t helpful. Now, though, I can look back and grind my teeth — er, I mean laugh.
RAAckerman@Cerebrations.biz
September 29, 2021 at 9:20amClearly, she never considered miniature golf.
Marian Allen
September 29, 2021 at 9:25amLOL!
Dan Antion
September 29, 2021 at 8:02pmYou come from a long line of rich one-liner sources. That’s great.
Marian Allen
September 30, 2021 at 9:33amI do, indeed. 🙂
Yeah, Another Blogger
September 29, 2021 at 9:03pmHi. Which were her favorite sit coms?
Marian Allen
September 30, 2021 at 9:37amBack in the day, Sergeant Bilko (Phil Silvers). Let’s see…. Barney Miller, All in the Family, The Jeffersons, Frasier. After that, she said sitcoms were all about sexual innuendo and she lost interest. Cheap laughs. I could never get her to watch The Big Bang Theory, so I still haven’t seen more than a couple of episodes, because Charlie wouldn’t watch them at all and I only watched with her.
circadianreflections
September 30, 2021 at 10:16am😂
acflory
October 2, 2021 at 5:23amlol – so, was your Mum a golfer? Or did she simply learn all those lines from the tv?
Marian Allen
October 2, 2021 at 1:49pmShe learned them from tv. The only golf she played was miniature golf.
acflory
October 3, 2021 at 3:25amOh! Well, at least your Mum had a wicked sense of humour. My Mum spent the last couple of years housebound watching The Bold and the Beautiful. 🙁
Marian Allen
October 4, 2021 at 9:32amMy mom spent the last of her years housebound, too, watching Murder She Wrote, Columbo, and The Rockford Files.
acflory
October 4, 2021 at 8:37pmI admit to quite enjoying Murder She Wrote and Columbo, back in the day. Don’t remember the Rockford Files.
Part of the reason I’ve spent years volunteering to teach adults how to use computers is because of my Mum’s experience of being ‘locked in’. She would not have known one end of the a computer from the other, but I always wondered how much longer she might have lived had she been able to escape into the internet. :/
Marian Allen
October 5, 2021 at 8:10amThere was probably nothing you could have done. My mother was computer savvy before I was because of her job in accounting, but her dementia robbed her of that. She forgot how to use the software and even how to connect to the internet (she had dial-up). The television, with the “oldies” channels, were wonderful for her. (The Rockford Files was a show with James Gardner as a cheap detective living in a trailer on the beach; he had been imprisoned for a while and had some shady friends. It was pretty funny.)
acflory
October 5, 2021 at 10:21pmOh Marian, I am so sorry. I didn’t realise your Mum had dementia. My Dad had it too. 🙁
Marian Allen
October 6, 2021 at 9:07amShe lived in her own home until the last month of her life. I believe she could have shuffled on for longer, but I was afraid she would fall. She had a feeding device on a pole that she pushed around, a cane, and an oxygen tube, and that was just too much tripping hazard. All she did was sit with the tv on, but she could dress herself, do her own bathroom stuff, and give the cat a little food now and then. I live next door, so I was there at least half of the day. She liked being in her own home. Funny story: I arranged for Home Health to come in a few times a week, supposedly to give me a break, but she insisted on my being there when they were, so not so much. 😀
acflory
October 6, 2021 at 7:06pm-hugs- The progress of your Mum’s dementia sounds very similar to my Dad’s. Dad always played the violin, but in his 60’s my ex suggested he go busking [as a joke]. Dad took him up on it and became kind of famous. He went into the city every single day for over twenty years, even after it became obvious that his mind was slipping. After Mum died he came to live with us and I’d go pick him up from the bus stop every night just before dinner. Dinner conversations were like a three-legged dog because Dad had lost his English and the Offspring only spoke one or two words of Hungarian. But…he was happy and healthy until he had a fall. He died six weeks later at 89. I think focusing on what they /can/ do, especially if it’s something they love, reduces the impact of the dementia. Dad became a sweet stranger, but every now and then there’d be a flash of the old Dad, the one I’d adored as a kid.
Marian Allen
October 7, 2021 at 9:21am-hugs to you- Your dad sounds like a wonderful man, as my mom was a wonderful woman. She used to knit mittens all summer to take to the schools and youth center in the winter for kids whose families couldn’t afford them. <3
acflory
October 8, 2021 at 1:18amI wish I’d met her, Marian. She sounds like such a big hearted person. Keeping her memory alive is important.