I just started reading, The life and times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson. I'm only about 50 or so pages into the book but already I've been laughing out loud. Even though the book is a memoir of his childhood growing up in Iowa during the 1950's, it has spurred some memories of my own.
First, he talks about how his mom and sister would always go shopping to the big department store in town and finish their day of shopping at the stores tea room, on the upper floor. This just brought memories flooding back of when my sister, cousin and I were kids and my Grandma would take us school shopping downtown to the ZCMI center. After our day of shopping, she too would take us to the "tea room" at the top of ZCMI called The Tiffin Room. At the time, the Tiffin Room was one of the fancier places I'd ever been to and I was so happy every year to eat lunch there. It was fancy and a bit stuffy with lots of dowdy old women drinking tea and us...my grandma and three rambunctious girls. My sister and I were never good eaters and the menu was a bit intimidating - lots of salads and dainty girl food. My cousin always ate salads, like a rabbit, but Haley and I generally settled for a hamburger, on the fanciest bun you've ever seen. Condiments on the side. Oh, the memories.
In the book, Bryson also talks about how when he was young, 5 or 6, and his mom had to hurry to leave the house, she took him with, along with the "toity jar". The jar, which come to find out, was one of any number of jars under the kitchen sink, was for him to, you know, toity in, when he didn't have a chance to go before leaving the house. Now, my family has never had a toity jar, nor would they ever, but it reminded me of a time when I was a university student working one of many part time jobs. I had to travel to St. George to help with an educator conference and I rode down in the white state van with my boss' secretary, who brought her two sons along. The boys were probably 12 and 4 at the time and around Cedar City on the drive down, the younger boy needed to use the restroom. If I were driving, I would have pulled over, found the nearest rest stop, or town and let the little guy take care of business. Not Donna. She told that little boy to pee in the mini toilet she had brought along for just such an occasion. You see, we had to get to St. George in record time and we just couldn't stop?
Luckily, I was in the front seat (silently gagging) and luckily, the 12 year old was so embarrassed by his goofy mom that he refused to let his little brother pee in the car and he begged and pleaded for his mom to pull over. She did, saving little boy from using the van toilet and me from throwing up. This might explain why the 12 year old later asked if he could stay in my hotel room with me. Or not. I didn't let him in case you needed to know.
First, he talks about how his mom and sister would always go shopping to the big department store in town and finish their day of shopping at the stores tea room, on the upper floor. This just brought memories flooding back of when my sister, cousin and I were kids and my Grandma would take us school shopping downtown to the ZCMI center. After our day of shopping, she too would take us to the "tea room" at the top of ZCMI called The Tiffin Room. At the time, the Tiffin Room was one of the fancier places I'd ever been to and I was so happy every year to eat lunch there. It was fancy and a bit stuffy with lots of dowdy old women drinking tea and us...my grandma and three rambunctious girls. My sister and I were never good eaters and the menu was a bit intimidating - lots of salads and dainty girl food. My cousin always ate salads, like a rabbit, but Haley and I generally settled for a hamburger, on the fanciest bun you've ever seen. Condiments on the side. Oh, the memories.
In the book, Bryson also talks about how when he was young, 5 or 6, and his mom had to hurry to leave the house, she took him with, along with the "toity jar". The jar, which come to find out, was one of any number of jars under the kitchen sink, was for him to, you know, toity in, when he didn't have a chance to go before leaving the house. Now, my family has never had a toity jar, nor would they ever, but it reminded me of a time when I was a university student working one of many part time jobs. I had to travel to St. George to help with an educator conference and I rode down in the white state van with my boss' secretary, who brought her two sons along. The boys were probably 12 and 4 at the time and around Cedar City on the drive down, the younger boy needed to use the restroom. If I were driving, I would have pulled over, found the nearest rest stop, or town and let the little guy take care of business. Not Donna. She told that little boy to pee in the mini toilet she had brought along for just such an occasion. You see, we had to get to St. George in record time and we just couldn't stop?
Luckily, I was in the front seat (silently gagging) and luckily, the 12 year old was so embarrassed by his goofy mom that he refused to let his little brother pee in the car and he begged and pleaded for his mom to pull over. She did, saving little boy from using the van toilet and me from throwing up. This might explain why the 12 year old later asked if he could stay in my hotel room with me. Or not. I didn't let him in case you needed to know.
4 comments:
The technical term (used by truckers) is 'Golden Sunshine bottle".
Drive past a rest stop with a keen eye.....that's not mtn dew!
I went to the Tiffin Room with my Grandma, too! Such good memories. :)
James has many a story of how many water bottles certain men were able to fill in Iraq. There was NO stopping, regardless of how loud you whined or cried.
I remember eating grilled cheese at the Tiffin room.
haley
This guy once told me that during a funny movie, he had to go and did not want to leave. So he got out his 32 oz. cup and filled it there in the movie theater. I think he was trying to impress me.
And then one time on a date, we went into the mountains with a bunch of people and roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. When we were leaving the guys made all us girls get in the car and they peed on the fire to put it out. And by the way, that is a lovely small.
love me
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