My elderly Parents are arriving this arvo on their way home. We will celebrate Mum's 85th. We are going out for Indian. Simply because Dad hates anything that has any taste, it has to be bland and stewed in a bain maree for at least 2 days and have a tag "Pensioner Meals" before he will eat it....In for a shock aint he?
I have also just prepared a batch of pumpkin Scones for afternoon tea ( served precisley at 3:30 - not 2:29 or 3:31) and there may be a few left when they get here LOL! Then there will be lengthy discussions re his lighthouses that he builds with meticulous care for the local Craft shop to sell, he will also accompany me to swimming in the morning and no doubt round out his visit by going to the War Memorial, finding another WWII vet and find another mate for life with whom he will correspond long hand via snail mail. A skill forgotten by most of us....
Mum will sit down and pet Gracie, and pet Gracie, & pet Gracie, she will come to dinner without concern for the "foreign" food and say how nice it is and then say to Dad "Why don't you like Indian? this is lovely, is there an Indian place in Nowra Dear?" Then Friday Morning they will awaken in the pre dawn and wake the household by bashing saucepan lids together accidentilly while they busy themselves with a hearty breakfast, making sandwiches and thermos of tea... and leave here at 6am to avoid the traffic so they can get to Goulburn in time for Dimmeys to open - where they will buy more junk that I will have to clean up when they leave the planet.....
The scones are nice tho, Mum got the reciepe from the most famous Pumpkin Scone maker of all time, none other than Flo.....
here is the reciepe;

You need:
1 Tblsp butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 cup mashed pumpkin (cold)
2 cups Self raising flour

Method:
Beat together butter, sugar and salt with electric mixer.
Add egg, then pumpkin and stir in the flour.
Turn on to floured board and cut.
Place in tray on top shelf of very hot oven 225-250c for 15-20 minutes.

 

Basil to answer your first question "what to do when the parents visit" hell I'd cross myself three times, spin twice and spit in the corner and say ten hail Marys and three praise the lords, then run like buggary, they've been dead for ten years or so but yep you raked up some good old memory's, mums scones, and preserves, dad wouldn't eat anything but meat and veg "no foreign muck for me boy" tea at certain hours and cleaning up the souvenirs, leaving at 6 to beat the traffic, HAH! my old man used to leave at 4 am to beat the "peak hour" Basil, word to the wise, enjoy them and their little foibles while they are here, when they are gone and you have, like me, nothing but memories you will, like me, miss them like the dickens you are indeed lucky to still be able to say "g'day dad and mum" wish I could!!! give anything to be able to give them a hug!!

Hi,
     Yep elderly parents can be a pain in the backside to say the least I had them and am now one myself. Thanks for the recipe will have to give it a try.

                                       Helena

Like Dave, I'd probably start believing in the power of voodoo and black magic.
Mine died 9 years ago and are interred (get that spelling, Bas.) almost halfway around the world.
So no chance of a kindly smile and gentle touch for me.

Mum. 89 passed away last friday week, lived long and hard, and never complained.
Old Blue Mountains girl when it was still considered out in the bush.
if your lucky eneough to still have parents around, then love them, enjoy them and smile at their little funny ways while you still can. Memories are great, but not as good as the real thing.

JohnW

-- Edited by jandas fun on Wednesday 25th of March 2009 05:07:37 PM

jandas fun wrote:

---

Mum. 89 passed away last friday week, lived long and hard, and never complained.
Old Blue Mountains girl when it was still considered out in the bush.
if your lucky eneough to still have parents around, then love them, enjoy them and smile at their little funny ways while you still can. Memories are great, but not as good as the real thing.

JohnW

-- Edited by jandas fun on Wednesday 25th of March 2009 05:07:37 PM

---

Please accept my deepest condolences on your recent loss.

John

 

What would I do if my parents were to visit  ?? If only - mum died 23 years ago and dad 8 years ago I envy you still having parents to visit.  But had to laugh at the 'foriegn' food,  I used to tell my kids that they have a lot of variety compared to their grandparents and if they ever asked their nanna what pizza was she would probably reply 'well it's that tower thing that leans over in Italy'  but she did start to get into curries - 1/4 teaspoon of Keens curry powder! mmmmm!

I think it is wonderful you can tell the stories that you do, plain food that has been cooking for two days sounds like the normal diet for that age group!  I remember doing a stir fry for my MIL, I am sure she was wondering what 'rubbish' I serve up to her son!!

All those that have parents still with them, enjoy,  you will miss them when they are gone, if nothing else they make you smile! 

Basil Faulty wrote:

---

My elderly Parents are arriving this arvo on their way home. We will celebrate Mum's 85th. We are going out for Indian. Simply because Dad hates anything that has any taste, it has to be bland and stewed in a bain maree for at least 2 days and have a tag "Pensioner Meals" before he will eat it....In for a shock aint he?
I have also just prepared a batch of pumpkin Scones for afternoon tea ( served precisley at 3:30 - not 2:29 or 3:31) and there may be a few left when they get here LOL! Then there will be lengthy discussions re his lighthouses that he builds with meticulous care for the local Craft shop to sell, he will also accompany me to swimming in the morning and no doubt round out his visit by going to the War Memorial, finding another WWII vet and find another mate for life with whom he will correspond long hand via snail mail. A skill forgotten by most of us....
Mum will sit down and pet Gracie, and pet Gracie, & pet Gracie, she will come to dinner without concern for the "foreign" food and say how nice it is and then say to Dad "Why don't you like Indian? this is lovely, is there an Indian place in Nowra Dear?" Then Friday Morning they will awaken in the pre dawn and wake the household by bashing saucepan lids together accidentilly while they busy themselves with a hearty breakfast, making sandwiches and thermos of tea... and leave here at 6am to avoid the traffic so they can get to Goulburn in time for Dimmeys to open - where they will buy more junk that I will have to clean up when they leave the planet.....
The scones are nice tho, Mum got the reciepe from the most famous Pumpkin Scone maker of all time, none other than Flo.....
here is the reciepe;

You need:
1 Tblsp butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 cup mashed pumpkin (cold)
2 cups Self raising flour

Method:
Beat together butter, sugar and salt with electric mixer.
Add egg, then pumpkin and stir in the flour.
Turn on to floured board and cut.
Place in tray on top shelf of very hot oven 225-250c for 15-20 minutes.

 

---

Hi Baz

Unortunately both our sets of parents are gone. My mother 34 yrs ago. The rest from 2001 -2003 .Miss em all. Particlarly my father - he loved boats and I never got to show him any of mine. Ah well such is life.

 

Of course it is a generation thing.....I can remember eating coleslaw for the first time, who in their right mind would serve raw cabbage with a few other veges in it chopped up in Mayonaise?    You'd have been put in an asylum had you served that before the 70's when things were liberated....

I think those who went through or at least remember the great depression have a rather more pragmatic out look. They do not believe in throwing things away, Dad has rolls of Nichrome wire to rewind electrical elements where as we simply thro out the whole thing if the element burns out.... Eating out was just not done, fish & chips was a big deal, then came the clubs and a night at the club was then a big deal.

My FIL refuses to eat out unless he CAN SEE the food stewing away and anything that has a fancy name is eschewed vigourously, but if you serve him **** au vin as chicken casserole he is happy with it, but he goes ape if he can get sausages in onion gravy that have been simmering away for a day or so with spuds thrown on the plate, peas all mushy....

Of course all this is toungue in cheek, I love my parents dogmatic approach to life - it has taught me to be tolerant I guess but I still have a snyde gybe @ Dad wanting a pie and chips for lunch when there was so much healthier options available, tonight will be an experience for him, but once he has eaten and can see that some guy serving him in a turban is not going to shoot him and the food is actually tasty he will be looking for an Indian place near him, I think it maybe the fear of something new and a lot of us are fearful of change.
All good fun - he wants me to visit as he has "lost" the cursor on his PC oh dear me where can it be?

Helena wrote:

---

Hi,
     Yep elderly parents can be a pain in the backside to say the least I had them and am now one myself. Thanks for the recipe will have to give it a try.

                                       Helena

---

These scones are really delicious, mine lasted about 3 minutes.....

 

jandas fun wrote:

---

Mum. 89 passed away last friday week, lived long and hard, and never complained.
Old Blue Mountains girl when it was still considered out in the bush.
if your lucky eneough to still have parents around, then love them, enjoy them and smile at their little funny ways while you still can. Memories are great, but not as good as the real thing.

JohnW

-- Edited by jandas fun on Wednesday 25th of March 2009 05:07:37 PM

---

Sorry to hear that, My families are all long livers, it was not that long ago that my grandfather died, Yes the memories are good, the things my Pop & I got up to would make news today. I remember when the electric trains got to Campbelltown, Pop was connected with the railways and got us seats on the first train, got us seats on the last steam train to Richmond. We used to travel to Mudgee to a family farm and Pop & I used to ride in the cab from Penrith as his mate the inspector got off at Penrith leaving the way clear for us interlopers. The there would be words at Wallerawang from Mum who would give Pop an earfull "Look at the colour of him!!" with me looking like something out of the B&W Minstrals LOL.... ah yes memories....

 

G'day,

Was Raised in Zimbabwe so was used to having rice instead of potatos and BIL said "He is bloody mad, he has pudding with gravy on"

John

Basil Faulty wrote:

---

These scones are really delicious, mine lasted about 3 minutes.....

---

Blessed things just don't keep, do they?

 

I'm sorry to hear of your mother's passing John W. I really didn't have parents - well mum died in '55 when I was 4, and I wasn't close to my dad. He left the earth in 2004 aged 76. I was raised by my maternal grandparents until they passed in mid 60's, when I was in my early teens. I often wondered what it would have been like to be part of a real family. For heavens sake discourage the hoarding! Do everything you can to reduce the collection while you can. I spent days sorting out dad's collection of various sized off-cuts of corrugated iron, the unused results of clearing sales, and all forms of clothing, bottles, jars and you name it, he had it, including disused cars. It was the most unpleasant legacy to deal with. Some of the furniture was genuine antique, and I managed to sell these, and the clearing sale sorted out the rest. And yet it was really funny to rationalise what he gathered for Justin, "just in case I need it". I was cursing him for hoarding all this stuff, when he knew for about 6 months he was going to go. The day before he was admitted to hospital he was on the roof fitting a chimney for the firebox he'd installed in his little cottage at Swan Reach. But he was a great improviser and a real bushy making something out of bugger all. He converted a mini minor to drive the saw bench. I always wondered at his motives and methodology, but not always kindly. Don't let them gather junk you'll have to sort out later. Have fun with that, while you're loving them. Cheers Granny