My little grandson was over with us today, he’s eight now, he was playing football out in our side garden with some of the neighbours kids.
When they were finished he came indoors complaining of a slight headache, the wife was all over him like a rash, hugging and mollying him like a baby, she was embarrassing him, I could see that in the boy.
Too much sun I told him and sure enough when he cooled down and had his dinner he was as right as rain again.
It brought me back to my own childhood, the older brother and me were mostly raised by my fathers mother, we were very happy with that, she was a tough old bird, but fair, she had been through a lot of hardship and poverty in her own childhood so it wasn’t easy to shock her, you could say she instilled confidence in both of us, making us aware at a young age that the world was no bed of roses for most folks.
Anytime the brother or me complained of pains and aches she used to say “Stop moaning, it’s only growing pains”. To this day I still don’t know what growing pains are or if you can get something to ease the growing pains. Any pains I get now I just think of them as growing old pains.
If you asked her what the best thing for a cold in the head she’d say “Keep it till it gets better”.
Another thing she’d say if you got a minor bruise or cut on your arms or legs was “Don’t worry about it Jem, it’s far from your arse so yeh won’t sit on it. The old bottle of iodine was the cure all back then, and boy did it sting.
She was a funny old dear with a charming smile, she liked a bit of harmless devilment and we loved her, I still think about her regularly.
Yes your head would have to be hanging off yeh by a sinew before you got any sympathy when I was a kid.