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He goes trick or treating, but she and her DH replace the candy he gets with chocolate truffles, raisins, dried organic fruit, fruit leather, and Lara bars. Then THEY eat his replaced Halloween candy...the Butterfingers, Nestles Crunch, Reeses, Rollos, etc. (and give what they don't like to me).
Well, that was a dirty trick, lol. Has he caught on to it yet?
I laughed out loud! The most famous family story in my father's family is the following:
Every house in town had an outhouse, theirs was in the backyard near the edge of a ravine. The town finally got public sewage extended to their street, and everyone was required to have an indoor toilet and to cease using the privy.
My grandfather installed the mandated toilet....and then refused to let the family use it! So, they all were slinking out to the outhouse (probably to the amusement of the neighbors.) There were 7 or eight kids in the family, and one day the second oldest, a hefty teenager, shoved a plank under the privy and over a log and was bouncing on it. He even enticed a younger brother, lamed by polio to hop on behind. The ancient privy was shuddering when my grandmother caught sight of them out the kitchen window. She sneaked across the yard, hopped on at the right moment and the outhouse teetered over into the ravine.
She and the lame boy fled, leaving her teenager holding the bag.
Long story short, there was going to be bloody hell to pay, but as her older son was about to get the strap she stage-managed her lame child into the room with a dramatic confession that he alone had done it.
My grandfather was totally disbelieving, of course, but faced with a confessing little villain and two solemn witnesses, he had to swallow it all. And for that son punishment was not on the menu.
Indoor plumbing had finally triumphed.
Lol, thank you for the wonderful family story. I'm glad my silly post made you remember that. Perfect timing. At least he didn't build another one back there. Was the toilet even hooked up to the sewer? I kind of don't blame him. My ex husband, and I had a perfectly good septic system, but the town was making people switch to the new sewer . It was just one more bill that we didn't need. The sewer charge went by how much water you used, even if it was water for the garden. I thought that was a ripoff .
Lol, thank you for the wonderful family story. I'm glad my silly post made you remember that. Perfect timing. At least he didn't build another one back there. Was the toilet even hooked up to the sewer? ....
I don't remember hearing if he had actually hooked it up yet or not. It was always just stated that their dad had made them continue to use the privy....had never thought of that.
It would be difficult to reconcile this story with the reserved grandmother I knew as a teenager if it was not for one caper she pulled in her mid-seventies. She spent a long widowhood living with a generous, but very conservative well-off daughter and her family. I heard stories that she sometimes chafed at her daughter's regimen.
In the Fifties when her daughter was off preparing their summer home for the annual family residence, Gram slipped off to her other daughter, a woman made of much plainer stuff and with three teenage kids, where she ate bags of potato chips and drank soda pop! and was left on her own with the kids a lot.
This time her son-in-law, whose profession required him to stay in the city all week, received a call from the police. It seems they had his aged mother-in-law in custody...she had been picked up with a bunch of teenagers in the streets. Seems the gang of kids had been drag racing...and my grandmother had the role of dropping the flag to signal to cars to floor it and go roaring off .
She was collected by her son-in-law, and packed off to her enraged daughter's summer home. We learned of the story from my uncle - the young lame son in her outhouse adventure many decades in the past. He had become quite successful and lived a very swank upper middle class lifestyle, but he was cut from different cloth than his sister, and he was so convulsed with laughter that it took him forever to tell my parents what my grandmother had been nabbed by the cops for.
I heard that when he was visiting his sister several weeks later she launched into a denunciation of their other sister and her kids whom my grandmother had been visiting. Unfortunately not only did my uncle fail to keep a sympathetic and straight face, he burst out laughing and could not stop again...and his sister was miffed with him for weeks afterward.
These food restriction stories are funny, I was raised in an opposite situation. We had boxed chocolate donuts for breakfast every day and every night before bed we had a "party" which was a Pepsi and a full size candy bar. Not kidding - this was how we were raised. Mom tells me now that she liked chocolate too. I never had broccoli or cauliflower until I was away at college.
We were all active and weren't overweight. I didn't raise my kids that way, but I wasn't overly strict at all. Now that I'm older, I really see that I can be addicted to sugar so it's better if I avoid carbs as much as possible.
I don't remember hearing if he had actually hooked it up yet or not. It was always just stated that their dad had made them continue to use the privy....had never thought of that.
It would be difficult to reconcile this story with the reserved grandmother I knew as a teenager if it was not for one caper she pulled in her mid-seventies. She spent a long widowhood living with a generous, but very conservative well-off daughter and her family. I heard stories that she sometimes chafed at her daughter's regimen.
In the Fifties when her daughter was off preparing their summer home for the annual family residence, Gram slipped off to her other daughter, a woman made of much plainer stuff and with three teenage kids, where she ate bags of potato chips and drank soda pop! and was left on her own with the kids a lot.
This time her son-in-law, whose profession required him to stay in the city all week, received a call from the police. It seems they had his aged mother-in-law in custody...she had been picked up with a bunch of teenagers in the streets. Seems the gang of kids had been drag racing...and my grandmother had the role of dropping the flag to signal to cars to floor it and go roaring off .
She was collected by her son-in-law, and packed off to her enraged daughter's summer home. We learned of the story from my uncle - the young lame son in her outhouse adventure many decades in the past. He had become quite successful and lived a very swank upper middle class lifestyle, but he was cut from different cloth than his sister, and he was so convulsed with laughter that it took him forever to tell my parents what my grandmother had been nabbed by the cops for.
I heard that when he was visiting his sister several weeks later she launched into a denunciation of their other sister and her kids whom my grandmother had been visiting. Unfortunately not only did my uncle fail to keep a sympathetic and straight face, he burst out laughing and could not stop again...and his sister was miffed with him for weeks afterward.
Rofl, You go grandma. Love how she cut loose. She needed a black leather jacket to go with her bad self. I bet she was glad to get out of that stuffy household. Some adult kids can be so darn sanctimonious, like mine. No sense of humor at all. At least when it comes to me. It's good that someone back then knew how to laugh. I hope you are writing these stories down so they won't be forgotten.
It's been determined that farm kids, who grow up exposed to many different kinds of animals and bacteria, have stronger immune systems and lead healthier lives, than those who are sheltered from such exposures.
^^Thanks for posting that Kibbiekat. I was going to respond to that but I guess I got distracted by stories about outhouses and such and didn't.
To the PP to whom you responded, we discussed the "hygiene hypothesis" upthread a bit. There is soooo much misinformation about this hypothesis. There has also been swine flu at numerous state fairs this summer. Do a search of the thread for some links. https://boingboing.net/2018/08/17/th...e-control.html
There is absolutely NOTHING to support drinking contaminated water, or eating dirt. Some dirt can be heavily contaminated.
If you're going to make a statement like that, you need to post some proof.
I've heard the exact same thing that Steve said for years. I thought it was common knowledge. How can you build a strong immune system without being introduced to various things that are out there? That is how your body develops antibodies against certain diseases. That is the idea behind vaccines.
I've heard the exact same thing that Steve said for years. I thought it was common knowledge. How can you build a strong immune system without being introduced to various things that are out there? That is how your body develops antibodies against certain diseases. That is the idea behind vaccines.
Anyone not living in a bubble is getting "introduced" to many "various things", e.g. antigens daily. It is not necessary to be exposed to potentially fatal diseases for the immune system to work properly. https://www.delimmune.com/a-guide-to...ps-us-healthy/
That is not exactly the idea behind vaccines. Vaccines expose the immune system to specific antigens which the immune system then produces antibodies to, e.g. pertussis antigen exposure produces antibodies to pertussis without making you sick because it's just enough exposure to make antibodies.
I've heard the exact same thing that Steve said for years. I thought it was common knowledge. How can you build a strong immune system without being introduced to various things that are out there? That is how your body develops antibodies against certain diseases. That is the idea behind vaccines.
I'm not a doctor, but I do work in public health, and I can tell you that you don't go around "introducing" your child to E. coli, as was likely in that stream and pond water, or salmonella, like these 4H kids got. E.coli in particular can cause kidney failure and can kill young children. There are also different strains, so even if you build up some immunity to one, you can still get another. The flu virus mutates constantly, which is why we have to get the vaccine every year. Norovirus constantly mutates, so you are only immune for maybe 6 months after you get it.
I see a lot of, I'm guessing, grandparents on this thread making the mom out to be the bad guy helicopter parent. The truth is mom had a good reason to want to keep her kid out of that gross water. For kids who are big enough to follow directions and wade not swim, and not splash enough to ingest the water it is probably safe enough. For little kids who might fall, or put their face in the water, it might not be.
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. It was just one more bill that we didn't need. The sewer charge went by how much water you used, even if it was water for the garden. I thought that was a ripoff 
.
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Love how she cut loose. She needed a black leather jacket to go with her bad self. 
I bet she was glad to get out of that stuffy household. Some adult kids can be so darn sanctimonious, like mine. No sense of humor at all. At least when it comes to me. It's good that someone back then knew how to laugh. I hope you are writing these stories down so they won't be forgotten.
