Friday, August 31, 2007

Ending #1

Let me see if I have this straight. April comes back from the farm excited about what she has done there. The progression is supposed to be that she rides horses better than she used to, and she can drive the truck. Last year, Uncle Danny closed out the farm sequence seriously talking to April about what it would take to get into veterinary school. The year before that, we had our last visit with Grandpa Will and Grandma Carrie where they told April she had a natural aptitude for horses. In comparison, this visit to farm nets us, the reader, very little. I had the expectation that April would declare she is definitely going to be trying for vet school, and some announcement of something she has done to move to that goal.

After April gets back, we have food strips, and the regular season closes with April, Michael and Meredith gathered around the refrigerator while Elly and John express the belief that their children will never truly leave them alone, so long as they keep the fridge stocked with food.

I think my mother had a similar belief when I graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She expected me to find a job around the town where she lived, and I would live with her until the time came for me to move to my own place. In reality, what happened was I got a job which started a few weeks after my university graduation and it was in Texas. I cleaned out my room when I moved, and I have lived on my own ever since, with my mother lamenting for over 20 years now how I don't live closer.

Now my grandmother had the life my mom expected to have. She and my grandfather bought a house in the same town where my mom lived, after my mother and father got divorced, on the premise she was just there to help, in case my mother needed help. That move netted her tons of grandchildren time, and she could not have been happier. However, what got her that time was not a stocked refrigerator full of greasy food. What got her that time was going to virtually every thing we grandkids were doing, and offering baby-sitting to my mom as she was having to go back into the dating scene again.

What we have presented with Elly Patterson is an odd fantasy. The grandmother gets attention from her kids and grandkids with no more effort than making a meatloaf and making the "snacrifice" of buying a few butter tarts without raisins from the store. She doesn't have to leave her home, except for the butter tarts. Her family comes to her. She didn't go to the mall to see April play for the telethon. She doesn't play with or read to the grandkids, much less babysit the grandkids, in the 9 months since that apartment fire.

There are some people who write into that Coffee Talk with Elly who say the Pattersons are just like they are. I cannot relate to Elly Patterson at all. My grandmother is my model for how I plan to behave as a grandparent.

4 Comments:

Blogger April Patterson said...

Elly certainly does not put the "grand" in grandmother.

BTW--something I thought might amuse you. I have an invisible hit counter at ARB. I am able to see the referring links that people use to get there, if applicable. Remember Michael's post about Elly's birthday celebration? Well, someone was doing a search on birthday candles to express "40" in roman numerals and stumbled onto ARB. :)

4:17 PM  
Blogger howard said...

XL ent.

5:36 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

April, how many hits per day, on average, do you get at ARB? I'm just curious...

Anon NYC

5:41 PM  
Blogger April Patterson said...

I average 100+ unique hits per day. My hits tend to increase for Liz/Anthony stories and pretty much any story arc in the strip that gets a strong reaction from readers. Also, someone occasionally links me at a popular site, and I'll get a surge in traffic from people who click through out of curiosity. Like once I got more than 800 unique hits. :)

6:43 PM  

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