Grandma Henke

I grew up on Erma Bombeck, at least from 1971, when I discovered If life is a bowl of cherries, What am I doing in the pits?   I knew immediately she was my kind of person and eventually bought every single book she ever wrote.    I love her.

So when Alice had another meme on her blog which involved:

•  
  •  Picking up the closet book of 123 pages or more
  •  Turning to page 123
  •  Find the first 5 Sentences
  •  Post the next 3 sentences
  •  Tag 5 people

I couldn’t resist … but page 123 was a picture and page 124 was blank so I turned to the last page that had words before 123, which was 121.   This is the quote after 5 lines down and as I knew it would … it made me laugh:

He grabbed the camera and trained it on my hips, which look like I’m carrying two U.S. mail pouches for the pony express.  I heard the button click.

So, if you want to take part in this meme, be sure to link to me so we can read what you found.    I found it interesting to see what three lines other people had discovered.  I bet mine are the best!

After I did this little exercise I read the Epilogue of her book … did I tell you how much I love Erma?    Her epilogue is about having a week that went completely right … which, according to her is very unorthodox and threw her clear off kilter.     I’ll quote her when she reached Friday.

“On Friday, I was sobbing into a dishtowel when my husband tried to comfort me, “II can’t help it,” I said, “things were never meant to go this well.  I’m worried.”

“Now, now,” he said patting my shoulder, “things can’t go rotten all the time.  How could we appreciate the bad times if we don’t have a good day once in a while.”

“I know Im going to get it,” I said.  “Do you know that yesterday I went into the boys’ room and their beds were made?  (He frowned.” And that we got a note from the IRS apologizing for being late with our refund?   This isn’t like us,” I whined.   “The bad times I can handle.   It’s the good times that drive me crazy.   When is the other shoe going to drop?”

We heard a car turn into the garage and make the sickening scrape of a fender when it meets an immovable wall.    We looked at each other and smiled.   Things are looking up.”

Did I tell you how much I love Erma?     I have missed her.   If you click on the above picture of her book it will take you to her web site, which I was tickled to find     I discovered a link to a free newsletter that I immediately signed up for, and was bummed to find I’d just missed an annual contest.    Check it all out!

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