Life is always interesting…surviving it should be too. From the Book of O.G.

My sweet 93 year-old Mamma has been in lock down for over a month now. She hates it. But in her typical pragmatic way, she’s discovered the best way to deal with her situation is through–what she calls–a healthy dose of “full of crappedness.”
I call her everyday, as do most of my family, not only because I love her and miss her, but also because I know my Mamma will put a perspective on this whole Covid-19 pandemic that will not only cheer me up, but actually make me laugh out loud.
A couple of nights ago, I was interviewing Mamma for the Book of O.G. I asked her how this tumultuous time compared to some of the other things she’s lived through.
Mamma didn’t miss a beat. If you know her, you can hear her belly-chuckle. If you don’t know her, imagine a woman barely 5 feet tall, sitting in a chair, her feet dangling an inch or two from the floor, giggling like a shy, high-school girl, who just got asked to the prom by the captain of the football team.
“Oh my,” she said. “Do you remember the Great Depression?”
“Really Mamma?” I answered. “It was over, 30 years before I was born.”
“I know that,” she replied, still giggling. “You don’t remember World War II, Korea, The Bay of Pigs, or most of the Vietnam war either.”
“Right…so, what’s your point?”
Mamma gulped down the rest of her chuckles, cleared her throat, and answered:
“When you’ve lived as long as me, you don’t think of terrible times as ‘Oh my gosh! What am I going to do?’ You think more like, ‘Hear we go again. Can’t wait until this is over, and I can hang out with my friends and have a smoke or two.'”
I couldn’t help but laugh at that one. Seriously, I do not condone smoking, but Mamma has smoked since she was 13 years-old, and when she can hang out on my porch with her best-friend, Arla, and have a smoke or two, she is in elderly-lady heaven.
“This is life,” she said, much more serious than she had been before. “you can throw a fit, have a melt-down, worry yourself into an early grave…or, you can accept the fact there are always good times in your life, and there are always bad times in your life. My advise is embrace the good, deal with the bad, and laugh at every opportunity.”
Her words actually choked me up for a minute, but I finally managed to ask: “So, during a time like this, I need to find a bit of humor huh?”
“Of course,” she said, giggling again. “Want to hear a good joke?”
“Yes,” I answered.
Mamma’s jokes are always horrible, and she giggles for at least 10 minutes before she gets to the punch line.
“So what’s your joke, Mamma?”
“Do you know how Idaho got it’s name?”
“Okay, I’ll bite. How did Idaho get it’s name?”
Through gales of laughter and uncontrollable giggling, Mamma finally got to the punch line.
“….So the Governor says: “What should we name this state? And the poor fellow with a heavy lisp says: ‘I don ho.’ Idaho it is!” replied the Governor in a booming voice.”
“Dang, Marget,” the fellow said. “I juth may hithory!”
I am still laughing.