Thursday 12 June 2008

Memories

While reading Terri's excellent post about nostalgia, I remembered a story that my grandfather used to tell us when we were little.

When he was very young (we are talking before the First World War here) he lived with an old woman who had sort of adopted him, this was always very vague and I don't think anyone now knows the full story. She was not very kind to him and he more or less hated her. She had very poor eye sight, which has a big bearing on the story.

Anyway, my grandfather and his younger brother were playing in the garden while the woman cooked dinner - some sausages. Being very poor she cooked the food over the fire, not having a proper cooker.

Anyway, the boys were playing around and one of them found a dead rat. Not having much in the way of toys, they started playing with it, throwing it higher and higher and catching it again. Then one of them threw it and it didn't come back down again - they didn't know where it had gone.

A while later, the woman called them in for dinner. In they went. Then something caught the eye. There, in the frying pan, was the dead rat, now thoroughly cooked. It had fallen down the chimney!

Suddenly not hungry, they ran for their lives. But the woman never talked about it, so my grandfather's only conclusion was that she must have eaten the rat along with the sausages, not being able to see the difference.

He used to cry with laughter when telling us this story, I guess it was his one victory over that old woman.

Hope you haven't got sausages for dinner!

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Now THAT's a great story! Although, I'm not going to be too quick to eat sausages again any time soon.

Rock Chef said...

Terri - I love it - so glad you made me remember it. I am going to have to go and tell it to the kids now!

Jahooni said...

Great story my friend. And here I was hungry for some sausage today!

kenady said...

Hilarious!! Tears are streaming from my eyes I am laughing to hard! Thanks for sharing!

LPeterson said...

That is really funny. Rock Chef, I've been to your site dozens of times, and never commented, i enjoy reading so much, thanks for leaving a note! I'll comment more often. And London Broil is a type of (cheap) steak. We're having some grilled tonight, it's tasty if it marinated long enough.

Logzie said...

Ah...revenge!! That is quite disgusting...did she die of disentary?? :)

Sitting In Silence said...

What a great post !

tz said...

I'm kind of gagging!
although I'm glad your grandfather was able to come away with a funny memory of his childhood...

i'm catching up..so also, great pictures of the beach below...and happy anniversary!

Logzie said...

Happy Father's Day to one of the best fathers I know! :0)

Logzie said...

it's Father's Day in the U.S....I didn't even think about if it was in England or not. Oh well...Happy Father's Day anyway...you're an amazing Father and you deserve to be told that weather it's an official holiday where you are or not!

kenady said...

I'm with Logzie! Happy Father's Day, Rock Chef. You are one of the best fathers I know. Hope you had a great day:)

Rock Chef said...

Jahooni - "Was"? Not any more?

Kenady - Glad it came across as funny when I told it - otherwise it is just gross!

Ipeterson - Welcome! London Broil sounds such a fitting name! I love it!

Logzie - Well I don't think it was the rat that killed her, so it can't have been that bad. In fact, we are talking about 1910 here so the chances are that, once cooked, the rat was more healthy than the sausages themselves! Great to see you here, by the way!

Sitting in Silence - Thanks!

tz - I don't think you are alone. You should have seen the looks on my kids's faces!

Logzie, again - Yes, it was Father's Day here too. Thanks!

Kenady - Thanks! I did have a great day, check my next post (when I do it, that is!)