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This weekend I was lucky enough to spend a fun enjoyable evening with 3 of my sisters. There are 6 girls in our family altogether and 4 of us have 13 children between us. Yes, we are the typical large Irish family, a bit mad and very busy.
Yes, this is us, if we were tanned, rich and on TV!
Anyway, in the last 10 years or so, us girls have never had an evening to ourselves without somebody’s kids or partners being around. What a joy it was to sit on Saturday night and have a chat without someone being hungry, tired, crying or needing a wee. And I’m just talking about us adults there! So for once we had time to reminisce uninterrupted about some of the things we got up to as children. One of the best laughs of the night was about how our granny let us smoke cigarettes.
I was 10 years old, my sisters were 8 and 7. Our cousin, a worldly wise 11 year old, spent a lot of time with us that summer, educating us in the ways of the world.
One day, between the 4 of us, we bought a packet of 20 cigarettes, borrowed a box of matches from the kitchen and made our way to the garden shed. There we lit a cigarette each - no passing just one around – and we started “smoking”. A few minutes later we saw our Granny approaching so we quickly extinguished the cigarettes and pretended to be doing nothing. (Isn’t that a typical kids response, “what are you doing there?” “Nothing!”)
After Granny left we “smoked” the rest of the cigarettes. Well, there was no point in leaving evidence around, was there?
I don’t remember, but we must have been blue from lack of oxygen by the time we finished, not to mention just reeking of the smell of cigarette smoke. We thought we were so cool and that we had got away with our little smoking experiment.
It was only years later that my mother told me that she had sent Granny to the shed that day because they saw smoke and thought the shed was on fire!! Granny reported back that there was no fire but found it very funny that we were all obviously smoking. My mother was about to rush out and stop us when Granny said “Leave them. They’ll have their fill of it and won’t do it again”. So they sat and waited to see our sick grey faces emerge from the shed later in the day. I do remember feeling very ill that day.
How right Granny was. We never tried smoking again.
Granny was a wise woman. Even if she did leave us in a timber shed with a box of matches!!
LMAO I love the wisdom of our parents and we thought they were so thick at the time we did these sorts of things. It is only now I am a parent myself I realise how silly we were to think they had no idea.
Thanks for linking up. xxx
It sounds like you grew up in a fun family. i love the idea of lots of sibling.; I only have one brother and I always wanted lots of kids, but I chickened out when I got to 3
I chickened out after two!! Yes it was fun growing up in a big family. It was a pain in the butt too though.
It was impossible to have any belongings of your own and I really appreciate space now because everywhere in our house was full of people when I was growing up. But the good thing is we still all get along – most of the time!
What a great story! And what a wise Granny!
Thanks Lois. She was a very wise and very strong woman. We were lucky to have her around.
What a funny story to read and what a great Granny she must have been! I often wonder what my mum knows that I thought she didn’t at the time … not game to ask though! Sisters are the best
I know, I haven’t asked my mother what else she knows!! Parents are obviously a lot smarter than we give them credit for.
My mother and grandmother would have been all over us! Thats a funny story. I loved your comment on my blog. I hope you will share often!
My mother would have killed us if not for my gran being there. I think grandmothers have expert knowledge from raising their own kids so they know sometimes its just as good a lesson if you let things ride.
loved your story – tell us more about you family and life growing up in a big family
Thank you for the suggestion. There will be more big family stories soon.