Tuesday 10 March 2009

Ancient Titles

Some titles sound VERY old. Great Aunt, for instance. The only people who ever talk about great aunts are themselves middle aged or older so the words Great Aunt (usually pronounced with a distinctly upper class British accent) always conjure up for me a vision of crepiness, blued silver hair coiffed in unmovable tight curls under a hat with a veil ... in short a very old but very fashionable woman of some means.

My daughters, Mud Mama and Zoom, are so far from this image that it makes me laugh.

But yes, they will be great aunts by Christmas.

I will be an Ur-Oma ... and that also makes me giggle. I am far too young to be an Ur-Oma.

But strangely enough, Debbie is exactly the right age to be a grandmother and Lindsay is exactly the right age to be a momma.

I am delighted that my eldest grand daughter is going to be providing our family with a new baby for us all to love.

Isn't it lucky that I have learned to knit with such fine wool on such tiny needles just in time to make baby clothes?

Thank you, Lindsay, and congratulations. You will be a wonderful mother.

11 comments:

Kerry said...

Mom I saw your post over at the Fraulein's - you've got to stop trying to tell people to date their gay friends! LOL Sometimes friendship is really all its about.

Oma said...

Did I miss something?

Who was gay?

Kerry said...

The undate - her friend is gay :-)

Oma said...

Oh ... I didn't know. I guess I was skimming instead of reading.

BTW The only gay people I have suggested to anyone have been bi, and only to gay or bi people ... at least I think those were the only matchmaking attempts I made. As I recall it was a stressful period and I thought she needed to find someone good quickly so I came up with one straight and one bi person I thought a lot of.

I also suggested a bi/gay man for a bi/gay man I loved very much. One of the two above as I recall.

Anyway, nothing came of my matchmaking attempts and everyone appears to be perfectly happy.

I am obviously a hopeless matchmaker ... can't even manage it in my own life.

I think I would welcome the efforts of a well meaning matchmaker ... if s/he were better at it than I am:-)

Fräulein Eberg said...

Congrats Uhr-Oma!

And Mud Mama - glad to see that you are reading the blog (I never know who is), and that you caught that one :)

And I agree with the well meanging matchmaker, if I find one, I will let you know!

Oma said...

Fraulein,
You can settle a question for me. This morning I received a note congratulating me on becoming (in the near future) an uber oma ... I learned my German when I was 13 when my Oma came to Canada ... not quite at her knee since I was taller than she was ... but the same level of kitchen German. When I took German in university I never again needed to use the word Ur or Uhr or Uber Oma so I never learned how to spell it or whether uhr or uhr was a slurred form of uber.

What is the correct term?

And do let me know if you find a good matchmaker:~)

Fräulein Eberg said...

so my 10 years of Saturday mornings at German school finally are being put to use! too bad the last course I had was 15 years ago, and I was better at conversing than writing...
I've seen uhr oma, uroma, ur oma, and urgrossmutter... but i have never heard of uber oma, perhaps a dialect variation?

Oma said...

If uber is right then I think it's like uber mensch (sorry no umlaut) ... which makes me far more important than I have ever been.

In the meantime I think I will just stick to ur-oma and wonder which spelling is right.

Tamarak said...

LOL

Uber was meant in the context of the best...not the literal 'great grandmother' but as in you will be the ultimat...the best...the head...top of the heap!!! No actual application of German was really intended, I don't think!!!

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=uber

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%9Cber

I see that Wikipedia refers to the term 'ubermench'

Oma said...

Hi Tamarak ... Glad you have stopped long enough to drop in. Miss you.

Tamarak said...

I got back into town yesterday!
I have missed spending leisurely time on my computer...but it was probably good for me to have a break from it!

Talk soon
Missed you too!!!