November 11th...

       I can't "remember" a Remembrance Day that wasn't dark, dreary, rainy and gloomy, they all seem to be that way. In fact, I find it one of the most depressing days of the year--there's just something about it, a feel. The now barren trees have lost most of their brightly coloured leaves, the days are growing increasing shorter (like my memory and various other things) and you know this rain isn't going to let up for months. It makes it hard to remember summer. 

     As I have also shared in a previous blog it was at this time of year when I was ten or eleven my Mom's Dad, my Grandpa Bill had committed suicide. Morbid I know but the body wasn't found for six weeks and I used to picture him out in the park behind a fallen tree, covered in leaves with the gun at his side. I don't think of it often now but it lurks. I remember how defeated Dad looked after he identified the body.

                                    With me Mum...








                 Grandpa Bill...funny, he always sat in a chair like that. Well not a chair "like that"...  but in that way. 

     Uncle Al (Dad's only brother), Bill and my Dad. Throw away the cap and give 'er.

     Around this time as well Dad was going through a bankruptcy and had to sell the house and move the family--he was out of town a lot with a new job he had started. Everyones drinking had escalated and I remember the first time I stayed home from my new school and caught my Mom drinking wine out of the bottle at ten in the morning. I was horrified and remember yelling at her,"What are you doing?!?'

     Anyhoo, enough depressing Remembrance Day rememberances. Such is life. I just thought I'd share a little...