Happy Grandma Day!

Dear Mago,
It's been a while since you were here, but this is just to let you know that both you and mother Anne are with me yet. Since it's Mother's Day this weekend in Sweden (2 weeks later than in the US), I thought I'd publish this poem you wrote some sixty-five years ago (in another notebook):

Last night the house was very still
And I was most asleep
When all at once I heard a sound
And quickly from my bed did leap
The radio was on full blast
So I went down to see
What uninvited guest was there
And what trouble was in store for me
When I peeked in the living room
It was a shocking sight
My pretty sticks of furniture
Were in an awful plight
The rugs rolled back; the chairs upset
The gadgets all awry
And viewing devastation
I sat me down to cry.
Then all at once I had to laugh
For right there in plain view
Were both your naughty children
Doing dances you taboo.
Gep Murphie, Ginger Rogers
Rita Hayworth, Fred Astaire
Couldn't emulate the antics
Of that silly little fair.
They'd execute the tango
With real Terpsichorean grace
And every little movement
Was reflected in each face.
But the thing that was most shocking
Most disgraceful – most obscene
Was the jitterbug gyrations
Of that amazing little team
Right then and there I stopped them
And sent them off to bed
You can bet your bottom dollar
That their derrieres were red.
And when the darlings were tucked in
And sleeping very sweet
I thought I'd see what I could do
With my once dancing feet.
And whoopee! It was lots of fun
To jitter and to jive
To feel my blood a racing. And to know I am alive.
Oh, well, these war time parents
Who are flitting here and there
Can't expect a poor old grandma
To give the proper care.
So if you come home suddenly
and find us/in the movies/ on the slag
I feel so young and giddy
I think I will step out
With the younger generation
And learn to whoop and shout.


How lucky I am to have had a grannie at all, and a grandma like you no less!

Your devoted granddaughter