The Mauneys

My mom, brother, and I would always go to the Mauney’s for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners.  I think the Mauney’s were friends of people who let my mom live with them when she came to the States from Taiwan in the 70’s.  I’m not really sure since my mother never explained things to us and I think it was because she thought we didn’t deserve to know anything.  That or she didn’t think my brother and me were important enough to know anything like that.

When we arrived, we’d get out of the car and my mom would sternly say, “Go to the door and knock, bring this dish Charlie.  And Dulles, take this flower arrangement.”  It was always awkward going up to the door and being greeted with my mother still dillydallying at the car.  She always made things harder than need be.  I’ve always thought, “What’s the difference?  Why can’t we just go to the door at the same time?” 

Mrs. Mauney’s daughter would open the door and let us in.  Then we would be surrounded by older adults that we had nothing in common with.  This is quite possibly the point in my life where I got my disdain for small talk.  My brother and I would be bombarded by a slew of conversations like, “How’s the weather Bonnie?”  “I picked up this great dog calendar for you Jeanette.”  “Taste this mother, was I supposed to put sugar and milk in the rice?  Or just butter?”  There wasn't a Nintendo in the house or anything to pass the time for Dulles and me.  We had to succumb to watching Unsolved Mysteries.  Robert Stack's voice is still so vibrant in my mind.  Probably because he was also the voice of Ultra Magnus in the 1985 animated Transformers movie.

And what's disturbing is that holiday's are supposed to be about joy and family time, but with my mom it was about being ignored at these get togethers.  It was her way to show off in front of other people and telling people how bad my brother and I were.

Once at a Thanksgiving dinner at the Mauney's my mom got everyone in a circle like a Boy Scout campfire and talked about how I spent 40 cents on an ice cream sandwich.  I actually thought I did something wrong but at least Martha, Mrs. Mauney's daughter stepped in and contended for me.  "If he wants to get a 40 cents ice cream, let him get a 40 cents ice cream, there's nothing wrong with that."  In my head what I was thinking was, If I want to get a fucking 40 cents ice cream, I'll get a 40 cents fucking ice cream. Okay, maybe I didn't think that at the time, but that's what goes through my head now.