JumpStart by Robb Armstrong for May 17, 2013

… just smile and nod, Joe, smile and nod …

My mother used to get mad when she’d pause for a breath and someone would ask, “Which Carol?”

Sounds normal. My mom talks about her family to some who never met them. She is the only surviver she outlived her siblings. She is 88. Her sister lived 89 with advancing Alzheimer’s. My mom’s memory is stronger of the past then the present.

It’s my dad! He never met a stranger in his life… he’d strike up conversations while waiting in lines and always find someone they knew in common.

Whenever me and my Mom have these conversations, I just agree with her and imagine K-Pop in my head

I had the same problem growing up. Mom’s Grandma had 16 kids and her mom had 8 more. Most of her aunts and uncles had big families. Last big family reunion had 100s.

My mom talked nonstop as she got older. At my older daughter’s graduation, she would buttonhole my daughter’s classmates and their families and regale them with tales of Uncle So-and-so, even with me begging her to stop. I’m trying not to be like that (well, not as much).

I hate conversations like that. My daughter has an annoying habit of saying, "remember? " for mething that happened to her when I wasn’t even there. It is soooooo annoying. I’m like, no, sweetie, mommy wasn’t in your chemistry class when that incident took place.

My sister’s late father-in-law could be dropped by parachute into any country on earth and find someone that he knew. Some people are just like that.