A grandparenting rebrand? It’s all relative
Grandma feels quite oblivious to the belated realization that many grandfathers are searching for an alternative (C8) to the tried and tested, but the examples keep coming. Bruce Roberts, of Guildford, recalls: “With the birth of my first grandchild, I was slow to decide what my new name would be. It was taken away from me and I was assigned Groppy (a mix of Grumpy and Poppy). How rude! And of course, it’s never right.”
Wahroonga’s Jim Pollitt says his wife Chris “decided to be called Crispy (Chris P, geddit?) by her grandchildren, but the eldest kept saying Pispy, so my wife decided on Pipi and I became the father.”
“It was clearly confusing when my great-grandson was learning to talk and my son was calling Pop. I “Dad, so it was decided that I would somehow take the name Fossil Pop, and naturally the name was shortened to just Fossil,” writes David Roberts of Dondingalong. “He laughs a lot when he’s in public!”
Eastwood’s Barry Lamb enjoys “trying to imagine legislation ‘collapsing’ in the same way as imagining hospital beds being closed and figures being released.”
“Not content with a simple column, Grandma took over an entire page in Friday’s issue. reporter Kiama’s Nola Tucker says: “Is this the beginning of more Netanyahu-inspired land grabs? An ambitious old lady can do a lot with a pair of knitting needles. How about getting rid of the boring sports pages? And maybe editorials? Unnecessary. Grannies always know what’s going on; often swearing. Who reads business news except to get depressed? Granny’s Rule! Go grandma, go!”
“What a legend for the Pillar Warriors,” says Pymble’s Daniel Low. “George is featured in the featured article and then repeated as the final contributor to the main column. I’ll be lucky if I see a review to congratulate him.”
“Not using the toilet (C8) when the train was stopped was absolutely essential on the steam trains I rode to and from boarding school in South Africa in the 60s,” recalls Leura’s Ken Arnold. “The flushes of these toilets operated a hatch that opened directly onto the road below. I believe the toilet on the Artemis II spacecraft operated in a similar way. I wonder if there was an equivalent space-age sign.”
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