This is what my grandmother used to say.  Anytime someone was happy or silly or giddy or possibly appeared to be blissful yet also a bit out to lunch she would look at them and say “just a happy little moron”.  It was a term of endearment.

This picture is of me (the one in the front, that is).  This was my 5th or 6th birthday party at Peppermint Park in Houston, TX.  Peppermint Park no longer exisits.  It was torn down years ago.   But it was right off the 610 loop kind of near the Galleria and was probably a complete dump even in it’s heyday but I remember it as being a complete shangri la.    I loved it.

My dad’s parents were great grandparents.  Well, not great grandparents in the generational sense but in the sense that they were  great to have as grandparents.  My grandfather, Papa, was a hard working, reliable, quiet and reserved man.  He started in life with nothing and made it big, so to speak, by being a part of the Texas oil boom and being in the right place at the right time during the rise of the Texas based oil giants.  My grandmother, Momo, spent her life as a stay at home mom and wife who, once may grandfather starting rising up the corporate ladder, spent a great deal of time involved in PTAs, school based activities, and corprorate/ home entertaining, of which there was a lot of in the oil industry.  She was an outspoken woman who although could be quite opinionated at times, was great fun to have as a grandmother.  She was very colorful.  And she was the type of grandmother that when you came to visit,  put everything else aside to spent time with her grandchildren.  She taught us endless card games and tile games and we would spend hours playing them with us when we were at her house.   It was a ton of fun.

My grandfather retired at 50 years old and so by the time I was old enough to spend a lot of time at their house (that I was old enough to remember) they were both home full time and were both around for all family and holiday occasions.  With that, it is one such occasion that I could not help but think of last night and actually had me cracking up out loud, as it always does.  Here’s how it went.

I can’t recall what the actual event was (it was either Thanksgiving or Christmas) but all of the family was there.  That means both grandparents, all 3 kids, and all 4 cousins (we are not a big family).   Anyway, they had a huge kitchen and we were all in the kitchen as the meal was being cooked and we were all standing around snacking and discussing whatever we were discussing at the time.  I can’t recall the topic of conversation.  And that’s when it happened.

For whatever reason, Momo and my aunt got into it over something.  They start bickering and going back and forth, back and forth until finally my grandmother blows and says some explitives and blasts my aunt a new one (like I said, she was colorful).  At that very moment, my cousin, who is a big guy and was in high school at the time and was a male cheerleader, jumps back as if done by automatic response and goes into cheerleader stance.  He throws his legs apart, starts gyrating his hips around and gyrating his arms about in from if him in true cheerleader fashion and chants,

“Momo ain’t takin’ no crap!”

I swear to you, everyone in the kitchen immediately burst into hysterical laughter.  It caught everyone so off guard that to this day I can’t explain to you how funny it was.  Well, everyone but Momo and my aunt, that is.  They were still fuming.  But as we continue to laugh, he does it again.  And we all laugh more.  And then again.  And we laugh again.  And then we all join in and start cheering,

“Momo ain’t takin’ no crap!”

Well, Momo, being the woman she was, didn’t let this go on too long.  She put a stop to it and we all dispersed from the kitchen.  But to this day it is one of my funniest memories of being at their house.

I hope to never forget it.

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The cheer arm movements of swirling the arms around in front of one’s chest he did are just like the ones in this short SNL video clip.  Just to give you a visual (I’ve shortened the clips so it’s only at most a minute long).