Sometimes the smallest moments can have the biggest impact. I like to write about the tiny things that felt huge to me.
Also, I love sharing my grandmother's journals, which are small books full of a big life.
Liz has two newts named Harold and Maude. They used to belong to a guy she liked, but she agreed to take them when he moved to Seattle in 1994.
Yes: 26 years later, Liz is still taking care of those newts.
That is cool.
"The Argentine horned frog and the Corn snake, they lived normal lifespans," Liz said. "But these newts ... they must be the longest living newts ever!"
Maude.
Now, newts aren't exactly interactive pets. They can't fill your lap with warm, purring fur. They can't happily join you for walks. They can't even perch on your finger and nuzzle you with their beak. In fact, to her newts, Liz is at best furniture that moves. Furniture that only one of them seems to notice.
"Maude acts like I'm not there, while Harold reacts every time like I'm the most amazing thing he's every seen," she said with a laugh.
Her newts, Japanese fire-bellied newts to be exact, might not give a lot, but they don't need a lot, either. Just a small
tank with water and some fish food flakes every few
days. The only time they were high-maintenance, she said, was when she drove them across several states.
"I drove soooo carefully," she recalls of her move to Arizona. "I couldn't make any sudden turns or their poor fragile bodies would go sloshing back and forth in their travel tank."
But as bad as she felt moving the newts, she was never going to leave them behind.
"We're pretty much bonded at this point," she said of the creatures who have stuck around while several human partners, cats and even goldfish have come and gone. "Never once have I thought to try to ... not have them anymore. They are so helpless and it's not like I could just give them to a pet store, and I'd certainly never release them. I think if I ever couldn't take care of them, I'd have to give them to someone who I know would take good care of them." Because, she admits, they feel like her children now.
In case you don't recognize them, the newts' names are from the title characters in the 1971 movie Harold and Maude, about a young man and a much older woman who fall in love.
Every day my grandmother wrote down what time she woke up, where she
ate breakfast, what movie she went to see,
what mail and phone calls she received, then what she read and what she
watched on TV before going to sleep.
In
1995, she was 79 years old and living alonein a mobile home park. I wouldn't describe her as lonely; she was an extremely independent and persnickety woman whom I never knew to live with another person or even a pet. (I wrote more about her life in this earlier blog post.)
A
short walk from her home in Santa Cruz, Calif., was the famous surfing
spot called
Pleasure Point. One of her favorite things to do was to walk along
the cliffs above the waves and watch the surfers. When she died at 97 in
2013, I took her ashes to Pleasure Point with a friend of hers and we
each dropped some at the shore. A moment after I dropped mine, a surfer
emerged from the water where I stood.
That was cool.
In February of 1995, my grandmother was watching the O.J. Simpson trial, studying French before her next trip to Paris in April, and seemed very concerned about the landscaping being properly maintained at her mobile home park.
Wednesday, Feb. 1, 1995 Up at 9 a.m. Breakfast at Jack's. Library, got tapes of French. Saw movie "Before Sunrise," enjoyed. Sunny day, some weed work. Papers, French. Bio of Sammy Davis. Bed 10 p.m. No sleep til 3 a.m. Up, took aspirin. Wake 8:20 a.m., noted dog droppings in yard.
Thursday, Feb. 2, 1995 Up 8:20. Mark cutting grass. Breakfast McDonald's. Trader Joe's. Home 10. Some weeding. Watched trial. Mail 12:45 p.m. 1099s, report on pension fund. Worked on girls' accounts {by girls she means me and my sister} and taxes. Watched trial, news, Mad About You. Bed, news. 82 degrees! Warm. Friday, Feb. 3, 1995 Warm. Up 9 a.m. Breakfast Burger King. Albertsons. Worked in yard. Weeds, got avocado out, (Larry helped), put dirt in brown tub. Mark cut grass, terrible! To Kmart, got Boxwood bush, Xmas plant, garden gloves. Trial, Denise Brown. Cried. To masonry place, got .75 sand. Back 4 p.m. Planted Boxwood. Transplanted noble plant, dead? Watched X-Files, Homicide, Taped Under Suspicion and Picket Fences. Bed 11 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 7, 1995 Up 8:30 a.m. Breakfast at McDonald's. Service terrible! New employees, back-ups, no coffee on stand. To bank, got balance. Home, called Pro Cuts, haircut. Home 11:45 a.m. Some yard work in back, read. Some trial, news, French. Good program "Cracker" on A&E. Watched Frasier, bed after news. Read Casanova a bit, cold in night.
Wednesday, Feb. 8, 1995 Up 9:30. Breakfast Carl's Jr. French toast! Walked in mall, looked for pink turtleneck. Lane Bryant has one, $9.99. Read paper, book til 2 p.m. Read at library until 4:20 p.m. Got muffin at Rebecca's, juice at Trader Joe's. Movie: "Madness of King George." Mail: Receipt from elder hostel.
Monday, Feb. 13, 1995 Mary andI had breakfast at Kmart. Home. Yard work. Larry cut, doesn't sweep. Wrote Mercury News regarding left to right? To mailbox, Mary says Larry gave two-weeks notice. He finally swept back walk in front. Tuesday, Feb. 14, 1995 Cold in night. Mary called, go to Live Oak for Valentine's Meal. Breakfast at Lyon's, no gas. Went to Longs, walked Capitola. Home 12:30 p.m., read papers. To Live Oak for dinner. Songs, chicken, talked to some ladies. Alice Campbell died. Home 4:40 p.m. Watched news, Frost Mystery, French 1 hour. Frasier, NYPD Blue. Bed, news. Tired.
Thursday, Feb. 16, 1995 Awake 12 a.m., 2 a.m., 4 a.m. and 9 a.m. Breakfast at Burger King. To Kmart, got sunblock. 30 SPF. Bank, home 12 p.m. Watched some trial, French. Read papers. Watched Morse, ER, Mad About You. Mail, letter from Carla.
Saturday. Feb. 18, 1995 Up 9 a.m. Breakfast at donut shop. Got Lotto ticket. Drove {Highway} 17 to San Jose, bought salmon t-shirt. Macy's for cologne, Estee Lauder. Got gas, fast food. Home 2:30 p.m. Watched figure skating. Bed, read.
Sunday. Feb. 19, 1995. Up 9:30 a.m. Mall for coffee + muffin. Lilli there, talked. She has a daughter and son. He is Mormon, has seven children in Boise, Idaho. She is going to Hawaii in April. Went to show, "Hoop Dreams." Good, sad. Lucky, home. Called regarding bank account. Watched Murder She Wrote, taped Voyager and Silence of the Lambs. Tuesday, Feb. 21, 1995 Couldn't sleep, took aspirin. Up 9:45 a.m. Breakfast Carl's Jr. Went to mall, looked at Mervyn's, Ross, JCP. Got gloves at JCP for $21.11. Gave young man $1. Longs, home. Called bank. Watched O.J. trial. Owners cut grass, swept and watered lawns, raked and swept. Watched Morse. Carol called, talked 1 hour. Watched Mad About You, Frasier, NYPD, Morse again.
