Thursday, December 10, 2009

They Need Me, They Really Need Me!

I've been out of town for a few days.
What started out as a fun 3-day-weekend with my sister turned into a fun 3-day-weekend, with an additional 3 days of when-am-I-going-to-be-able-to-get-home?? as 700 miles of blizzarding cold front came between where I was, and where I wanted to be. 

Finally though, I got to drive home yesterday - with minimal white-knuckleage on the way, thankyouverymuch!

I am so SO glad to be home.  But the state of my house when I got home reminded me of an episode of Andy Griffith that apparently made quite an impression on me as a kid watching one day after school.



(I wanted there to be a clip here - but apparently the clip I wanted has been disabled from the sharing process.  You'll just have to imagine it  - or you can watch the episode on youtube if you want.)

clip1
clip 2     <-------this is the main part I was remembering.
clip 3




Basically, the gist of it is that when Andy and Opie are on their own for a few days, their house becomes a disaster area, and then they clean it up before Aunt Bea gets home... only to figure out that if the house is clean, they send the message that they don't need her.  So they mess everything up again.

(Don't worry - no spoilers here.  But I WILL tell you that there's a tricky surprise ending!)


The clip also made quite an impression on me today.  Only the impression I got today was about how much Aunt Bea is not the old, plump fuddy duddy that I always thought she was.   In fact, listening to her rant in clip #1 sort of reminded me of some rants I've been on recently.

Crap.  I'm Aunt Bea.
 
Except I'm pretty sure Aunt Bea wouldn't say "crap".

Anyway the point is... by the looks of the house when I got home during this busy busy week -- They REALLY need me.

It's not a perfect system.  But for today I'm OK with it.

17 comments:

LisAway said...

It's nice to feel needed.

And Aunt Bea who says "crap"? Sounds like a good balance.

Unknown said...

I don't even need to watch the clips. Knew from the get go which episode you meant. Wow, I am old...

JoLyn said...

Love it - it's nice to know you're needed!

. said...

I was gone for a whole 5 hours on Relief Society Christmas night and my house was in shambles - they didn't need 6 days. I guess I'm REALLY needed around here. Sigh.

Dave said...

nat wonders how a GNO can be relaxing when it takes her a day to get the house ready for us so she can go, and then 2 days to recover from it :-)

And who's Aunt Bea?

Dave said...

and wow, 112 followers. that's impressive :-)

that's 28 times more than me :-)

John said...

First time reader:

I think our house is usually a disaster after 3 hours of no mom. It stays the cleanest if we all go. We like to say: "There is Beauty all around when we're not at home."

rocslinger said...

Aunt Bea was a progressive. I'm quite certain that June Cleaver never left the house, did she dare?

Yvonne said...

Do you think your family asked themselves, "How come the house doesn't look like it does when mom's here???".

It was so nice of them to let you know they missed you.

mormonhermitmom said...

I'm home and the house is STILL a mess. I guess I need an AUnt Bea.

Emmy said...

Glad you made it home safe. And it isn't it great to be needed? Those sometimes a little less need might be nice.

Heather said...

Maybe the just messed up the house on purpose so you wouldn't leave them alone for 6 days with The Brains cooking... huh, huh!!

Loralee and the gang... said...

I'm an Sunt Bea, too. Sigh.
;~D

Sue said...

Well a long time ago when the kids were little and I'd go to RS Alan would clean up and do the dishes and put the kids to bed and fold laundry, pretty much everything I didn't get done during the day. I would brag to those poor sisters who would come home to kids asleep on the floor in front of the blaring TV and the house trashed. Then I learned to keep my mouth shut because several husbands actually got mad at Alan and were just a little unkind to him. But I looked at it as "I trained him well, he knew I would flip out if he didn't at least put the kids to bed. The rest he would do just to keep busy - this was before computers. (Okay, I still have never learned to keep my mouth shut) Go Aunt Bea!

Corrine said...

glad you made it home, glad you were missed and sorry you had to return to a state of neediness of you (aka a destroyed house)

beckers said...

cute episode! I have to say that I don't need to be needed in that way.... feel free to clean up the house before I get home anytime. That's just me though.

Jennifer said...

Funny...we are all becoming Aunt Bea....just go with it!