Tuesday, March 8, 2011

100 Commentaires and Merci Beaucoups

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This entry marks my one-hundredth post. 100. I remember when my great-grandmother turned one-hundred and the family had a grand celebration that brought relatives to Rhode Island from across the country and down from the Province of Quebec, including Grand-mama's sister's family. I was fifteen at the time, and Grand-mama's birthday marked not only a century of living, but for me, a certain fin-de-siècle: the end of life as I knew it in my backyard, and the beginning of a life-long friendship with relatives in Quebec. It marked the first time I traveled by air with my same-aged cousin Pascale (Grand-mama's sister's granddaughter)whom I thought so glamorousshe still isreturning home from Montreal. Just the two of us.

It was a certain coming-of-age.

There was timorous footing on water skis. The long, measured drag of a cigarette. Sweet, raw honey scraped from its cut comb. Singing all things Supertramp. Driving a car. The taste of hashish. And beer. French television. A Grateful Dead concert. Dining on frog's legs. Summoning the spirit of Little RoseFrancophone mystic-stigmaticin her garden, by the statue of St. Francis cloaked in brown garb, his cupped hands doubling as a bird feeder. Spinning of the bottle. Learning every word to Bob Dylan's Hurricane. The dissection of a heavily formaldehyde-scented frog. And a first kiss. Ribbit.
  
Not to say I was corrupted by my French relations, or that any of these scenes were set in Canada, or with my cousin. Non, non. It was all so many years ago, and the haze hanging over those years is grey and dense, and who remembers when anything so long ago really happened, or precisely what happened. It could have been a hundred years ago. It might as well have been!

But it was not. It was most certainly when I was fifteen.

I have another special affair to acknowledge in this one-hundredth post. Though it didn't occur when I was fifteen. The matter being my recent receipt of an awardthe Memetastic Award—from Caterpillar, a sweet blogger friend. Go see her. Darling and sparkly, she is.


Many thanks to Caterpillar for recognizing my blog, and passing this award along to me. And many thanks to all of you who've come along for the blog ride.

I'm not sure of the award's origins, but as with many blog awards, it's delivered with some rules, which in this case are as I like themsimple: a) Tell four lies and one truth and let your readers decide which one's the truth; and, b) keep the award rolling.

Well, there are fictional and non-fictional illustrations in the third paragraph of this post. I think. So, have at it.*wink, wink* 


To keep it moving forward, I shall lavish the lovely Kate
a stupendous sonneteerat Suppertime Sonnetswith the Memetastic Award. Congratulations Kate! 

One last rumination: mememtastic
—is that a word? Not in my dictionary, but it did remind me of the French term for grandmother: Grand-mère, or Meme for short. Which reminded me of Grand-mama (and her 100th birthday), who wouldn't permit me to speak in any language except French. En Francais!

Comme ce:



Bon soir mes amis. C'est tout!

26 comments:

  1. And hopes for a 100 more. You are truly an artist.

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  2. Congratulations on your 100th post! And congratulations on your award. I’ve tried to pick out the lies and truth, but found it impossible as the paragraph flows together so well and it all sounds like things that could happen, especially at age 15.

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  3. And add two editor picks! Felicitations mon amie! (hope I said that in French the right way)

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  4. Congratulations, on the award and the 100th post!
    I have yet to hit 100 myself...

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  5. Congratulations on the award and the 100 posts! One could only hope to live to 100 and be surrounded by a wealth of loved ones as your grand-mama was. I'll be happy to live to 80 and have grandchildren nice enough to bring me a beer.

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  6. Well congo-rat-ulations dear J Girl! Though a late comer to your writings I have thoroughly enjoyed your take on life.
    In a sense you are creating a 'meme', which is roughly translated a piece of cultural information passed on from one to another via words or writing. You are involving yourself as are all your good followers, in changing a cultural idea of how information is passed along via your blogs.
    I look forward to reading your twoo hundredth post x

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  7. Big CONGRATS on the 100 and the award. Here's toasting to another 100 :)
    Jules @ Trying To Get Over The Rainbow

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  8. Congratulations on hitting 100--and with such panache! I loved this post and I WANT every word of that paragraph to be true, so for me, it is.

    It has just dawned on me that we have certain interesting things in common. In addition to the fact that we are both writers, dammit, I lived for a few years in Rhode Island (loved it) and my relatives are also from Quebec (New Brunswick, too).

    Thanks for your great comment over at my place today. Your beautiful blog will be on my blog roll at The Magpie's Pen when it goes live on Friday.

    xoxo Gigi

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  9. rc- Thank you! Time for a trip over to your place...

    Jane- Coincidentally, my Advanced Fiction professor's recent assignment to the class was to write a short autobiography combining facts with fiction. The timing was perfect!

    Lin Ann- Parfait Français. And yes, two! That's scary.

    Indie- Thank you - glad you stopped by. I'll be by for a visit. ;)

    Beer- Ha! I'll bet they'll be happy to serve you beer and hear all the stories. (You'll have to compensate them some way!)

    Dan- Ah! Thanks for clarifying that for me. Now I get it's *award* origins! (I still have a bit to learn when it comes to cyberspace.) So happy you're a part of this cultural exchange. ;)

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  10. Jules- Thanks, much! Cheers to you, too!

    DB- 100 posts in about 9 months. It may take longer for the next 100 - but I'll work at it!

    Gigi- and there is more: My family has a place in Maine, and a favorite road trip is to New Brunswick, and I will be changing my blog header photo back to a photo I took in NB (time to replace the snow-covered trees - and I'll bet you'll know where I snapped it), and well... more I won't tell here! ;)

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  11. Congrats on your 100! I'm not sure which part above is the untruth, but I do know your post spun a web of rememberances that were fairly magical.

    Keep up the wonderful posts!

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  12. hello jane,

    nice blog with attracting posts. i realized there are some french roots in you: formidable!

    vivent les francais et ce qu´ils sont loins de la.

    je vous aime :,-)

    faucon

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  13. Sounds like quite a summer to remember. I can't really separate events pre-college very well. I have lots of great memories though, they're just all jumbled together. It's fun to sort them out with old friends and find out that things happen completely different than I remember.

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  14. Congratulations on the 100th post.....I don't think I'll be able to figure out which one's the truth or the lie...

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  15. 100 posts!

    if that isn't nice, what is?

    drop into canada anytime, the water is warm and there's plenty to eat.

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  16. Congrats on 100 Posts, and your Award ... Raising my coffee cup in a toast ... Cheers :)

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  17. I especially love the 2nd paragraph of your post: ‘There was timorous footing on water skis. The long, measured drag of a cigarette. Sweet, raw honey scraped from its cut comb. Singing all things Supertramp. Driving a car. The taste of hashish. And beer.’
    Happy 100th post. Keep on blogging.

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  18. Congratulations, Jayne! And you're celebrating with yet another bright, fresh, and crackling post. You're one of my favorite bloggers -- and so prolific. I'm ashamed to say I started my blog around the same time you did...and I've yet to hit 20. But 100! Keep 'em coming!

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  19. Well, I must admit that I don't want to go back to 15. Not ever. And I am not sad that I can't remember a lot of it. Instead, I think, "Thank Goodness!"

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  20. Lydia- I'll do my best!

    Falcon- Ca va?! Yes, second generation (for the most part) American. But your can't get the Canuck out of the girl. ;)

    SF- Smiles! :)

    Christopher- Sorting out memories w/old friends can be horrifying. Oh, to hear how it really was! How come no one remembers it the same way? ;)

    Cat- Thanks so much, and again, for the award. I almost hate to say which one's the lie. There are two, actually. And my first kiss was before I was fifteen. ;)

    BP- The water is warm?! You're funny. Good Poutine, though!

    Joanne- Thank you. Always good to have a coffee with you. :)

    EW- How are you? I need to pay you a visit and check on the next chapter... Thanks much!

    Seré- Yes well, you have been writing a book (several), darling... that's being published!!! Oh yeah! :-)

    Cassandra- I'm with you. And to think, I have yet to got through fifteen with my daughter. She'd better be smarter than I was. ;)

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  21. Happy 100th!! Here's to many more, eh? Eeee, hard to separate the truth from the lie - I have a 15yr old daughter, and I have the same difficulty with her, too..

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  22. Congratulations on your award and the 100th post! Your blog is thoughtful and incredibly beautiful.
    Thank you for your kind words about my photography on Davids blog.

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  23. Il faut bien que je vous souhaite beucoup de felicitations pour les cent commentaires! Alors! Avec tous mon coeur ma belle!

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  24. Shrinky- I have trouble separating fact from fiction, too!

    Olga- Thank you, and thanks so much for stopping by!

    Lord Wellbourne- Vous êtes trop bon! :)

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