The Real Dorothy McFadden

It's a sham.  I'm a fake.  A fraud.  I am NOT Dorothy McFadden.  But I loved her so.
Dorothy McFadden is my Nanny Dot.  My great-grandmother.  She died many years ago, when I was 16.  Nan was crazy and funky and bold.  Nanny Dot was fun.

She and my grandparents lived on the same property, Nanny and Poppy in the front house and Nanny Dot in the back house.  The houses were seperated bya large back yard and 4 or 5 ornamental orange trees.  The trunks were painted white so the bugs wouldn't get to them.  The oranges were never good to eat.  We used them for other things.  Like bowling.  Ahhhh yes, bowling with empty soda or beer cans and ornamental oranges.  Good times!  Anyway, they had a routine, Nanny and Nanny Dot.  For whatever reason they were both up around 4 or 5 every morning.  Nanny Dot would have her bowl of cereal and head over to Nanny's house for coffee and to read the paper.  Often times there was really no speaking, just coffee and a paper.  She'd stay over until almost 11.  She had to get home to watch her "serials".  She'd come back over in the afternoon and sit outside with Nanny.  There literally was a path from door to door!  They'd talk about the weather, how hot it was already for March.  Must mean we're in for a bad summer.  And no matter how hot it was she'd always be in her polyester pants.  Always.  When it got too hot, she'd hike those pant legs up to her thighs.  Her chicken legs!  Oh my gosh, that woman had major chicken legs!  She always wore polyester pants, polyester shirt and wedge shoes with red painted toe nails.  If she was in a hurry, she'd paint only the 3 toes you could see peeking out of the shoe.  (I think I got my polished toe nail addiction from her and I am quite partial to red, thank you very much.)  On cold days (in Arizona, very few and far between) she would wear a sweater buttoned at the neck.  She always wore red lipstick and rouge.  Not blush.  Rouge. In two little swirls on the apples of her cheeks.  I'll spare you the story on the penciled in eyebrows. 

Anyway, those two did everything together.  Nanny Dot never learned how to drive.  She told me that once when my Grandpa Harry was trying to teach her how to drive she ran over the dog and never tried again.  So once or twice a week the two would head out to the grocery store and the beauty shop.  They'd get the wash and curl that would last the week. Every once in a while they'd change it up and go to lunch.  Picture Lucy and Ethel but without the vitameatavegamin stuff going on.  Nanny and Poppy had a little place down in Mexico that they'd go to several times a year.  They both loved to fish.  Nanny Dot would go too.  Bless Poppy's heart he never said a word about NannyDot always being around.  They'd have their go arounds sometimes.  Someone would say or do something that would piss the other one off, and one or the other would get the cold shoulder for a day or two.  But that was it. 

Nanny Dot would drink on occassion.  She'd have a few cocktails and say, "hey Leesh, try this!".  So of course I did.  Pink lemonade and vodka.  Her favorite.  Sometimes she'd go all out and get cranberry juice and vodka but mostly it was just pink lemonade.  When she did have a few she'd get all rosy cheeked.  I don't think she ever got drunk or anything, she just got a little more.....Her randomness and her questions would get just a tad more outrageous than normal.  But even stone cold sober she would ask the darndest things.  One time she asked one of my aunts how the "lesbians do it".  She also once told me that she wished she had tried marijuana when she was younger.  I had a Nanny that wanted to get high!!!  So random and so weird.  The skin on her hands was like chicken skin. You could pull on it.  It was cool and creepy at the same time with all the blue veins sticking out.  She'd also take her teeth out just to freak us out.  We got used to it but then she started doing it when our friends were around.  It was always done in fun and to be funny but the humor was lost on some of those friends.  The more I'm describing her the more I realize I'm making her sound like some weirdo freak.  But that is not the case.  She was just eccentric and fun and crazy and the most awesomest 70 something great grandma anyone could ever have!

As kids we spent a lot of time with our grandparents and even lived with them on different occassions.  Sometimes when I'd go over Nan or Nanny Dot would slip me $5 and say, "split it with Johnny"  Sometimes I did but sometimes I didn't.  Ok, mostly I didn't.  I'm sure they did the same to him and I never saw it either. 

Anyway, I was just thinking about her and how I use her name for my blog.  I just love that name and I love that lady so it just seemed fitting to put it with something that I love doing.  So, here's to Nanny Dot~smiling down on us!  Hopefully with her teeth in.