"Are You Going To Eat That?"

I remember my grandma constantly obsessing over what people were eating.  They were either eating too much or not enough.  She based her own food consumption on what Grandpa was having to eat most of the time.  It was more of a competition rather than an enjoyment of the cuisine.  She would actually count the number of helpings people went back for.  One time, she even kept track of the exact number of strawberries my son had eaten!

That being said, it is no surprise that she obsessed over not only her weight but everyone else's as well.  I thought it was just something she did as she got older, but reading the letter I transcribed yesterday, all I could do was chuckle.  Grandma had been obsessing over weight issues from her teens, and even managed to make it a competition back then.  Following is from her letter to Grandpa dated April 25, 1928...

"I was 5 ft. 3 in. in my stocking feet and weighed 129-1/2 according to Drs. scales.  According to the schedule for my height, I am 9-1/2 lbs. overweight.  Fern was 5 ft. 1-3/4 and weighed 131-3/4 lbs.  So she weighs the most taking height in consideration."

She was also quite curious about every little detail.  Apparently Grandpa hadn't divulged enough information about the highway paving job when he wrote about an unfortunate series of events, so Grandma's inquiring mind wanted to know more...

"That certainly was too bad about your misfortune...You didn't say as much about it as I expected you to, so am going to ask some questions.  Did you stay at Allison only two days?  Were the boys getting along all right over there when you left?  How come those guys didn't show up over at the other end?  Didn't they have enough sense to come or didn't you tell them when to come?  Was that 500 ft. all that was paved that day or the remainder of what you didn't get covered?  Who is that Bryant thing, a company or what?  See you might as well have started in the beginning and told me to the finish.  You certainly know by this time how curious I am about everything."