9 Jan 2014

THE HAM PARTY

Jenny Matlock
more participants at Jenny Matlock's Alphabet Thursday

My son's best buddy was a little American boy when they both were 3 or 4. The boy's grandpa was an American officer who worked at the NATO in Brussels.

Little Patrick was the souvenir of his mother's holidays in Spain, and she had brought him back home to her parents,  hidden in her belly. Patrick couldn't deny his origins, he looked like a little toreador,  black curly hairs, burning black eyes and a temper like a volcano. I think it must have been hard for his very young mother (21)  to have this living souvenir running around in the house.

I didn't have a lot of contact to her, she was a rather quiet person, completely overwhelmed by her very temperamental French mother who had become my friend as she always picked up little Patrick at the Kindergarten. She had married her American officer just after the liberation of France. She was  from Normandy.

Anne's house was open to everybody and very often looked like a dovecote. It was very big, and the main room where everybody popped in was the kitchen. It was huge ! At least 14 people could sit easily around the kitchen table, it was a very cosy place.

One day we were invited to a "ham" party, because her eldest son who was also in the army in Frankfurt (Germany) had brought an enormous ham from there.

For this occasion I wore a very short flower patterned dress, the skirt full of flounces and with that high over the knees boots. That was very fashionable in the 70th. Grandpa stand in the kitchen and cut big slices of ham and everybody took its plate got a big slice and then sat in the very huge living room around a nice open fire.

At one moment nature called and I had to go to the toilet. When I came back, keeping myself very straight and very proud of my new dress, I heard people laughing behind me. I turned around to see why they were all laughing so hard. But when I had turned to the other side,  other people started to laugh too and again behind me. I really wondered what I had missed. And while I turned and turned to get at least a clue why they were all laughing so much, Anne finally came over to me and told me that my skirt was jammed in my pants ! The view they all had must have been really funny especially with my high boots ! I quickly put my dress in place and  laughed too, the best way to make the situation less embarrassing.

Mr. G. who meanwhile also had arrived from work,  looked just bored when he heard the story and informed the guests that things like that could only happen to his dear wife and that he was very much used to such situations.





In the past it looked a little better !

Of course I have never forgotten this "Ham" Party !

19 comments:

  1. How embarrassing I'm glad you could laugh about it. The story to go with it is interesting too.

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  2. Oh, dear Gattina, and I thought I was the only one those things happened to. You were wonderful under the circumstances!
    K
    PS — Happy New Year to you and Riccardo and the cats if I haven't already said it.

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  3. You described your short flowered dress and boots but not your underwear. Always best if possible if your underwear matches your dress and has a flower pattern. Then your awful mistake might not be noticed.
    The ham party sounds fun and interesting and what happened to the little half Spanish boy I wonder?

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  4. Never heard of a ham party but it sounds fun. We've been to a spaghetti party in switzerland some years ago where all sort of different sauces were served with mountains of spaghetti. Th idea was you placed a small amount of spaghetti on your plate with one sauce, then went back to do it again with another sauce and so on. Very filling.

    I've seen ladies in the street wearing their dresses like you described. More embarrassing, i suppose.

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  5. OMW What a hilarious story AGAIN! yes, it's best just to laugh "with" people against yourself! I've never heard of a Ham party either, but it sounded like fun!

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  6. You will have to start a tag, 'Only Gattina'. Or course you aren't the only one to do that.

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  7. This post made me smile and laugh. Thank you!

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  8. What a fun story! Sounds like you kept your cool though!

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  9. haha

    I had that same experience once. Except it was at church!

    ;)

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  10. That was hilarious. You always end up in such funny situation. But it happened to me too once - at school. Thankfully I was only 8 or 9.

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  11. Aaaw this is funny,Gattina. Thanks for the smile.
    Hugs to you xoxo

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  12. Gosh, that's embarrassing. Glad you could laugh about it.

    I should refrain from wearing dresses in case I am in the same situation. Nobody would find the view nice at my age where everything's drooping. LOL

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  13. a party that you will never forget! I'm still worried something like that will happen to me... But then, I don't go many places nowadays, except to work! {:-Deb

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  14. good stories.

    sounds like a great dress.

    a souvenir, eh. haven't heard it put that way.

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  15. What a great way to turn what could have been a humiliating "ham" party into a hilarious memory...

    Great sense of humor!

    Thanks for linking to the letter "H"!

    A+

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