Living the (Marxist) Dream

My previous post revealed that the teenage nephew is currently refusing

to wear underpants as he perceives wearing underwear to be a capitalist

action. This provoked a fair few comments, namely of the rather bemused,

‘Eerm, why?’ type. So in fairness to my readers, I felt compelled to

question him further.

I collared Mr. C whilst he was doing the

washing up and am happy to share the following statement.

"Its

like so materialistic. People just like, have all this stuff and wear

all this stuff. That they like don’t need. And the planet is dying."

So

there you have it. Personally, I think it is a load of bollocks (no pun

intended) and he has also gone vegetarian and wants to save the whales -

enough said. Still I suppose its good for his sperm count - if not my

washing pile. I didn’t mention this as Mr. C was already looking

uncomfortable with the subject so I left him to finish the washing up.

My

theory is that he’s doing the classic teenage thing of rejecting his

upbringing which he considers ‘bourgeois’. Class war rules dontcha know!

I’m sure if M&S brought out a range of ‘Urban Warfare Boxers in

Three Shades of Cammo complete with picture of Che Guevara’ on the

front, he’d be first in line for a multi pack.

Until now he’s

lived in an environment where his dirty laundry has been collected from

his bedroom floor or his en-suite bathroom, washed, ironed and returned

complete with a fresh pack of Calvin Klein Y fronts. So easy to reject

what you’ve always had…Now he’s living with us in the people’s

republic of Bordenave (our house which is, quite frankly, a hovel), the

environment is more ‘up-market squat’ - graffiti on the walls, limited

hot water and one loo. Unlike a proper squat however, the loo is clean

and three meals a day arrive on the table, as if by magic. In other

words, teenage heaven. Add to this, the fact that I hail from a long

line of placard waving lefties and Mr. C is now firmly convinced that he

is living in an anarchist commune.

I don’t have the heart to

shatter his illusions and tell him that I cannot wait for the house to

be finished, would love to be rich and secretly yearn for shag pile

carpets, electric curtains and a TV that rises up from the end of the

bed…

Nick

Do you have some connection with France - Do you have a property here or are you thinking of moving perhaps?

James

And here are some more comments on the post from my t’other site - they made me laugh!

We had brother in law here and, all being self appointed experts in political theory, were trying to construct the argument for no underpants in the context of Marxism.
Pity we didn’t have a tape recorder running or we could have had the demo for a new sitcom!
Finally we decided that whatever ism it was, it was clearly not the socialism of Tressell’s Ragged Trousered Philanthropists!

I remember going through such a rebellion myself, having been brought up in a Conservative household in conservative Tunbridge Wells. I refused to wear shoes for a year in sympathy with my shoeless Russian brethren and would only wear clothes from jumble sales. Didn’t go down too well in my Grammar School! Plus ca change and all the rest!

Welcome to the network Nicholas, I see you’ve dispensed with the niceties and got stuck right in!

Brilliant - as ever! missing you more than ever now. Glad to hear Mishcka[?] the dog is o.k now. chat sooner rather than later , hugs & xxxxx’s

Thanks so much for the encouragement and you know, viz the Hamish one, it will probably be something you come back to? After all its early days yet. We thought our Ridgebacks number was up a couple of weeks ago and it was awful. He seemed close to death and I was in a complete state. Turned out he’d really, really over done it on stolen duck eggs…

Hehehehehheeh sounds good to me… You have ( in my opinion ) a great get to the guts of it way of writing. I write myself but do children’s books ( mainly as writer for Hamish ) and I have started an historical ( hysterical ) novel about the stuff that has happened to my knowledge and as gleaned from others of a somewhat colourful family history.

The Hamish one was close to publishing but I don’t have my heart in it at the moment and anyway sometimes it is good to step back totally and reread it as a 5 year old. The other is in it’s infancy and I just love writing words that summon up images ( that would be the painting bit. )

Looking forward to meeting up at sometime, I have been there done it with the taking a ruin and doing it up. Did it in Derbyshire in a Stone Cottage up in the Peak District with 2 cats, 3 dogs , 2 horses and chickens all in tow and then of course there was Jim still looking for a job because we had moved to the back of beyond and two small children who liked nothing better in the summer to run around naked in our Pile of Bricks and land then the health visitor turned up. Luckily she understood they were just naked not unhealthy. Both in their late 30’s now and still cause for concern.!!!

Keep writing I will keep reading may the force be with you today and whenever…

Gina

Thank you! I keep meaning to get started and write one of those ‘Life in France as it really is’ books, (loosely!) based on my experiences to date but it never quite seems to happen. Life and incessant laundry seems to get in the way…I need someone after me waving a big stick. I started the blog as friends kept nagging me and if nothing else, I find it therapeutic.

I currently have all four children cleaning the entire house. Its the first day of the holidays (nothing like starting like you mean to go on!) and I’m up to my ears in it and I have two French mothers descending on me tomorrow. They are planning to send their sons for a weeks intensive English course in the summer holidays and I decided that if they saw the state of the place, they would run screaming before reporting me to social services.

So this morning I handed over a closely typed sheet of A4 listing all chores and threatened them with the cattle prod. Never fails…

What else do you write Catharine? It was the cattle prod image that made me laugh out load and read this.