Grandma Jo was a pill. “Pill” is an idiomatic word when used like this meaning she was a colorful character. She was full of surprises.
On one occasion when we visited her house, which was very close to ours, and she was eating a candy bar. She had reached an age where her attitude was something similar to, “I’ve lived this long I’m going to enjoy what I can”. And she did.
She was a miserly person. They took the buffalo off the nickel because of her. She would squeeze a nickel (5 cents) until the buffalo died.
She was very proud of her miserly ways and so she bragged about the bargain she had found in this candy bar.
She had purchased it at one of our local stores that specializes in out of date or dented can type goods. We have way more than our share of these type stores. The candy bars were four for a dollar. Back then a dollar was worth more then than it is now. In any event, she had four candy bars for which she had paid one dollar.
I asked were are the other three candy bars.
They were no good she said. “I had to throw them away”.
Not being great at math, but being pretty good at logic, I said, “So that candy bar cost you a dollar.”
She looked momentarily confused and said, “No it cost twenty five cents. I just told you they were four for a dollar.”
But if you threw all of them away but one the remaining one, the one you could eat cost a dollar.
“No” she said defiantly, “It cost twenty five cents.”
I don’t know if she understood or not. It wasn’t worth a continued discussion that would not turn out well had it continued.
She was a pill.
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