Every psychiatrist I’ve ever been to has diagnosed me as being manic depressive, obsessive compulsive, seasonal effective disorder, adult ADD, anxiety disorder, insecure, hyperactive, phobic, paranoid, neurotic, eccentric, enlarged prostate (Oops, my urologist made that diagnosis), hyper sensitive, overly obsessed with jeeps, boots (cowboy and Wellington), smelling things, horses, cats, writing stories, etc., perfectionist, and a variety of other things listed in psychological books that only psychiatrists can understand or pronounce. And all that’s just during my first appointment! I’m definitely on a “Manic high” lately because I’ve written 18 stories in the last 3 days! Oh well, no medication is perfect. My present Psychiatrist keeps increasing my medication because he’s afraid that some night the Sheriff’s Office will call him and say that one of his patients is dancing around naked on Main Street in down town Milan!  He ACTUALLY said that to me, HONEST! I would NEVER do this! (I would do it on Main Street in Berlin Heights because it’s closer). Thank God, I’ve never done anything weird like that. I tried to assure him of this, but he didn’t believe me. Although I’ve done a lot of weird things in the past, they have all been harmless and I’ve ALWAYS been fully clothed. I don’t dare tell him I have a web site because THAT would REALLY scare him! The first thing every psychiatrist always asks me if there are any of my family members that had Manic Depressive symptoms. From reading her “Day Books” (diaries), and from my memories, I immediately mention my fraternal grandmother Olive Fennel Tillinghast, A.K.A “Ollie”, whom I think was definitely Manic Depressive. She came to live with us around 1963 or so after she retired from being a housemother at Miami University at Oxford. I’m sure I inherited some of her “quirks”. She was very eccentric, very intelligent, and very superstitious. I’m not at all superstitious. I guess that particular trait wasn’t passed down to me. Every inherited trait is like diarrhea; it runs in your “jeans”. In all honesty, even though I inherited some of her “quirks”, I didn’t inherit all of them, thank goodness! I have enough of my own! Every one has always said when they made me, they threw away the mold (I always add, and beat up the mold maker and then went in the wastebasket, retrieved the mold, and totally destroyed it just to make sure! )

In this missive, I will give just a very small number of “Ollie’s” eccentricities and “quirks”. This is mainly because many of them I don’t remember, which is probably due to “Post Traumatic Ollie Disorder” or something like that.

After reading all of her “Day Books”, covering several years, I have no doubt that she was Manic Depressive or as they call it now days, “Bipolar Disorder”. That doesn’t sound nearly as scary as “Manic Depressive”. I don’t really think she had Adult ADD since that wasn’t invented until later years. She also had an Obsessive Compulsive Disorder too. (Hmmm, they both sound familiar). Of course in those days no one would ever consider going to a Psychiatrist (accept Hollywood people). These days there’s no longer a stigma to seeing a psychiatrist. In fact, over the last several years I’ve seen 3 of them. They’re all “fascinated with my case”. I always get the impression that they’re all befuddled since medical school apparently never prepared them for someone like me.

 

Some examples of a few of the irrational obsessive-compulsive traits and “quirks” and superstitions “Ollie” had were that you NEVER bring a hoe in the house. Although why anyone would do this is beyond me. Also you NEVER open an umbrella in the house either. Why would you? It doesn’t rain inside the house! Another one was that she always had 3 pennies inside each of her shoes. This never made any “cents” to me. The odd thing was that I never saw her wearing penny loafers. Go figure? When she played solitaire, which was quite often, everytime the Ace of Spades would come up, she would immediately put it off to the side face down. As a result, of course, the ace pile for spades would always start with the 2 of spades. I could never figure out why she didn’t just throw away the ace of spades from each deck of cards. I’m sure after a few tries it would have landed in the wastebasket face down. In the kitchen she always pulled out every chair from the table then “Zig Zagged” around each one. I could never figure that one out either. Every time, if I was around, when she was in the other room, I would sneak in and push all the chairs back against the table. Then when she came back into the kitchen, she would pull them all back out again and continue her “Zig Zagging” around each one. When she came into the house from outside, she would always walk on the outside of the porch post and then onto the porch from the side instead of just walking between the 2 posts. It would have been a whole lot easier! She also worried excessivly and had a fear about everything. (Now THAT sounds like ME)! After we finally got to drive, Tim and I would tease her and say we’re going to Cleveland to mess around. She would immediately say, “Please don’t, it’s a slaughter out there!” She was referring to driving on any of the roads. I think she had a phobia about driving since, as far as I know, thoughout her whole life she never drove. I doubt that she ever had a driver’s license. Of course sometimes without our mother’s knowledge when she was at work, Tim and I drove when we were 15, we didn’t have a driver’s license either! She must have had “a color blue fetish” because everything in her bedroom was painted blue. Even the antique bedroom set she had was. Under all that blue paint was undoubtedly a beautiful wood grain. Which was probably cherry. She would save string, paper, and soap just to name a few. She always said to us, “Waste not want not”. I didn’t find out until later in life that the word “want” means to lack. So when I was a kid, I could never make sense out of that saying. I interpreted it as “If you don’t waste it you wont’ want it”. Another thing that really got to her was wasting food. When Tim and I were eating around her and left any food of the plate, she’d say, “Eat every smidgen of it”. I now say this to the cats when I give them canned cat food. I’m sure she was so adamant about not wasting anything because she lived through the Depression. Among other things she saved (Or I should say collected) were pigs. She had a pig collection which consisted of all kinds of pig statues, etc. (See pic below). They were kept in what we always called “The Pig Cabinet”. I wish I had a picture of it! It had a round front with windows and the rest of it was painted blue of course. It was out in the kitchen on the west wall. She always told us kids, “The things of today are the antiques of tomorrow”. Boy, I wished I’d have listened to her when I was a kid. I’d probably be rich selling all those antiques today! When she was a kid she said she always wanted to be a nun. I’m sure glad she didn’t since I wouldn’t be here now! Of course, a lot of people who know me wish that she had become a nun! Well, that’s just a very few of her “quirks”. For a few more check out the story “Holy Refill, Batman.”

Well, since “turn about is fair play”; I guess I should list some of MY “quirks”. On second thought, never mind. I only have 1,250 Megs left on the Internet server!