some local color, from texas

Part of an e-mail I received this morning from a reader in Denton, TX:

i had a friend named rainbow when i was growing up. at times she was my best friend and at times we hated each other. i'm pretty sure that she is institutionalized or dead now, but in any case i lost touch with her a long time ago. i'm pretty sure she had schizophrenia. anyway, her grandmother did. rainbow was so embarassed of her grandmother that she would never let anyone come over. well, she also wouldn't let people come to her house because her dad was a seriously [expletive] up vietnam vet. his job in the war was to take personal effects off of the bodies to send home to families. christ, that is creepy. rainbow's mom was pretty crazy, too, but in a more functioning way. but, rainbow's grandmother had been give electroshock therapy at some point. i guess she was less schizophrenic, but she was way, way nonsensical. every day when rainbow came home from school, her grandmother would say, "how was school today?" and rainbow would say, "fine, gramma" and dart off to her room. rainbow's gramma would call down the hall, "Champs! Champs!" while shaking her fists in the air. if one called to talk to rainbow and her grandmother happened to reach the phone first, she would always say that rainbow was picking up her mother at the airport. rainbow's grandmother seemed pretty happy.

rainbow, on the other hand, was not happy at all.