light the corners of my mind
My Mom has been reminding me (every chance she gets) that I haven’t posted her picture anywhere on my website yet. (Y’know, Mom, that’s not entirely true; you were at my bridal shower.)
Anyway, to appease my mother, this is a Kmart portrait of the two of us when she was younger than I am now. 🙂
(Oh, and yes, it did take some Photoshop skillz to remove that fantastic Kmart-portrait red tint. It’s not perfect, but it’s good enough.)
I’m not sure why I took this photo. I think it was mainly because of the cats on my desk. At any rate, I kind of enjoyed seeing this snapshot in time: Autumn, 1995.
During the summer before I went off to college, Mom and I moved out of the craptastic Walden Apartments in Medina to a nicer neighborhood on Jackson Street. We were on the third floor of a small apartment building—about eight units total, I think.
I didn’t get to spend much time there before I went off to college—or did we not move there until I was *in* college? I think that was it. At any rate, I spent one year in college before I got put on Academic Suspension and had to spend a semester at home. No internet, no computer, and Mom’s new boyfriend Gary was suddenly in the mix. This photo was taken during that time.
Continue reading
My Memaw knew a lot. She wasn’t particularly book-smart—I think she completed 8th grade—but she knew little, important things. How to keep my ballet recital costume from unravelling. How to french braid and how to do a french twist. How to make awesome fried chicken, and tuna croquettes, and dozens of other wonderful foods. How to grow an avocado plant from a pit. How to grow plants in general.
About plants: Memaw definitely had a green thumb. Not in that Jerry Baker sort of way, though; he knows all sorts of bizarre tips and tricks for keeping your plants and lawn green and healthy, like spraying it with a solution of dish soap and beer and ammonia and some other household chemicals. Memaw had the other kind of green thumb, the kind where she had only to stick a plant in soil (or in water first, to root it), then water it (from the bottom, always), and poof. Big, healthy plants. Or so I remember, anyway… I was still kind of young when Memaw’s plant collection was in its heyday.
(Funny, isn’t it, how we never seem to take pictures of everyday things, like our living room… but, years later, we find ourselves trying to remember details that we once thought we’d never forget. Like how many plants sat in our windowsill in Apartment A-13 when I was 7 years old.)
Anyway, I wish I’d been able to ask her about more of the little, important things. As I got older, and as she got older, I did write her letters and ask her about some of the little things. How to make tuna croquettes (which I still haven’t attempted). How many different jobs she held, and where she worked (which I wish I’d written down, but I was in the car on the way to BG). And my Mom gave me the recipe for meatballs that Memaw had gotten from the Italian girl that worked with her at Bix’s Restaurant.
How to grow plants, though… if she had a secret, I wish I could have learned it. I do well enough, and I certainly *have* enough, but sometimes I wonder. I think I managed to inherit some of that green thumb, but… you know.
Sometimes I miss her.
—–
Next Friday, I’ll be participating in the American Cancer Society Relay For Life in Bowling Green. If you’d care to sponsor me, you can donate online all next week, until the event. Donations are, of course, tax-deductible, and will forward the fight against cancer.
Someday, I hope someone else gets more time to ask their own Memaw the questions I didn’t.
I have vivid memories of singing this song in my Kindergarten music class, back in 1981 or so:
I have a little pussy
Her coat is silver gray
She lives down in the meadow
Not very far away
She’ll always be a pussy
She’ll never be a cat
‘Cause she’s a pussy willow
Now what do you think of that?
Meow, meow, meow, meow,
Meow, meow, meow, meow—
Scat!
I came home and sang the song to my Mom. She was bothered by it, but I really didn’t understand why.
I don’t remember singing that song very much after that.
Just got home from saying good-bye to my Sheryls at Campus Pollyeyes in BG.
Sheryls, who recently helped me select a new wardrobe.
Sheryls, who hosted my bridal shower / bachelorette party.
Sheryls, who drove me to multiple job interviews at Image Source before I had a car.
Sheryls, who got away with lots of RCC rule violations on my watch. 🙂
*sigh* I’ll miss you! Aaron and I will have to come visit you in Boston sometime.