Monday, January 26, 2015

Sears, Roebuck & Co., by Martha Blue Waters


Nothing garnered more excitement around Grandma's and Grandpa's kitchen table than the arrival of the new Sears, Roebuck Catalogue. They poured over it with great relish, marveling at what could be sent for these days. 

Grandpa usually picked up the mail at the old tin mailbox about a half mile away at the end of the driveway — was the term "driveway" used to describe a two rut path exactly the width of the thin metal wheels on the biggest wagon on the farm? — so he would be the first to know when the catalogue arrived. 

He tried to hide it in the barn for a few days so he could dream big about all kinds of new equipment. He had an old ratty sock hanging in a secret spot where he saved up his pennies just for this occasion. Things were expensive, but well made to last a long time.

He could get a fancy two horse wagon for $46.95 — 3,500 pounds of fine craftsmanship. And Sears, Roebuck would ship it right to him at the nearest train station for only $19.00. What a deal! Grandpa was sold. 

Plus he had enough money left to buy a new A.J. Aubrey double barrel hammer shotgun for $12.59. He could shoot farther and straighter than ever. No pheasant, rattlesnake, skunk or jackrabbit for miles would be safe from his deadly aim.

Grandma almost always knew what Grandpa was up to, since nothing much got by her. If she didn't see him heading off to work the fields, she knew he was out skulking around the barn. She would appear at the door, march up to him and say "I'll take that now," as she grabbed the catalogue with glee.

Warmly ensconced in the kitchen, a cup of hot coffee cooling on the table, she usually turned right to the linens or kitchen section to do her own dreaming. Oh my! 

She could sure use a new floor to ceiling sized kitchen cabinet. It would be wonderful to have a special place for her good china, totally apart from the everyday dishes that got used so hard. $9.75 for a fine looking, solid oak cupboard ornamented with neatly designed scroll carvings. Magnificent. 

Grandma's secret stash was in a jar buried at the bottom of her apron drawer. She had enough to treat herself to something special, so by golly . . . today was the perfect day to do just that!

Saturday, January 17, 2015

A Prelude, by Beal St. George


In the early December late afternoon,
the sun catches me by surprise.

I have been buried under greyness recently,
felt frosted onto the ground with the tips of the grass
and the remains of my autumn mums.

Sun comes southerly into windows facing west,
and shines through the grated pane of glass
on the door that leads from the stairwell outside.
I see it on the wall there, first, winter-twinkling,
and I chuckle, remarking on its peculiarity,
its unusual appearance on these darkest of days.

Shadows through the cedars tell me about the old habits of trees,
about a sun that has been shining for so long and for so brief a time—
more than four and a half billion years, or since 7:38 this morning,
when I was awake and making coffee in the near-dark
and looking at those same cedar trees still covered in dusk,
hands on my hips, listening to the hot water drip
through the filter on the counter behind me.

And that filtered light passes through diamond-shaped spaces
in the grate over the window in the door,
and the light I see on the wall then reminds me of the back
of a record in my parents’ collection—a photo of the back
of a woman standing facing a plate-glass window
gridded with huge panes,
she herself a dark and curving silhouette against the sky,
so certain, rising up from the ground, witness to a sunset.

And so, the light is twice-shadowed,
once each naturally and unnaturally obscured,
on the wall that descends into the basement,
where I’m headed with a basket of laundry;
down here, where it smells like cement and wood and cobwebs
and clean dirt, and there is more surprising light on the wall
from a couple of windows high up on the cinder-block wall.

Even here, in the foundation of this house,
the late, low-angled sun finds its way in,
through scrappy December-bare brush
that normally hedges the house with leafy cover.

From there, the sun shows up on the pegboard
in an angled square that will disappear
when the sun sets in only a few more minutes.

Light has a fragile cast in almost-winter.



Thursday, January 8, 2015

Luke’s Room, by Carol Whitlow


I lay down last night

Under a blanket of stars,

Stars,

Stars.

They faded as I lay settling,

Grew dimmer, disappeared.

I couldn’t calm my mind, so I turned on the light

Thinking I might read

If I had a book.

Finally, my consciousness left me to sleep,

And I turned the light off again.

Recharged, the stars glowed anew in my small heaven.

Raven jumped up on the bed,

Nudged under the blanket

And stretched her long arm out

To touch my face with her warm paw.

Soft.

Soft.


I woke early, opened the curtains and blinds

To a full moon glowing in the Western sky

Behind bare tree branches brushed with snow.

A single star kept the moon company.


Good morning. 

Goodbye.



1/8/2015

Monday, January 5, 2015

I Remember: 5 friends share early memories


I Remember: 5 friends share early memories, by Barbara Ann Brazill, Martha Blue Waters, Meryl Gay Young, Sharon Kathryn Yntema, Zee Z. Zahava


I remember on my fourth birthday I wore my favorite outfit: a white ruffled blouse, a navy blue taffeta skirt, white socks with lace and Mary Jane shoes.

I remember eating fried spam and watching I Love Lucy every day at lunch hour.

I remember the moment I realized Baptists don't know any truth but their own.

I remember being on a horse that got scared and leaped over a gate while I clung to its neck.

I remember endlessly throwing a tennis ball at a small target I had secretly painted on the garage door, increasing the distance as my aim improved.

I remember my parents hired a baby sitter for my brother and me and we found out the next week that she had kidnapped a child a few days later.
I remember crying all the way to camp each summer and then crying all the way home.
I remember when our class took a trip to the rum factory, and we were allowed to climb up the indoor mountain of sugar cane granules (as high as a two story house!), and then slide back down.

I remember wearing white buck shoes and dusting them with powder to keep them clean.

I remember telling my mother she looked like Loretta Young but she said "No, darling, I look like Natalie Wood."
I remember jumping out the hayloft window into a giant mound of freshly mown hay and not being able to breathe because I was allergic to hay.

I remember stabbing myself with a pencil in fifth grade so I could get out of taking a math test and I still have some of that pencil lead embedded in my leg.
I remember how exciting it was when we had to board up our house when we were expecting a hurricane.
I remember taking the bus to downtown Buffalo with my best friend and talking with British accents so people would think we were exotic.
I remember when I was terrified of men with beards.

I remember when my father learned to drive, I was 12 and he was 35; he was such a nervous driver, it was always terrifying to get in the car and I had fantasies of what my tombstone would look like and how people would cry and say "She died so young."
I remember how I always got stuck drying the dishes and putting them away because my bossy big sister only liked to wash — and those giant greasy clumps of goo that remained on the back of plates after she had carelessly washed them and dumped them in the dish drainer.

I remember buying white go-go boots with my babysitting money.

I remember being told "you can't always get what you want."

I remember thinking that if I could only manage to talk fast enough then I would be speaking Spanish.
I remember playing basketball by myself in the driveway.

I remember walking arm-in-arm with my younger sister on MacDougal Street when a man blocked our way, screaming at us — "goddamn lezzie commie fascist maggots" — and we were so shaken up we ran right to the Orange Julius store for a smoothie to settle our nerves.
I remember the day I got my first phone — a blue princess — but not really having anyone to call.
I remember eating too many green tamarinds and getting very sick.

I remember thinking my grandmother had slivers in her face because when I had to kiss her I could feel them sticking me, but now I know that it was just old lady chin hair (because I have slivers now too).
I remember going to great lengths to mime "dying of thirst" to get a coke when my family had guests over.

I remember being sent to visit my cousins in Michigan and when I came back home I discovered that we lived in a different house.

I remember when there were flocks of pelicans flying over the ocean near our backyard.
I remember my mother would go shopping for me because I refused to go, and she'd bring home two piles of clothes — one that I liked and one that she wanted me to like.
I remember riding in the back of a station wagon for the long drive to Florida, facing backwards the whole time — five days.
I remember eating my mother's warm-from-the-oven cinnamon rolls, dripping white frosting all over my face and hands.

I remember going every Saturday to voice, dance, and acting lessons, with my five best friends in junior high, and thinking I was surely going to be on Broadway someday.
I remember swinging on a homemade swing, from a tree that went over a gully, and doing fancy twirls as I went.

I remember stealing a paperback — Valley of the Dolls — from the drugstore.

I remember my best friend sat with someone else on the bus ride to school one day and I didn't know why.

I remember the way my grandfather used to say good-bye (toodle-oo) and since he was the one saying it I just assumed he was Talking Jewish (meaning: speaking Yiddish).
I remember watching The Mickey Mouse Club on T.V. and standing up to sing, but my fingers got pinched in the chair and I screamed.

I remember trying to drink "Tiger's Milk" (a combination of orange juice, milk, and brewers yeast) that my mom read about in an Adelle Davis book.
I remember turning my cardigan sweater backwards, on the bus, on the way to school, because it looked tougher that way.
I remember wondering how my sister often got out of going to all the extra church stuff my mother always dragged me to.

I remember my parents being friendly to each other once a year, on Christmas morning.

I remember smoking my first cigarette in my grandfather's car with my cousin, and we smoked every butt in the ashtray and then threw up.

I remember writing the word "fart" on the wall of a bathroom stall but I felt so guilty that I confessed to my teacher and she said "Good girls don't even know that word so I'm sure you didn't write it."