Day 82, "Every picture has a story"
Here Great Grandma is on the second step of the step stool pretending to wash Ronald's face.
It is the fall of 1955. Today was going to be a special day but first. Today, October 9th, was the first Sunday in October that we had church. Reverend Mailing had church every other Sunday and today it was at Bergen. Why, I asked myself as I turned over towards the wall in our east bedroom and squinted at the bright sunlight against the wall. Before I could muster up my unhappy feelings about the morning I had to settle back into the covers and think. Just days ago the Brooklyn Dodgers had defeated the Yankees in the World Series. I did not know why but I did NOT like the Yankees so of course it brought a smile to my face. Dave jumped out of bed and hurried to be bathroom as I was jolted to my senses again and to TODAY. We had to go to church. Eldon G. was sick and Mom was to play the organ. There was NO way we would miss church if Mom could play. She felt Eldon should retire and allow her to play every Sunday BUT no. I scampered downstairs only to find Corn Flakes on the table. I knew Dave would be happy but me, I would liked to have seen eggs and venison burgers but no luck. We had kind of over slept so it was hurry hurry up and get in the car. Mom wanted to get to church a bit early to go over the songs we would sing. Church seemed like it lasted forever as I knew what was happening after church. Dad had promised that we would drive to Ellendale and have a picnic with Ronald and friends. In my world it did not get any better than that. In my mind there was God and then Ronald was pretty darn close after that. Just a couple of weeks earlier he had come home with this girl friend and I could see she really liked him. I was disappointed as I did not want to share him with anybody else. BUT he did bring me 3 Hot Wheel cars that would get plenty of use in the sand pile. Way back then there was no thing as a sand box, only a pile but it worked! Anyway Mom had said she would pack a lunch and she even baked a pie which was unusual for Mom. It seemed that cake and cookies and even donuts were the norm. Finally Rev Mailing repeated the benediction and we were on our way to Ellendale in a short time. As we turned the corner a half mile south of our farm and headed west dark clouds appeared in the west and I hoped against all hope that our picnic would not be rained out. We were lucky. We arrived in Ellendale about noon and went right to Ronald's place. Getting out of the car I saw Ronald come out of his apartment and I thought he must be 7 feet tall. He furiously shook my hand and asked how I was. Of course I was GREAT. His friends Richard and John were also there and they were ready to go as they knew Ronald's Mom was bringing a picnic lunch. Actually Mom had outdone herself today. She had fried spring chicken from the past summer and had made potato salad that sat in a tub of ice all the way. Of course there were canned peaches and then there was that pie! It looked like a feast for all. The park was only a short ways away so shortly after noon were were all seated on blankets and enjoying Mom's delicious food. Everything pretty much disappeared but I don't think I ate a lot as I was glued to Ronald and friends as they talked about college life and what they were doing. I thought oh my Ronald is so smart and with all his friends, he is the best. The pie was last and Mom was careful to cut it so everyone could have a piece. It was passed around and when it came back to Dad there was ONE piece left in the pie plate. Mom asked if anyone wanted it and politely nobody spoke up. As I finished my pie I needed to use the bathroom so hurried off to the out houses a short ways away. Coming back I thought to myself I really needed that last piece of pie so on returning to my spot on the blanket I boldly spoke up and said, "I would like the piece of pie!" Ronald turned to me with a smile and said, "Richard already ate it!" I turned 2 shades of red and simply said, "Oh". There really was no reason for it but I felt so foolish, almost as if I had come across as a pig. However it actually did not dampen the day. As we drove home while the sun set behind us I settled back in the seat behind Dad and thought, "I want to be just like Ronald when I grow up!" A side note is last September when John M mentioned how smart "Red" was I knew I had not grown up to be just like him but I still often wonder if he would be proud of me now if he was living. All of Ronald's friends (Glorine too) called him Red but to me he was always Ronald.
Not much planned for the day. Yesterday Terry and I took in our third book review. Ms. Newton, who is very very good, was not quite on her game yesterday but still it was good. Her knowledge of the author lent a lot of insights into the book which was "The Italian Teacher". I will not go into the book but there were certainly some aspects that reminded me of my relationship with my dad.
Or temp today is supposed to be only up to 74 which may be almost normal for this time of year. Actually I think it is a bit cool.
Our tennis league schedule came out yesterday and the 12 teams are divided into two divisions. IF teams are on the same level as last year we are in the most difficult division. All the more reason to get better! Our first match is January 16th against a team we MAY be able to more than hold our own! It is the team that we beat out for the championship in 2.5 2 years ago. We are now at the 3.0 level and I KNOW both teams will be better than in the past. The entire season should be fun as I am ready to go.
It is Sunday so I indulged a bit with Irish Cream in my FP as no tennis on Sunday!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment