March 14, 2007

Just a Country Girl

The summer of 1956 I was 4 years old. My grandparents, Mama and Daddy Bond, had moved from Orange to a little east Texas town called Buna. Getting there was like driving back in time to another era that existed long before I was born. Entering town we’d drive past the first stoplight to the house with blue spots and turn left. Proceeding about a mile or so more on the dusty road to the two little pink houses, we’d again make a left turn. Then, we’d drive just a piece up the dirt road wedged between tall grass and weeds, past the cow pastures to my grandparent’s house. Tucked way back into the piney woods, their house was the first on the curve of the cul-de-sac where four other occupants lived.

Visits to my grandparents’ small farmhouse in the country are quite memorable. Daddy Bond, my uncle and dad had to convert the back porch into a bathroom because the house came without indoor plumbing. My grandma would place a round metal tub on the floor of the kitchen and fill it up with water she’d warmed up on the stovetop for me to bathe. Before the plumbing was installed, we’d have to go outside to the outhouse to use the bathroom. At night Mama Bond would put a chamber pot under my bed just in case nature called.

As I think back to those barefoot walks on the warm sand road in front of their house I close my eyes and smile. I can still recall the pleasant sensation of soft smooth sand and how my toes sank into the tan granules. I would gather a coffee can full of the sand from the road and take it to the backyard where Mama Bond had moved a table under a tree for me to play. There I’d use perfect amounts of sand and water to mix up a delectable mud pie. My grandmother’s old dishes that had cracks and chips made excellent dishes for mud pies.

Everything about life in the country was slower. We’d wake up most mornings with nowhere to go. Mama Bond and I would wash clothes and hang them on the line in the backyard to dry. In the autumn we’d rake and burn leaves. I’d watch the day lilies hoping to see them close up by day’s end, but never did. Sometimes we’d drive into town with Daddy Bond so we could go grocery shopping and he could buy Lucky Strikes. Then we’d go back home and sit in the back yard hulling purple peas or shucking ears of corn.

As a little girl, I loved my visits to Buna because there was always something to do. I got to feed chickens and pigs, gather eggs, fish in a pond and help my grandmother churn butter. Late afternoons we’d sit out on the front porch after supper to watch the sunset and whistle back to the Bobwhites perched somewhere in the tall trees.

The day the photograph with this post was made, my mother picked me up early. (Sorry, you'll have to click link, no picture b/c of Blogger problems.) Mom had forgotten about the photo sitting and didn’t get to “fix me up” the way she wanted to. She braided my hair in a hurry when she picked me up and threw the yellow dress on me before packing me back in the car. I believe I remember her saying something like I looked like I’d just come in from playing outside. She was right. I’d just come back from playing in the country like a little country girl.

Many good times were spent at my grandparent’s house in the country. May they live forever in my memory.

March 12, 2007

Rainy Days and Mondays


The Carpenter's, a brother/sister duo of the 1970's recorded the song, "Rainy Days and Mondays" in 1971. Today is a rainy Monday and I have a cold or allergy head full of junk that makes me feel less than willing to do anythng. I wouldn't say that "rainy days and Mondays always get me down," but this Monday has.

Our school district is off for Spring Break this week. Both the teachers and students needed this break from school and each other. Last week was full of beautiful sunny, spring days and we were looking forward to a sun-filled vacation.

Now here we are on Monday, and I've waken up with a headache, watery eyes and blowing my nose in a dark house. The sounds of the rythmic rain are heard on my windows and the sun is struggling to peek out. I suppose if I'm going to feel badly, it should be a rainy day.

Since my graduation from high school in 1970, the Carpenter's song, "Rainy Days and Mondays" has always come to mind on a day like today. What's more, I identify with the words today more than I did back then. When Karen Carpenter sings the words, "...funny how it seems I always wind up here with you," think about God. When I am blue, I run to Him who loves me.

Just because I like the words, here they are for you.

"Rainy Days and Mondays"
Talking to myself and feeling old
Sometimes I'd like to quit
Nothing ever seems to fit
Hangin' around, nothing to do but frown
Rainy days and Mondays always get me down
What I've got they used to call the blues
Nothing is really wrong
Feeling like I don't belong
Walking around some kind of lonely clown
Rainy days and Mondays always get me down
Funny but it seems I always wind up here with you
It's nice to know somebody loves me
Funny but it seems that it's the only thing to do
To run and find the one who loves me
(*) What I feel is come and gone before
No need to talk it out
We know what it's all about
Hanging around, nothing to do but frown
Rainy days and Mondays always get me down
Funny but it seems that it's the only thing to do
Run and find the one who loves me
Repeat (*)
Hangin around, nothing do to but frown
Rainy days and Mondays always get me down

March 8, 2007

Contagious


I'm not really contagious, but I do have fever. Spring fever may not be a real disease by definition, but my longings to be finished with school for the summer are very real. These are the days when I stare at the chalkboard in my classroom and wish I could just walk out and go home. I leave work as soon as I possibly can every day in a hurry to put on jeans, a t-shirt and let my toes breathe as I kick off my shoes.

This evening I stayed outside cleaning off my patio until it was dark. I like the patio lights at night and the peace of the backyard on a slightly cool, calm evening. In the past on such days, I've taken my laptop outdoors, to post an entry on my blog or catch up on email while sipping a beverage. Taking a meal on the patio either alone or with my husband is a very pleasant way to spend time outside. Watching my cats prowl around the backyard plants returning to me every so often just to check if I'm still there, is just as satisfying. Sometimes I just sit and read. I love the feeling of no "homework".

Okay, I know that it'll get boring around the first part of June. For now, however, this feverish desire to play hookey from school and hang out in my backyard has my mind occupied. How is a person suppose to concentrate on work inside of a square room when nature is beckoning her outdoors? My classroom doesn't even have a window and quite often I don't even realize it has rained until school ends. So you can understand why I'm anxious to get outside on a beautiful spring day.

This may well be the last year to have this fever with no immediate relief. After I retire in May, I hope to have the freedom to stay on my patio as much as I like. Who knows what will happen then? I'm thinking my backyard needs flowers.
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