CLAY AND WATTLES

A Garden Path Called Memory Lane

Sher and I talked this morning as she was on a home garden tour. She texted me earlier that she was going to "rest" today. Then she remembered the tour.

Paul set out the hydrangeas, camelia and rose bush this morning. The weather was perfect today - very cool, in fact, about 64 degrees, and no humidity. It felt like this just about every morning and evening in Panama City the two weeks I was there. Sher's neighbor Bonnie has jasmine on her fence and she thought I might like some on mine. I asked Paul if it was okay, as he's the one who has to mow around things, and he said it was fine. There are other vines that would be pretty as well: woodbine, clematis, bougainvillea... Another quest for next week. Wish I'd known when I was at Vador's last Thursday. But then I don't have to wait till next Saturday to plan a trip!

I've been making copies of old pictures for JoAnn; all of these were either Goobie's or Mama's and I borrowed many of the originals and had prints made years ago. But some are originals with yellowing edges. Probably I came into possession of these when Goobie died. Now I look at these familiar faces, calculate their ages compared to mine, think, now I kinda know how they may have felt about this or that. In one, Goobie is looking at me and has an arm around me protectively; I'm sitting between her and Aunt Shirley, who was only 13 years older than me. Goobie had lost a baby girl at age 3 years, 4 months, and I looked to be about that age in the picture. I can't imagine... Mama and I lived with Goobie and Papa for five years till Mama remarried, and then I was with them practically the whole time till I was nine. In some of my genealogy papers I found Aunt Ella Jean's funeral record that Mama had gotten for me a dozen years ago when I asked her to go on a "quest" for me. Ella Jean's little casket and box (vault?) cost $27.50 in 1935. Mama told of the trunk Goobie had with precious keepsakes in it and a candy Easter egg with one little bite out of it - Ella Jean's; and a pair of her shoes. Growing up I always "knew" about Ella Jean; but now I feel about Ella Jean, and how it must have affected the family and especially Goobie, her mother. Here, Goobie has on a pretty necklace; I remember she wore "ear screws" a lot; had little tins of rouge that she wore when she "went to town." But she would not wear red because she thought it "too flashy." She was a beautiful woman with high cheek bones and black hair; red would have looked wonderful on her. She did have a red billfold, though, and would often find a nickel in it for me!

Wonder where this strangely sculpted hedge was that had grown around and over a bench? Probably some city park in Memphis.

Below, Virginia (Mama) and baby sister Shirley. I like the natural sepia color best; enhancements are very good at times.