Summer of 1960... chapter 18...
nothing left but an old towel
Later that summer my mother
gave birth to a fat, baby boy. He kept
us all busy. He was almost too big for
me to hold. He was so squirmy, I even dropped him once. Not far.
I was sitting on the floor and he jumped out of my arms, but I caught
his head. That’s the most important,
right?
My mother stayed home a little while, but she
struggled with needing to get back to work and caring for her new baby. She was away at work so much that her milk
dried up. He was allergic to cow’s milk
so the doctor put him on soy milk which was expensive. So that just made it harder. Between Momma, Grandma, and us three girls,
we took care of our new brother, Kevin.
A few weeks later, in August, my birthday
came and went without much fanfare; a cake, a blowing out of candles and I
turned 8. I got a small doll with blond
curly hair as a present.
About
that same time, Bear just up and left and took all her puppies. I had run out to get a puppy to hold and they
were gone. I ran to her place under the
porch and there was nothing there but an old towel. “I guess she had to keep moving,” my mother
explained. She said we needed to just be
glad we got to be with them for a while.
I remember saying, “I didn’t get to say goodbye.” Then I forgot the doll. I went out to get the
bunny that I had secretly named Pinky and cried sad, quiet, goodbye tears.
. Since
it was the end of summer, I knew school would be starting soon and I would be
going into third grade. Marva Rose knew
the teacher I was going to have and told me that she was very nice. I didn’t want to think about starting school
but it was hard not to because our mother was sewing us new dresses for school. Occasionally the sewing machine would stop and
she would call one of us in to try on a dress or to get measured.
“I don’t even have my shoes on,” I
giggled. There was a big hole in one of
my shoes. Momma had gotten an empty
cereal box, placed the shoe on it and drew around it. Then she cut it out and put it inside my shoe
to cover the hole. Tony the tiger would peek out at me when I put them on. They were my favorite Butterscotch
shoes. They had been Moonrose’s but when
she outgrew them, they were mine. I had
waited for two years to get them. They
had been a light yellow and were now more of a brown, but they were still my
Butterscotch shoes.
The next morning the first thing I saw
when I woke up was my new dress hanging in my doorway. It was pale yellow and so very soft. I grabbed it and ran into my mother’s room.
“Can I wear it today?”
“You can try it on,” she said. I pulled it over my head; Momma helped me
with the zipper. I put on my
Butterscotch shoes and I would spin around and around, the dress flaring wildly
around me higher and higher. Momma smiled, “It’s made out of the parachute
material that your Daddy brought home.”
It was soft and silky.
I remember
that I loved that special dress and when I’d wear it, the bottom of the hem
would hit just below the knee on the back of my calf when I’d walk. I felt grown up and pretty; and every once in
a while, Tony the Tiger and I would just take a spin.
to be continued......
I had a special dress when I was 7 also. It was red print and had a big skirt that really flared out when I spun. I loved it. My 2nd cousin's little girl had the exact dress, except it was blue. We would wear them at the same time and teeter totter so the skirts would go "whee"! Such fun!!
ReplyDeleteSo cool! My 6 yr old granddaughter came over yesterday with a twirly skirt! "Mia, do you want me to show you how it works?" So cute!
DeleteWhat is it about special dresses we have as little girls?!?! I love this!
ReplyDelete