ANOTHER DAY BUT WHERE’S MY DOLLAR?

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A couple of days ago I went out for a ride down to the river and was greeted by this view. Someone told me it was a gambling boat but I don’t know about that. I just know that it evokes thoughts of the riverboats that once upon a time plied these waters between here and New Orleans. Anyone see the movie “Showboat”?

One of my favorites, but then I love almost ALL of the old musicals. I think I was born in the wrong century because in my mind’s eye I see myself descending a circular staircase, dressed in a long dress with hoop skirts and lace. The reality would of course be me tripping over the long dress and totally destroying the lace as I tumble head first down that staircase, but in my own mind I would be graceful. Yeah, right!

As long as I’m dreaming, I might as well claim that dollar a few million times over! Now what to do with my newfound millions! Maybe a home of my own? I would have to fill it with nurses and a doctor or ten to patch me up when I fall (I do that a lot), No, if I had my own home it would have a huge room to hold my fabrics, sewing machines, and a separate room for lace and otherr sewing notions. And, of course, I would have my very own boat docked behind the house ready to take me floating down the Ohio to the Mississippi and points beyond!

But I’m awake now — most of the night for that matter. Dreams are nice but reality can also be nice. I have friends! They are worth more to me than all the millions of dollars in the world! I have a roof over my head, three meals a day and warm clothes to shield me from the elements. You know what? I really am wealthy beyond my wildest dreams!

Back To Highway 81

I’ve been thinking a lot about the fun we had growing up on Highway 81.  I realize when I  refer to it as “Highway 81” I;m giving it an entity all it’s own, but to me it is a place of dreams, young love, first friends, family;  well, a dream that is so real to this day that I would return there in a flash if it could only happen.  No a/c, none of today’s easy living amenities, but some of the happiest memories of my lifetime.

It was out there, on Highway 81 that I learned the necessary tools of my life today.  I wrote my first poem, read my first book, met my first friends and probably the ones who will continue to be my best friends until our deaths.  Many of them are gone on ahead now, but many remain — Diane, Lou, Margaret, Mavis among the first to come to mind.  My date for our eighth grade graduation movie is gone now, but what a life he had!  He was stationed at the Pentagon on 9-11.  When he spoke about that at a class reunion so many years later my blood ran cold again.  I knew someone in New York, mainly the son of a older couple I took  care of here in Owensboro at a critical time of their lives, who worked in Manhattan,  a couple of blocks from the towers, on that day.  He lived across town and didn’t make it to work that morning, but I spent some tense hours with his dad before he got that call thru.  Sorry, thinking about Billy made me think about Bill.

So, big Brother didn’t change much after we moved to the country.  He just had a lot more space to create his mischief, and some older cousins to teach him a few more bad tricks.  Not that he needed lessons on that subject.  He made a “see-saw” across a barbed wire fence for us (I think it’s called a teeter-totter these days), then he held me suspended in the air on it until I fell off, ripping my right arm from the wrist to my shoulder.   Not a deep cut, but I remember holding my arm in the air watching the blood pooling around the ripped flesh as I ran crying to my Mother!  Sometimes I still wonder how she survived our childhood without going completely insane!  She calmly got out her usual first aid tools — the old sheet, the Black Diamond Liniment, and the soapy water to clean the wound.  I still have a scar to this day, but nobody I knew ever went for stitches  back then.  I’m sure the city kids did,  but we were country kids, and my mama didn’t raise no sissies!

Big Brother didn’t stop there though.  He burned our Uncle Joe’s barn down in the process of showing me how our new house was fireproof!  The house was built of cinder blocks — actually fireproof, but when the holes in the blocks are stuffed with hay and a match is held to the hay, inside the hay barn–it just ain’t a pretty picture!  My most vivid memory of the outcome of this however was Uncle Joe, standing among the debris the next morning, shaking his head.  I later learned he only said it saved him the trouble of tearing the barn down later — meaning, of course, after he got his hay out!  He was one really cool uncle!

 Miss Victoria, the next generation!

Happy Valentines Day

I hope everyone is having a wonderful Valentines Day today.  Just sending this short note to everyone who loves someone, whether with them or not.  For me, it is NOT but that only means not living with them.  Children grow up and leave home for places and families of their own, marriages fail but the love that brought us together remains, family members  pass away and if we are lucky, friends take their place in our lives. I just happen to be very fortunate in my friends, blessed to have them and grateful that they have always been around when I need someone.   So, to my family and friends, Happy Valentines Day.  I love and appreciate each and every one of you.

I want to share these photos of the sweet green frog and balloons sent yesterday by my daughter and her family.  Thanks, G.  I love it!