01 May 2008

May Day


Happy May Day to all:)!

The first tulip has finally bloomed! It's just beautiful and there's the promise of many more to come. At last count...I counted 126 buds!!! I can't wait for the color!

Today on the way to work I saw icicles, that's right, icicles hanging off of the lower branches of a tall pine. They were really kind of cool (no pun intended) looking. I figured that the sprinklers must have been on early in the morning and as the water was dripping from the pine needles it was just cold enough to form the icicles.

On one of the blogs I read, the writer was writing about memories and had shared several of her memories by starting out with the phrase, "I remember...". So, I thought I'd follow suit...I remember dancing the May Pole Dance, on May Day, when I was in third grade. We had long streamers of crape paper that were every pastel shade available. They were attached to the top of the teatherball poles on the playground and as the music played the whole class bobbed and weaved around their respective circles. I remember some of the poles looking a lot better that others. The one I was on was one of the ones that didn't turn out so well, but the colors sure were pretty, none the less. I remember when we lived at 3008 Karen Ave. in Long Beach, CA doing my part of the yard work. My assignment was to mow the front yard and clean up the ivy there. I also had the south side of the house to clean up. That's where the camellias and baby tears grew. To this day, I still love the way baby tears look and think it a shame that for as pretty as camellias are they have not scent. I also remember getting mad at my mom one day after school, when we lived at 7935 Ring St., in Long Beach, CA, about what, about what I have long since forgotten, but I needed to blow off some steam so I went out in the backyard and weeded the whole rose garden and cleaned it up. I remember, again when we lived on Ring St., getting up early on Saturday mornings before anyone else in the house was awake (Saturday's were chore days and we did not get to sleep in) and baking cookies and cakes and making jam and pie with the fresh peaches that grew on the lone dwarf peach tree that grew in that same rose garden and my pet camellian, that I bought at the Pomona Fair, sunning himself on the rose bushes. The only way I could find him was to look for his red "leash". When I bought him the "leash" was very short, only a couple of inches of red thread. I thought it needed to be longer and so the day after I got him I got into mom's thread tin and found just the right shade of red thread to match the "leash". I gave him an extra 3+ feet. By being so generous it made it very difficult to untangle him from the thorny rose bushes when I wanted to hold him. I finally came to the conclusion that he needed his freedom and so the "leash" was removed and he was set free. To my amazement, he hung out it the rose garden for several weeks. I think it was because of the endless supple of aphids that were available there. One day I could no longer find him and figured that he had move on to somewhere else. Thinking I'd never see him again, I remember thinking that I had been able to keep him alive a lot longer that anyone had expected. Well, much to my amazement, several weeks later who should I find sunning himself on the cinder block wall in the backyard, but my pet camellian. I was sad to see that part of his tail was missing. He looked really cold, in fact, he looked frozen so I took him and put him in an old can that I found and moved him to a warmer spot on the fence. I thought he would thaw out a lot faster with the warmer location and the can holding the heat longer. That was the last time I ever saw him. Hopefully he went on to live a long and happy camellian life. I also remember the dress I wore to the Pomona Fair that day. It was one that my mom had made for me. My mom made most of my clothes in those days and I had many dresses because girls had to wear dresses to school then. This dress had many shades of lavender and purple and pink flowers on it with green leaves and vines running through it. Today the fabric would be described as a medium size calico print. The background was white. The skirt was full (one that passed the spin test) and the sleeves were short cap sleeves. I think it may have had some lavender ric rac on it as well. Funny how ric rac is making a come back.

Wow, that was easy, and it seems a little amusing to me how one memory lead to another and the memories that they led to. Try it sometime...it's quite fun.

2 comments:

Kim said...

Love the new look to you BLOG!!! and is that a picture I see???

mnB said...

ummm... this pic is very u mom but i think ide like to see more people pix! ;) like of ur amazingly cute grandkids and us too :) hehe