Tomorrow I will turn 50. The years have flown by. I have decided to take several hours this week and look at old photographs. I have pulled out every photo album that I can find. What fun it’s been to look back at happy times and reminisce.
Why don’t you take a trip with me back to the 1960’s when I was a little girl?
I grew up in a normal middle class neighborhood with loving parents. Daddy worked hard at Eastern Airlines and Mommy could baked, cooked, sewed, and volunteered everywhere when she wasn’t substitute teaching. With Daddy working for the airlines, we were free to travel by plane to visit my grandparents each Christmas and for summer vacation.
When I was a little girl, my friends parents were all married. I didn’t know anyone who had a baby before marriage. We had great neighbors. Miss Millie and Miss Pat would come over with their husbands and drink coffee with my parents. Miss Pat taught me to ride a bike.
One day, we had a neighborhood picnic and all the parents joined the kids playing softball. Wow! I didn’t know my mom could hit…and catch. I knew my dad could because he would throw the ball to me on Saturday afternoons. I remember planting a flower garden with him from seed inside the little packets in the hardware store.
“I’m heading to the hardware store. Do you want to ride along?” Daddy would ask. Of course, I did. The hardware store was boring, but being with Daddy was exciting. For my eighth birthday, he dressed up in a suit and tie while I wore my prettiest dress. Daddy took me out to dinner, making me feel like queen of the world. When my husband took my own daughter out to dinner to give her a purity ring, it reminded me of that special night with my father.
Mommy loved to sing out loud when we were driving. She would sing, “Well, we aint got a barrel of money and some say we’re ragged and funny, but we’ll travel along, singing a song; side by side.” I could talk to her about anything, and I mean, anything.
In a time of segregation, Mom was a champion of Civil Rights. She started a summer day camp, bringing black and white churches and children together. It filled several summers with fun and new friendships. There were people that called her names, but I respected her so much for taking a stand and making a difference in the world.
We had lots of company and Daddy would tease Mommy. “Hurry up with the dishes. We have to return them to the neighbors.” Mom would be mortified and guests would laugh. After the meal was over, we would sit and talk, sometimes for hours.
People from all over the world sat at our table and we heard their stories and shared ours. So many memories of sitting around the dining room table in our home, in my grandparent’s home up north, and at Nana’s house right here in Sanford. What is it about sitting around talking after finishing a delicious meal.
So thankful for the memories and hoping to create lovely memories for my little lambs today.
Be blessed today & forever!
Merey (Meredith Ludwig Curtis)
