Life Events Park 6q Remembrances of things past - the Parkers Parkertown IV My brothers and I were excited beyond words when Daddy came home with a tricycle. All three of us managed to get on the tricycle and set out on a joy ride around the front room. Not surprisingly, we had a wreck. Lurton looked up at Mother and asked, Are we dead? Of course, Mother assured him that we were not dead. At the time I thought Lurtons question was funny. Later I would wonder how Lurton had a concept at that time of what death was. Decades later I found out. Mother and I were sitting on one of the swings on our front porch in Big Rock where we had most of our conversations about what was important to us. I will not include the content of that conversation. I suppose many families have a horror story that they choose to keep to themselves. Later something happened that scared me and Lurton as well. I dont think Douglas was concerned because to him he was the center of the world or at least of his world. Mother was bitten by a black widow spider. Her hand turned black and became swollen grotesquely out of shape. Finally, Daddy took her to the doctor. Nothing bad was supposed to happen to Mother. She was our shield and our joy. While Mother and I were recording our memories of the Parkers in her room at the nursing home, we talked about my favorite memory of Parkertown. I said to Mother that I loved having coffee with Aunt Lula at the big house. Mother laughed. You thought, she said, that I didnt know about that. I never said anything because you thought it was your secret and Aunt Lulas secret. For too many mornings to number, Aunt Lula and I would sit at the kitchen table and drink what I thought was coffee. Aunt Lula was drinking coffee, but my coffee was mostly milk colored either with a bit of Aunt Lulas coffee or a dollop of cocoa. I felt like a grownup having coffee with Aunt Lula whom I have loved all my life beyond measure. Finally there was that long dark night in 1942 when Mother blew out the light and Parkertown became forever nothing but a memory.
Posted on: Tue, 29 Oct 2013 19:21:23 +0000
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