OK a brief discussion about our bathroom. It had the greatest tub in the world, it was really deep and you could fill it up almost to the top. That was before the day when they had overflow drains in them to keep the water at a safe level. The feet on the tub had claws wrapped around balls to keep the nails from scratching the floor. To this day, if I close my eyes, I can still remember how they looked.
The bathroom was in the middle of the second floor hallway. Ginny and Judy shared the rear bedroom and Gary had his own room on the opposite side. Karen, my oldest sister had what would be the living room for her bedroom. The windows looked out over the street which made it a great place to sneak into and stare out during long rain storms, but for the most part I stayed out of Karen’s room. She was ten years older than me and had a different decorating style.
Karen was Goth before Goth was cool. She had lamps with dark scarves draped over them to dim the lights. There were a lot of bottles with dark colored food coloring in them - perhaps they were pre-lava lamps?
From what I remember there were lots of books, mystery novels mostly. I was too young to understand the book covers, but the number of words inside sure made them seem to be very boring, and not a single picture inside. Just words. I wasn’t sure why she would even want to read them. Karen had many record albums that wouldn’t fit in my close and play record player. She had to use the stereo downstairs if she wanted to listen to them. I remember the Beatles and Elvis being among her favorite albums. Even though she was older than I was I still think I had a profound effect on her. You see, Karen had my knack for cleaning up her room. As I recall there were many pair of jeans and sweaters all over the room.
Ginny was a different story. Judy shared a room with Ginny – my second oldest sister. She made sure her room was clean and her bed was made. We didn’t have comforters or bed spreads, but her blanket was tucked in almost military style and her pillow was kept neatly placed at the head of her bed. If I didn’t know better I would bet that she ironed it when we weren’t looking.
She had a metal desk in her room which was filled with office looking supplies, pens, paper, that kind of stuff. The things that would make a little kid like me even more curious. I loved sitting in her desk chair when she wasn’t around and pretend that I was at work in some office. Other than the fact that my only brother’s room was connected to Ginny and Judy’s room by a cubby hole, I really can’t describe it much. Gary was my other idol, he could swim better than anyone I knew, and he had a magic that could make my mother smile bigger than any of the rest of us could.
Even at the age of five I could tell that Gary was my mom’s favorite. Most would assume that it was because he was her only son, but it was different. It was because they had a bond that no other person could understand. It was a special connection between my mom and Gary. You now what? I was OK with that, it was wonderful to watch how connected they were and it really made me understand what a gift that connection must be.
I almost forgot a member of my family, besides my dad that is, was our border collie, Runtsie. She was really our grandparents dog, she had been the runt of the litter when they took her in, hence the name. When they were unable to take care of her anymore she became a member of our family. She was my first dog and by far the best pet any family could ever have. Runtsie was afraid of lightening, but not much else. She was fast enough to catch bunny rabbits – proven by the fact that there many cotton tails dotting our back yard every spring. She also enjoyed catching bumble bees.
She would have many headless bee bodies littering the back porch during the summer months as well. It was those same bees that taught me a big lesson.
One night for some reason I was sleeping in Ginny’s bed on that crisp pillow case. It smelled so good since it had been hanging outside on the line to dry. I put my hand under the pillow and felt something wiggle. I rolled off the bed and lifted it up to see what was underneath. I saw a bee. I remembered that Pooh Bear had one time had a mouth full of bees and used them like a little machine gun to spit out. I also thought about how Runtsie would carry bee bodies around. I figured I could put the bee in my mouth and carry it outside to be released, in a fine spit, just like Pooh Bear.
I snatched up the bee and put it in my mouth, but something was wrong. At first there was a burning in my fingers, which steadily grew, followed but a burning in my mouth as the bee fought to be released. I ran downstairs, crying and screaming. Gary came to my rescue and ran into the room. He found the bee still and proceeded to kill it with Ginny’s pillow. I’m not sure how Gary escaped Ginny’s wrath for messing up her pillow case, but I’m guessing it was because Ginny was busy trying to help my mom calm me down as tears streamed from my eyes.
You know what? Pooh bears must have very strong mouths to not get stung.
The lesson here - don't put bees in your mouth.
No comments:
Post a Comment