Yesterday we stole an hour from our Sunday afternoon
and sauntered down the gravel to visit G'ma Opal.
She's not feeling very well; her right shoulder is
in a lot of pain right now, and she looked tiny
and fragile sitting in her chair, but we had a lovely
conversation.
My aunt Jenny was there also and they were reconstructing
Doniphan for us as it looked 50-80 years ago when, in
G'ma's words, it was more countrified. She began with
a story of a carnival where there was a man who could
stretch out his neck till it looked like it was over
a foot long. Then she told of a carnival in a neighboring
town that had a merry-go-round that was turned by having
a mule pull it around. The rides cost a dime and my
grandfather took her there (before they were married)
and they rode until he had spent the entire dollar he
had brought with him.
There was a store that her dad would go to buy groceries
and you could get all the crackers and cheese you wanted
to eat, on the spot, for a nickel. "Just feature that,"
she said. What a lovely old fashioned turning of a phrase.
It was a lovely, restful hour that we spent there. Such
times and conversations keep us anchored to our little
corner of the world and allow us to keep sane amidst all
the crazy scheduling we try to keep to.
2 comments:
Oh, that sounds so nice to sit there with G'ma Opal. It reminds me of all those Andy Griffith episodes where people actually spent time "visiting" one another and things were less rushed. And I love hearing stories told first hand from older folks!
How wonderful, to have a Grandma Opal to listen to.
My g-ma isn't telling so many stories anymore, and it's difficult for us to talk on the phone.
I like "just feature that"
my dad's g-ma used to ask him to "tote home my poke", I catch myself asking someone to tote this or that, though I don't pull out the poke word.
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