Distant Memories from the Heart

There are times when

the smallest thing

can trigger

a memory..

A small picture

shared across the internet

highway...

Memories from far away

began

pouring in

somewhat akin to

an old levee

breaking during a

hurricane.

A small house,

two bedrooms,

living room,

and kitchen.

Two porches,

the front equipped

with straight backed chairs

and swing,

the screened in side porch...

always

a nursery with a

cardboard box for layette

sporting the newest

litter of kittens.

This little house

filled with love

was the home of my

grandparents.

In a blue two toned

Belair Chevy,

made somewhere around

1957,

we would come riding up...

Cats would fill the yard,

and way back when there

might have been some chickens

and Ginny fowl...

We would go in and see

Mam-maw sitting in her chair,

it was a very big chair

where she always was...

since the incidence of

"the stroke"

Just past her was the

entrance to the

dinning room/kitchen.

Immediately to the left

stood an old very tall

refrigerator

that always wore a

box of Pap-paws

favorite chocolate drops

and a box of porous

peppermint sticks

for its crown.

Why was the peppermint

porous?

You might ask...

Pap-paw showed me how

to take an orange,

roll it under your hand on the

table till it was

"somewhat" soft...

He then would cut a hole in

the top

and let me pick out a

peppermint stick

to thrust

through the hole ,deep

into the juices of that

orange...

OH, a sweet little piece

of heaven!

Orange juice through a

peppermint straw.

A black and white t.v.

sat on the far end of the

table...

and on occasions when our

visit was extended into

the evening...

We would watch

"Gunsmoke" or "Bonanza"

and if our luck was real good

Pap-paw would cook

"Bucket Steak"

It was somewhat like

cube steak...

but, until this day I have not

found Anything that was just

like Pap-paws bucket steak.

Yuummmm.

Upon our arrival Mam-maw

,in her big chair,

would have me brush her

hair.

Was it that I would do it for

extended periods of time

and it felt good

or was it a way to corral

and keep me quiet?

After our beauty sessions

I would always be instructed

to venture

on out to the side porch

for an inspection of the

newest

brood of kittens.

On a warm summers day

Daddy and I would walk to

the well house...

not far from the front porch

for , as Daddy would say

"The best tasting water in

the world."

When we returned to the

porch Pap-paw would

be sitting

either in a straight backed

wooden chair,

leaned on the back two legs

against the house

(which amazed me...

I had the hardest time

imitating this position...

my center of balance never

being quite right!)

or on the swing with one leg

out stretched across it..

either way he always had his

fly flip in hand...

Whether we were arriving or

on our way out...

Pap-paw had a certain kiss...

that in my family today

we still call it a

"Pap-paw Robertson kiss"

He would pucker and kiss you

on your cheek

like anyone else...

but, Pap-paws kiss was

a musical kiss.

It was

accompanied by the longest

loudest sweetest squeak in

all the land .

Our Mam-maw and Pap-paw

are long, long time

gone from this earth...

but, they will ever live

on in our hearts and

memories.