07/17/01 - I remember when I was a kid spending some of my summer vacation at my grandmother's house in Texas. I don't seem to be able to remember what I called my grandmother. I never really spoke to her, we didn't speak the same language. She would just gesture at me. When I was real little I can remember my grandmother scooping me out of bed very, very early and holding me against her as she went outside to feed the chickens. She wore a bonnet like Sunbonnet Sue. I loved her bonnet. My grandfather spoke English. I called him Pops. I had a lot of mixed feelings about the little ramshackle house that my grandparents lived in. It was sort of creepy. I think the back of the house, the kitchen, had a cement floor. I never went all the way in. It was dark and primitive. The bathroom was more like an alcove that had been tacked onto the house when plumbing was added. The bathtub was neat though. It was very big. The bathroom was next to the back door. On one side of the house was my mother's old bedroom. It was long and skinny and had been closed off, used for storage. During one of our visits that room actually fell right off the house, disintegrated. Mon Pere rented a tractor and leveled it off. The best part of the house was the front porch. Mon Pere built it during another of our visits. It had a porch swing. I would walk over to the corner store (Levine's) and get me a bottle of Grape Nehi and sit on the porch swing and read Archie comic books. Summertime and the living was easy.
This summer is going great even without visits or porch swing. It's business as usual around here. But the weather is warm, the living is more relaxed, lazy even. Tonight I made a Cajun meal and corn bread muffins from scratch. I sat on the porch after dinner and did a little reminiscing. I am content. I haven't any reason not to be. It's summertime and the living is easy. |
