A memory of childhood...

Taffy Truck

My World at 5

or

Growing Up in New Orleans

by Rian

I see shade trees, small neatly kept houses, broken banquettes (this was what we call sidewalks), and a short winding street.  I feel comfortable, very much at home.   I like this neighborhood.  People are friendly, no one is afraid.  My house is next to the corner grocery.  We're lucky.  Mr. Sam, who is the Grocer,  is our friend.  He saves me little loaves of bread which he gives out as lagniappe.  Lagniappe is "a little something extra", and is standard in New Orleans.  Sometimes when I'm in the store, I eat a small red potato right out of the vegetable bin.  Mr. Sam doesn't mind, and it smells and tastes fresh and musty..

I also visit in the back of the store where the Grocer and his son and daughter-in-law live with their two children.  They have a kitchen, a living room, a dining area, and an upstairs where there are a few bedrooms.  They also have a backyard adjoining ours. 

Our house has a small wrought iron porch in front. From there you enter through a living room, and then a dining room, where there is a floor heater.  I can feel it's warmth, and can smell the combination of gas and hot metal.  It feels good. I like to dress over the floor heater and feel the warm air on my skin.

I can also smell cigars and taste fried chicken.  It's a Sunday, and daddy is home, smoking his cigar and reading the paper while mama cooks.   I feel secure and loved.

The kitchen is right after the dining room, and the den is behind that. The den runs the width of the house across the back.  Daddy had it built on after he and Mama moved here. On the right side there are 3 bedrooms separated by one bathroom with a gas wall heater.  My brother has the room next to the den for himself, and my older sister and I share the next room. We have a set of twin beds with Wagon wheel headboards.   In the hall outside the bathroom is a table with a small round black metal phone.

Outside my parent's bedroom, which is the one in the front of the house, is a window box filled with succulents - some sort of cactus.  I can see them clearly, and remember the feel of their soft fur-like leaves, that if broken open, have a strange fluid inside. 

We have a car and a T.V.  The year is 1950, and I'm 5.

I don't have to take naps anymore, but I never really minded them.  In the summer when it's  really hot and humid outside (and we don't have an air-conditioner, but we do have an attic fan), striping down to your undies and laying on clean sheets with one of those humming black metal fans cooling you is not exactly unpleasant.

Down the block is a China-berry tree. My friends and I pick the berries and throw them at each other.  My best friend lives across the street.  Her parents are not as nice as mine.  They yell at her and make her eat when she doesn't want to. Sometimes she throws up.

I have another friend who lives on the opposite corner.  She has 8 in her family.  She and her twin brother are the youngest.  She's very nice.  So is her mama.  We don't see her daddy much, and her older sister is mean, but I like to play at her house.  It's very old, and very big; and her mama makes candy by boiling sugar.  They have a great beast of a dog, tall and brown and hairy.

There's a drug-store about a block down from my friend's house.  My friend and I go there.  Sometimes they hold Yo-Yo contests outside on the street. Older kids hang out inside, so Mama doesn't like  us to go .

There's a Taffy Wagon that comes down our street.  It is white with red trim, with windows all around so you can see all the strings of taffy hanging inside. You can also see the man pulling the pink taffy and wrapping it in wax paper.   The wagon is pulled by a large horse with a hat on with holes cut out for his ears.  I think the taffy is 5 cents.

Only about 2 blocks down is St. Anthony's School and Church. It's close to Canal Street.  This is the main street running into Downtown.  Mama and I take the Streetcar to go Downtown.  Mama always wears a hat and gloves, and  I have to wear a dress.  I don't like to shop, but eating lunch at Maison Blanche or D.H. Holmes is fun.  I like Shrimp Rémoulade.  And Mama always gets me  a treat at the Dime Store before we catch the Streetcar home.  Downtown smells like molasses.  Mama says this is probably because of the Jackson Brewery in the French Quarter which is right off Canal Street and on the Mississippi River.  The sound of the foghorns from the steamboats on the river echo in my ears.

Sometimes I play in our backyard on an old wheelbarrel turned upside down.  The tire is my steering wheel and that wheelbarrel becomes my own private plane.  Other times I cut out  paperdolls from old Sears catalogs or play with  plastic cowboys and Indians - the kind that had bowlegs that fit on the horses.  When it rains the gravel and puddles become boulders and streams! I have a doll called "Tiny Tears".  This is my favorite - although my brother takes it's arms and legs off on occasion.  However, lucky for me (and Tiny Tears), they can be popped right back on!

My life is getting ready to change.  School beacons.  And even though the thought of going to school is exciting, something inside me doesn't want to go.  I'm afraid, but don't know why.  

     

Perhaps even at this tender age of 5, I fear the inevitable loss of my "freedom".

Self-sufficient living...

I've been reading a lot of blogs written by people who have chosen a 'self sufficient' life style.  I find this very intriguing and although I applaud and appreciate the dedication necessary for such an endeavor, I wonder if it is economically feasible or better to be viewed as mainly a life style choice. As a life-style choice, I would consider it a wholesome fulfilling way to live and bring up a family. 

If I were younger and had the option, I think I would choose to live this way.  However, it would have to be a 'no-kill' self-sufficiency life-style... which would probably not make it financially sound from the 'waste not- want not' standpoint.  But I could see having chickens strictly for the eggs, a cow or goat for the milk and butter, etc.  and a huge vegetable garden. I could even see sheep or alpaca for yarn, but the killing part would never happen...  And its not that I consider it wrong,  I don't. This is the way of the farm or ranch life.  It just wouldn't work for me.  But I agree that as the old BBC show "Good Neighbors" used to demonstrate, it was a 'good life' although not an easy one.

As I've commented on some of these sites before, you need to be young and strong... and I sometimes wonder when you find time to sleep?   

Spraying for West Nile tonight...



Greenback area around the creek

 Here in Dallas County we've had 10 deaths from West Nile.  So tonight they start aerial spraying.  The decision to spray has been controversial.  Some feeling it is necessary to protect people.  Others thinking that using chemicals only complicates the problem.  Myself, I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place. I don't want people dying from a mosquito borne disease if we can prevent it.  But... I don't like the idea of spraying chemicals when I've always been a believer in the natural organic way. 

And even though the chemicals are supposed to be people and animal-safe, they recommend that people stay inside during the spraying and take their animals in also.  So what about the feral animals who live outside? And will the chemicals harm the turtles, frogs, lizards, and snakes in the yard and greenback areas around the creek?

I hope not...

Back at Bailey's Cove...

After this past week, I had a real need to get back to Bailey's Cove and 'just be'.   So anyone who wants to join me there is welcome... or if you too need a place where life is kind, click here.

those 'after 40' medical tests...

our house in snow

I hope you enjoyed my photo of Caddo Lake yesterday.  I had to post something and wasn't in the mood to do much blogging. Had one of those 'after 40' medical tests Monday and after the prep and test, was thoroughly dehydrated and not feeling up to par.  To make matters worse, my left arm was black and blue due to 3 botched attempts to find a vein and 1 (finally) successful one. It wasn't their fault as my veins are usually easy to stick, but apparently the prep had extremely dehydrated me... which is what the nurses told me and  I believe since I was somewhat dizzy Tuesday morning. So I spent the day resting, drinking water, and putting warm compresses on my arm.  

Today I feel better.  The immediate result of the test was good.  But they did take a biopsy and that result will come in later.  But for the moment, I'm just glad its over and done. 

All 3 nurses were apologizing profusely for the unsuccessful attempts and I told them not to worry as they had definitely taken my mind off the upcoming procedure...

Silent Awakening...

Silent Awakening

There is peace here

silent and profound

There is beauty here

alone and unbound

I took this photo on Caddo Lake a few years ago.  The silence was eerie... but the Water Lily bloom was beautiful... even in this desolate place.

Return to Bailey's Cove...

Bailey's Cove...  my imaginary life on a cliff in Maine

Recently I was reading someone's blog about 'imaginary cats' and it brought to mind, a website that I hadn't visited in about 3 years. I created it in 2002 and named it, "Bailey's Cove" .  It's a comfortable old place situated on a cliff beside the sea... a place where I can go to relax, watch the ebb and flow of the tide, enjoy my wonderful companion pets, and... 'just be me'.  Don't we all need a place like that?  Of course it exists only 'in my mind's eye', but that's OK, it still brings me comfort.

If you click on the Bailey's Cove link (above) , it will take you to the web page.  And if you go from there to 'next entry' it will tell you how I first created the place.  But if you would like to skip to a more current page, you can click on 'Last Entry'. You are more than welcome to visit me there anytime. The door is always open.  (If you do, please leave a comment in my Guest Book... so I'll know why all the coffee is missing)

But now I have to go... the sea is calling me.