Friday, December 2, 2016

Cookie Jar Sweet Memories plus Miss Marlene's generous Christmas gift


Day 6

 

Homemade dresses. Christmas quilts and baby quilts.

Mom :Never sew with Bobi, it’ll drive you crazy!”

 

Oh! That Nanny! She could do---literally…everything!

Each Christmas season she applied her seamstress skills and creativity to holiday dresses for her girls and herself; fantastic creations to celebrate the season, a new design each year.

A “perfectionist” by personality, she exacted material, patterns, thread and sewing perfectly.

Teaching her girls to sew, she carefully laid out the pattern on the neatly folded material, then cut each piece precisely. Daughter Beth followed along in meeting the high expectations.

Daughter Becky? Well! More like her old man, I reckon. Fly by the seat of her pants!

She would flop out the fancy material, “fold” it (sort of), slap on the thin-paper pattern and whip out the old scissors and chop away. Voila! Sew it up; put it on; enjoy---and…shut up.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder! Creativity7 knows “no” bounds---or…prescription!

I guess, reluctantly: somebody has to be the “adult”? (I never achieved that high mark!)

My guardian angel saved my bacon on many occasions. Like the 4th of July when I “bottle-rocketed” not only Old Glory (by accident) but put burn holes in the girls night gowns. Nothing serious! They should put “warning” labels on dangerous things like fireworks; at the very least: Adult supervision required. Well! Gee! Always out for a “good” time! I reckon! Oh! Well! Those topics are tales for another day…
I reckon that’s true enough! In the end---it all makes…Cookie Jar Sweet Memories! Amen!

 
Plus:
 
 
 
Christian Charity---practiced, and…personified!
 
 
Some five decades plus several years ago, I sat as an eighth grader in a Catholic school with two grades crowded into a single room, seventh and eighth grades together, under the tutelage of a nun juggling some-fifty students’ education in a seesaw curriculum bouncing from one grade to the other; some disciplines combined, like religious instruction, geography and other studies; in these endeavors the good sister taught both grades simultaneously. My mind, as usual, wandered.
It was late in the school day, 3:15 pm; only fifteen minutes until final dismissal. Another day!
“Spelling” class got the last quarter hour of the school day. Good news! Indeed!
My derelict mind suddenly focused on the nun’s words which were not about spelling; I do not remember how the conversation had turned to the subject on which she spoke. I awoke/
“Our town and community has been ‘blessed’ in that we have not suffered a traffic death, here.” As my inattentive mind gleaned the meaning of the sister’s words, I became focused.
Where had that statement come from? I do not recall any “visitor” to our room. Hmmm!
After class was dismissed, sometime after “supper”, mom and dad discussed the “tragedy”.
A horrific accident involving a car and tractor trailer truck colliding had resulted in a fatality.
Wow! Just what our teacher had been talking about during spelling class! Had she known?
The accident had occurred around three in the afternoon; I believe spring was the season.
In a small community of less than three thousand in population, such tragedy struck hard.
What I did not know at the time was that a young girl and boy had lost their mother; the daughter was twelve and her sibling a bit younger. A few years later, I learned more.
The children’s father had suffered inexplicable tragedy, as had the sister and brother. Some six years later I learned from my girlfriend, who was a close friend of the girl, that the distraught dad had delegated the responsibilities of the deceased mother’s role, as far as running the household, to the hapless daughter; he just expected the girl to fill the void. And, she did so!
After high school, the girl took a trip to Yellowstone and found refuge and “peace” in Oregon.
There, she took up residence in Portland; years later our family visited her there.
Recently, the girl moved back to our little town, now boasting over ten thousand citizens.
Our friend is highly intelligent, quick of wit with a pleasant girlish giggle and an easy, affable laugh. I have never heard her utter any untoward verbiage about anyone---ever! Always smiling, forever pleasant in deliverance. Still, a quiet, deep, suppressed  “sadness” permeated her being.
Never mentioning “the accident” nor complaining for over half a century, she suddenly allowed that she had met with the driver of the vehicle in which her mother had been the “victim”. The girl and the daughter of the driver had been good friends after the incident and our friend had set up a mutual-agreement meeting with the driver which the daughter attended.
They met at the lady’s home and chatted affably for a considerable time. In the end, they held hands, the now elderly lady profusely apologizing and remorseful; the “girl” heartfelt in charitable Christian forgiveness. Her conclusion explained to us: It was just a horrible accident!
You bravely offered her an honest chance for self-“forgiveness”, reconciliation and---finally…Redemption! While you were satiated, the lady found---long sought…Salvation!
Wow! Thank you! My dear friend, Miss Marlene! Many consider themselves “saintly”, even purporting “angelic” aspirations, but, you, my dear, exemplify by display the Christian mandate: Love! You can mentor a simple “sinner” like Humble-I---any time…with pure Christian generosity! Charity begins at home---generosity is Love…you practice it: Perfectly!
Amen!
 

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