Wednesday, November 12, 2008

The Naming

Part Two

I clearly remember the day that one of my parents broke down. It was my mother. She had received the brunt of my persuasive dialog. She was the stay at home mom as most moms were in those days. Apparently she had been having some persuasive dialog with my dad on her own about the subject but as of yet had no success. She decided to take matters into her own hands although it would be more like it to say that she took the matter into our own hands.

We went to the grocery store. I had to make many trips to the car hauling the large amounts of cardboard she felt it would require to build the playhouse. We stopped at the hardware store and picked up some duct tape and some long stakes she figured we could frame our construction with. We returned home.

She decided the best location for my playhouse would be the three foot wide section of land between the garage and the chain link fence that divided our property from the neighbors. She figured that the garage and the fence would make good supporting structures. As an adult I can certainly understand her reasoning. As a child I could not. My plot of land was damp, dark, full of over grown weeds and spiders lived there. I expressed my opinion. silly, silly girl!

After blurting out my opinion, it felt like I was looking down the barrel of a gun and my mothers witch eyes certainly not her angel eyes were at the other end. Instantaneously and before my very eyes, my mother dissipated in a puff of smoke. I rubbed my eyes. She had transported herself to inside the garage.I could hear her clanging about in there. Oh no! She returned dragging along with her a shovel, a hoe, a rake and a broom. She was beginning to get a little wild eyed at this point and I knew that this look did not bode well for me. My mother was a very strong willed woman still is and I knew in my sweet little heart that only the end of the world as we know it would deter her from her (becoming more apparent to me by the moment) mad plan!

"I agree! It is pretty ratty back here." she said. "There you go. This all should be helpful to get rid of the weeds and spiders. I can't help the damp and dark though but once we have the whole thing built I don't think you will notice it very much. You work away at that and I will go inside and see what paint I can rummage up." From the way she tilted her head, from her crooked smile and from the way she had dumped the garden tools down in front of my feet I knew that she did not plan on helping me. All of her speech was now being spoken in the language that adults speak and could be translated as: "I am going into the house to rest now. I will enjoy some nice soothing music and maybe a couple cups of coffee that will perhaps be followed by a nap. I don't want to hear a peep out of you."

There was to be no escape for me. I was doomed to spent the rest of the morning fighting nature between the garage and the neighbors fence. After that and some lunch she was a good mother and would feed me. Right? I knew that things were only going to go from the now bad to a later worse. So true...so true.

After tomato soup and a sandwich we returned to my small housing plot. My mom seemed to have cheered up somewhat. I began to feel a little more optimistic. The rest of the day was spent in a frenzy of taping together cardboard and of hammering in stakes. We sweat profusely and got very dirty. There were many confusing commands. "Hold this...no no! Not there. Over there. Bang that stake in harder. It broke! Oh well...get another one. No no! Not that one. Get that thing-a-majiggy! You know! THE THING-A-MAJIGGY! On and on and on it went. The afternoon turned into early evening and it was time to go in and wash up and throw some dinner together. We stood back to survey our work. Hahaha! There stood swayed would be more descriptive the fruit of our labors. We had managed to construct a large box. "We will paint it tomorrow and then it will be lovely" She chirped. This story still makes me laugh. To my utter delight: IT RAINED! FOR DAYS!

Not The End Yet!


5 comments:

Bientje said...

I hang on your lips Christine!
This story is riveting!

Eve said...

Sounds like something I might do for my grandchildren. I can hardly wait to hear the end.

Momisodes said...

I just had tomato soup and a sandwich for dinner!

But of course it rained :(

I can't wait to read the next part.

Unknown said...

Oh, our childhood dreams! It makes me think back on how my dreams turned into childish nightmares when translated by adults. Read this:

http://fabgrandma.blogspot.com/2006/12/christmases-past.html

Fluffy said...

There is no way in the world that my mother would have done that. But my grandmother would.