“Everything is ceremony in the wild garden of childhood.”
The sun has appeared, disappeared and reappeared. I totally understand why even the sun is despairing. Who’d want to hang around stuck in what feels like a polar weather pattern? We even have a morning breeze making the day feel colder. The dead leaves still hanging at the ends of branches are being blown about as are the tops of the pine trees. We had snow flurries last night which put a soft layer on top of the snow from last week. It wasn’t even an inch, but it is more than enough. I checked the week’s weather in the paper this morning, and it looks as if Thursday may be our salvation. It might just reach 40˚.
Popcorn was one of our TV treats. They were the old fashion kernels. Once one popped, the whole pan had to be shaken or the popcorn would burn. Nothing smells worse than burnt popcorn. My mother was a true believer in butter. She’d melt the butter, put it on the popcorn in stages then use her fingers to mix the popcorn around so you could taste butter all the way to the bottom. My mother had a set of nested white bowls with tulips on them. She used the biggest bowl for the popcorn. Once when she and I were shopping in an antique store, I saw a set of tulip bowls exactly like the ones my mother had. I bought them all because of that popcorn.
Hung across from the toilet in our bathroom when I was young was a picture of a little boy just getting ready for his bath. He carried a brush, soap and a towel and had a halo over his head. His bathrobe was blue and was fuzzy the way old cards and books sometimes were. Santa’s red suit was often fuzzy in the same way. I used to sit and read the verse on that picture. I read it so many times I can still recite from memory. In a B&B in Ireland that same picture with the fuzzy bathrobe hung in the bathroom. I tried to buy it, but the woman didn’t want to sell it. When I got home, I googled the verse and found a metal reproduction. I really wanted fuzzy, but I bought the metal one anyway for my mother’s stocking. She couldn’t believe I remembered it let alone found one. It hung in her upstairs bathroom. Now I have it hanging in mine. The verse, by Mabel Lucie Attwell, starts “Please remember don’t forget, never leave the bathroom wet…”
My childhood lives in my memory drawers, but some of it is also strewn about the house.
Explore posts in the same categories: MusingsTags: buttered popcorn, cold, Little boy taking a bath'fuzzt bathrobe, Mabel Lucie Attwell, never leave the bathroom wet...", Please remember don't forget, popcorn, snow flurries, tulip bowls
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keepthecoffeecoming.blog 
February 10, 2014 at 12:58 pm
Music kicks down barriers.
50 years ago it was the Fab Four upstaging Topo Gigio and firing up America. Sochi opened in spectacular form, a kid from Bristol actually won a medal but, if you didn’t see it, The Russian Police Choir took on Daft Punk during the opening ceremony and treated the world to this
http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/russian-police-choir-performs-get-lucky-opening-ceremony?ctx=top-moments
Wow Vladamir Putin let the guys stay up all night to Get Lucky 🙂
February 10, 2014 at 1:19 pm
My Dear Hedley,
I am sure they all had permission slips from Mr. Putin as nothing happens without his approval.
I hadn’t ever heard of Daft Punk before this. I live with my head in the sand.
February 10, 2014 at 1:23 pm
For a while I was hard selling Random Access Memories – Get Lucky was a gigantic hit from that disk. im6 was not impressed when the two Frenchmen appeared at the Grammies wearing their helmets and singing along with Stevie Wonder.
April 22nd with bring us “The Cautionary Tales of Mark Oliver Everett”
February 10, 2014 at 1:25 pm
MDH,
I knew so few groups vying for a Grammy that I didn’t watch. I did see the helmeted guys when I was channels surfing. They cemented my choice to forego the ceremony.
February 10, 2014 at 1:09 pm
Still very warm for the season here, around 35 topday and it will continue like this for quite some time they say, Sunday might be nasty cold but already on Monday it will be warmer again 🙂
It’s strange how some pictures stays in the mind from childhood. We had a painting on the wall just in front of our toilet and it’s modern art and I think it shows a creek in a strange sort of foggy forest. I hated it and for some reason it scared the crap out of me 🙂 I have it somewhere here but even if I can see that it’s actually rather good I still don’t want to look at it 🙂
I can’t remember ever having butter on my popcorn. I have actually noidea how it tastes 🙂 I know they always have it in cinemas but I always thought it was a waste of money buing popcorn, so cheap to makle oneself but rathger expensive at the cinema 🙂 I wanted gummy bears or chocolate and I bought that in the candy store next to the cinema 🙂
Have a great day!
Christer.
February 10, 2014 at 1:24 pm
Christer,
My feet are cold. I’m wearing slippers. Gracie wanted to go out, and I was just about to let her go when I noticed the gate was open. She would have been gone in a flash. I went down the icy steep steps to the yard expecting any minute to fall. I didn’t and managed to shut the gate and make it safely upstairs. To add to my good fortune, I hadn’t shut the door all the way so I wasn’t locked out which has happened to me before. The only thing is my feet are cold as snow got into my slippers, but I still consider myself fortunate.
The butter in the cinemas is really oil and not great tasting. Like you, I hate paying the prices they ask for refreshments at the cinema so I too sneak in food, sometimes cheddar popcorn. I usually only buy a soda.
Our childhoods are always with us in the most surprising ways!
Enjoy your evening!
February 10, 2014 at 1:22 pm
Hi Kat,
I still have the yellow and white pyrex bowl that my mother used for potato salad. When we were clearing out the house one of my brother’s wanted to toss it but I said no. It was The Potato Salad Bowl. I never make potato salad but, really, how could one throw that out?
That fuzzy stuff on cards and such things is called flocking. Tiny fibers electrostatically charged to stand up vertically so that they can have their bottoms bonded to the ground substance. Flocked velvet wallpaper comes to mind as does PolarFleece. 🙂
It’s sunny and cold here today. We had a dusting of snow last night but it’s melted off the sunny parts of the pavement in spite of the cold.
There are no errands today but I might take a run up to Newburyport for veggies and a turkey thigh just because I am bored.
Enjoy the day.
February 10, 2014 at 1:30 pm
Hi Caryn,
I so agree with you. The potato salad bowl had to stay. It carries too many memories for the indignity of tossing it.
Thanks for the info. I knew friends with that flocked wallpaper. I don’t want to profile, but it just happens they were all Italian. I used to love getting a card with flocking. (I know that’s what they call snow put on a tree).
It is cold and nothing is melting. I just put safe paws deicer on the back steps, but I doubt it will work with this weather.
I was going to go to the post office to send out my valentines, but I had just the right number of stamps so I’m going no where!
Have a great day!
February 10, 2014 at 8:43 pm
In case anyone is wondering, here’s the “bath boy”:
February 10, 2014 at 9:11 pm
Thanks, im6
It hangs in my bathroom over the sink. I should have an explanation beside it so my guests will know the history and significance of the boy in the blue bathrobe.