“They say when you meet somebody that looks just like you, you die.”
The morning is lovely. It is already 50°. The air is still. The sky is clear blue, and the sun is bright, strong. As for today, I have no plans. My dance card is empty. I don’t even have any chores. My house is clean, and, ta da, my laundry is done.
When I was a kid, my mother had the wringer type washing machine. It was in the cellar. She had no dryer. She hung the laundry on the line in the backyard. I remember winter wash on the line. It froze straight out. On warmer days, I remember seeing my sisters walking between the white sheets, and I can still hear my mother yelling.
My mother always used the same big pan to cook turkey. It was blue with small white dots. I can close my eyes and see the browning bird in that pan on the oven rack. I remember my mother pulling out the rack to baste the bird. She always ate a small piece of the crusted stuffing.
I still have friends from my childhood. They live in my old town. We go back as far back as grammar school. One friend and I went to the same grammar school, high school and college. We don’t see each other often, my old friends and I, but that’s okay between friends. Distance in time means little.
I still have a pair of saddle shoes. I found them in a small shoe store piled with shoe boxes on every wall. The owner was an old man who knew exactly what was in every box. In Harry Potter, Mr. Olivander’s wand store reminded me of that shoe store.
My father used to tell us scary stories. He introduced us to the man with the hook. In my dad’s story, a couple was sitting in their car in the woods when they heard on the radio that a patient with a hook had escaped from a hospital. He never told us why the couple was in the woods or that the hook man had escaped from a mental hospital. He told us out the couple got scared by the news and left. When they got home, they found the hook was hanging from the door handle of their car. That story scared the heck out of me.
Explore posts in the same categories: Musings
March 27, 2023 at 5:29 pm
“Lil’ Red Riding Hood” is a favorite though I hadn’t heard “Are You Man Enough” so that got special attention. And that photo and the story that goes with it give me the willies every time.
March 27, 2023 at 9:33 pm
Rowen,
I always think of “Lil’ Red Riding Hood” as such a fun song. Did you like Are You Man Enough?
March 28, 2023 at 9:01 pm
I did. Those ’70s records that come from the urban African-American experience are really compelling as a whole, and this one’s pretty interesting.
March 28, 2023 at 9:44 pm
I love posting music which is new to me and most of my Coffee regulars.
I’m glad you liked it.
March 27, 2023 at 8:29 pm
Hi Kat,
Today was cloudy with a chance of rain this evening. We did get a small passing shower during dinner. The high today was a comfortable 72° with a light breeze.
My mother had the upgraded version of the washing machine that your mother used. She would connect it to the kitchen sink with an hose and the machine would wash the cloths, but it had no wringer. It would spin the cloths and the water would go down the drain in the sink while the slightly dry enough cloths would go on the clothesline. When we moved into our first house in North Dallas in 1955, she bought a front loading washer and an electric dryer.
I think everyone had those blue oval pots with the white dots to roast anything that would fit. My mother used it for Turkey, chicken, or beef.
You’re lucky to still have friends from elementary school. I moved so often to not have formed long term elementary school friends. I do keep in touch with a high school buddy who lives in Bozeman Montana. We don’t have much in common because he’s become a MAGA right wing nut job. He’s the only Jewish person I know of who would admit that they voted for Trump. I don’t think there’s a large Jewish population in Montana.
None of the adults in my family were interested in telling us kids scary stories. I have been scared by watching early 1950s science fiction movies. I understand there’s a new version of H.G, Well’s, “War of the Worlds” coming out this April. I won’t see it. 🙁
https://bloody-disgusting.com/movie/3756128/war-of-the-worlds-the-attack-trailer-new-movie-brings-the-giant-aliens-back-to-the-screen/
Check out the Trailer.
March 27, 2023 at 10:01 pm
Hi Bob,
We are expecting rain some time tonight, maybe around eleven. It stayed in the 40’s all day.
I don’t remember when my mother got rid of her wringer machine. It think it was when we moved to the cape. That was also when she got a dryer. Both were in the kitchen as we had no real cellar.
That pan was universal, but it was so big my mother used it for anything besides turkey. She had smaller roasting pans for the other meats.
I still have a few friends from my childhood. We rarely see each other, but we keep in touch. The only move I made was from my hometown to the cape. When I was in the Peace Corps, my family moved back to that hometown. I came back to the cape when I got out of the Peace Corps.
A while back I saw my roommate from college for the first time since we graduated. We went out for drinks and had a great time. Later, I saw her posts on Facebook. She is a Trumper. I was shocked. I would never have guessed a friend of mine, even from way back, is a Trumper.
My father always told us stories. The hook story stayed with me. I’ve heard other versions of it. One was where they found scratchers on their car door. I thought all of the versions were scary when I was a kid.
That trailer reminds me of the Tom Cruise version of War of the Worlds. The sound from the long legged mechanical things is almost the same as in that movie. I watched the original a couple of days ago. It is the tamer of the two as well as tamer than the series from a few years ago. I didn’t like the series too much. I’ll probably see this new version when it hits cable.