The morning is chilly and cloudy. The top branches of the oak trees and their leaves are being blown by the wind. Today is a sweatshirt day.

My to do card is uke heavy. My friends have been kind and have been driving me everywhere. I am still needing a car. I know nothing about cars beyond the need for oil changes and such. I’ve been checking used car lots. I hope for the best.

When I was a kid, the world was smaller and life was slower. We walked most places. My father had the only car, and he needed it for work. My mother didn’t drive anyway. She’d grocery shop on Fridays nights. My father drove her and waited. If my mother shopped uptown, she walked. She pushed my sisters in the carriage when they were young. Uptown had the shops and stores and the bank and the post office, all the stores except the grocery store which was down the street from the square. Back then it was the First National. The barber shop had only two chairs. Uptown also had the only movie theater and Hank’s Bakery. My mother worked there for a bit. The library is a Carnegie library. The town had two newspapers, the Press and the Independent, the one still publishing. The police news was mostly cats in trees and night noises. The town was first settled in 1634. Every day at 9 am and 9 pm the horn blows from the fire station. Some famous people came from Stoneham. A couple of them surprised me like Buffy Sainte-Marie and Killer Kowalski.

I never worried about walking. I always felt safe even if I was walking alone. At night, streetlights lit my way, and lights shined from house windows onto the sidewalks. Traffic was sparse. Few cars were on the streets at night. Most everything was closed. It was so quiet I could hear the sound of my shoes clicking on the sidewalks. Home was never far away.

The morning is again lovely with a bright sun, a breeze and lots of blue. It will be in the low 60’s today and the 40’s tonight, a typical spring day on Cape Cod. Yesterday’s uke concert was great fun. The crowd seemed to love the music.

Today is an open day, a no to do list day though there is much to do. I’ll just pick and choose. The kitchen floor is so dirty it is embarrassing. Every time I think to wash it rain is predicted. Light showers are predicted for tomorrow. I figure my floor and I bring rain. Henry should be bald given the giant fur balls of white hair all over the house. I probably will vacuum. Maybe I should shave Henry instead.

At school, when I was a kid, we celebrated May as Mary’s month. We had the May procession toward the end of the month. We started practicing the songs every day to get ready. We sang the same songs each year so even now I still remember them.

The parish complex was part of a square block. The church, the old school and the rectory were on one side of the street. The convent was on the other side. The May procession started from the school grounds and wound its way passed houses and the new school around the block. All of the school marched. The second graders wore their first communion clothes. The person crowning Mary walked at the end. The destination was the grotto beside the church where a statue of Mary was in a niche off the ground on the right side of the grotto. They put a small staircase against the grotto so the crowner could reach the statue. The crowner is always an eighth grader. It drives my friend Maria crazy that I crowned the statue. She always says, “Of course you did.” What I remember was how scary the staircase was as I was wearing a long white dress, an old wedding dress, with a train. The priest held my hand as I ascended the stairs. At the, “Mary, we crown thee with blossoms today, “ I placed the flowered crown on the statue then carefully descended the stairs. We marched around the corner to end the procession.

My dance card is dependent on the kindness of friends, my uke friends. I have my usual practice and lesson and also two concerts.

I am actively seeking a car.