Keep the Coffee Comimg

Today looks like yesterday, but the bright sun is deceiving. We are in the 30’s where we’ll stay all day. I have no plans for today. I’m thinking a sloth day. I do those sorts of days quite well.

When I was kid, Saturday was my favorite day of the week. The morning was leisurely. I’d wake up sort of early, grab my Rice Krispies, add milk and sugar then plop myself on the rug in front of the TV to watch cartoons, series like Tin Tin Tin and sometimes serials. The serial I remember the best is Gene Autry’s Phantom Empire. I can still picture scenes from it, especially the long elevator which took them deep underground. After a while, it was time for me to hit the road. In warm weather I’d grab my bike and take off for parts unknown. In cooler or snowy weather I’d walk. Sometimes I went ice skating either at Recreation Park, the MDC rink or the swamp. I remember how weird my feet felt in shoes after skating for a while. I wasn’t the best skater, but I did manage backwards. Once the matinees started at the movie theater up town, I’d spend my afternoons there. A cartoon was always first, before the main feature. I remember seeing The Wizard of Oz. I remember getting pelted by candy and watching Al, the owner, running up and down the aisles shining his light trying to find the miscreants. I also remember the very back rows were filled with teen couples making out as we used to call it.

In Ghana, I often shopped in town on Saturdays at the stores and kiosks and in the market if it was market day. The kiosks were three sided with open fronts filled with shelves. I bought my margarine and condensed milk at a kiosk. In the market I bought my fruits, vegetables and meat, live chickens and beef at the butcher shop, the word shop being loosely used here. I bought yams, bananas, pineapple, oranges, pawpaw, mangos, tomatoes and onions. I’d carry my purchases home in my shepherd’s bag, a woven bag which stretched to fit everything and got very heavy. Before I got my moto, I’d walk to and from town. Usually, though, a car would stop and offer me a ride home to my school. I was the only white woman my first year so they all knew who I was.

The dogs are napping on the couch. They lead an easy life. Jack too is napping. It is just that sort of a day.

Today is a quiet day. The weather is lovely with sun, a bit of a breeze and a temperature in the low 50’s. Yesterday’s dinner was wonderful. I even have leftovers. I officially started the Christmas season last night by watching It’s a Wonderful Life. It doesn’t matter how many times I’ve seen that movie. I watch it every year, the same with A Christmas Carol. When watching that last movie, I can say the dialogue along with the characters.

Inside I am young. I am always amazed when I can’t do something I’ve always done like carrying a weight of sorts or even walking a short distance. When I look in the mirror, I wonder who the old lady with the wrinkles is looking back at me. If I were a character in a Stephen King short story, I’d look behind the cabinet for that old lady, and she’d be there lying in wait.

When I was a kid, I knew great-grandparents, one on my father’s side and one on my mother’s. Once in a while we visited my great-grandmother in East Boston. She lived in a narrow house with three floors. She lived with one of her daughters, Aunt Mae. My father’s mother was another of her daughters. Every time we visited, she gave me a fifty cent piece. I always wondered why we didn’t visit more often. My mother’s grandfather, my great-grandfather, was scary. He had dementia, but I was too little to understand that was why he yelled and even spit at me sometimes. He’d sit in the living room on a rocking chair beside the furnace. I used to run by him propelled by fear. I always wondered why we visited so often.

My dance card is empty until next week. I have my usual uke practice and lesson, and we have our first December concert. We’re now playing Christmas music. I love Christmas music and am already listening to it on the car radio. I always sing along.

A friend of mine died yesterday, a funny, sweet guy. It is so very wrong.