2:10 p.m. - 2007-06-27
OATMEAL & KISSES - PART ONE
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
OATMEAL AND KISSES
This is written in memory of my mother and all my other female ancestors who contributed to the life I learned about, wrote about and lived. I love you all.
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OATMEAL AND KISSES
Oatmeal and kisses mean Mother to me
Both were a part of my childhood, you see.
Each morning at breakfast, there would be a big bowl
And Mother would say "Eat it--it'll keep out the cold."
Whenever the family was sick or got hurt
She'd kiss away the soreness and wash away the dirt.
Her kisses were tender and sweet on my face.
And I'd lovingly hug her as we shared an embrace.
Oatmeal and kisses - the best part of my youth.
The best kind of medicine and that's God's sure enough truth.
Oh how I'd love to go backward in time
And share oatmeal and kisses with that mother of mine.
But she's up in heaven - probably passing a bowl
And telling an angel, "It's good for your soul."
written by Patricia Gregg
1990
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They were all sitting in the new, freshly waxed, very luxurious black limo thinking to themselves.
Then Susanna spoke, " Damn, I just broke another fingernail."
Mary Margaret replied, "Well, I can see I will have to get a better manicure when I get home. There certainly aren't any experienced or even licensed nail shops here."
Elizabeth thought , "Boy, if nothing else goes right, at least my nails always look great."
and Rebecca said softly, " I wish I could let my nails grow but they just get in the way when I am working."
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CHAPTER ONE:
Little Patty Jean skipped down the street. She loved to go to the butcher shop to buy lunch meat for Mama. Even though she only had a few coins, she knew the butcher would give her a slice of which ever kind of lunch meat she wanted. She was always polite to him and smiled prettily.
Even though she was very shy, she thought "I 'll ask for ham loaf this time. And next time, I'll ask for have pickle pimento." She giggled to herself and smiled ever so slightly.
All of a sudden, she thought about the dream she had sometimes at night. She was very, very small and she was talking to a little boy and they were talking about Mama! There was another boy there too but he was bigger than her. She felt like she knew them but she couldn't figure out who they were.
" I wonder why I keep having that a silly dream." she whispered to herself.
Patty Jean lived in an apartment in Chicago, Il. She was 8 years old and she had two little brothers and a baby sister. " I sure hope Mama doesn't want me to take the boys to the park again today because she has another headache. Those boys never mind me and they are so dirty when they play outside. Then, Mama gets mad at me because they tear their clothes." She sighed deeply.
"Maybe if I walk slower, it will take me longer to get the lunch meat home and it will be too late for the park today. I guess I could read them a story instead.", she said to herself. "Oh, I could even make up a new story, they always like that".
Poor Mama, she is always so sad when Papa isn't home. I wonder how long he will be gone this time?
CHAPTER TWO:
Patty Jean knew her Mama loved her Papa very much. Papa tried so hard to bring home a little money every week. He was good at everything. He could fix things and built things and even make things he thought of in his own head. He couldn't get a job that lasted more than a few weeks though because......sometimes he stayed at the tavern down the street too late at night.
Patty Jean would hear Mama crying several times a week. She wished Papa would just stay home and play with them.. He was so funny and he would play on the floor with the boys for hours.
Unless he went to the tavern down the street.
Patty Jean was so proud of her Papa. He would make things out of scraps for Mama sometimes that really worked!. Some people were buying a covering for their kitchen floor called lin-o- leum. The cover was pretty and you could wash it and it would stay shiny for a few days. Papa was trying to get a job putting this cover down really fast on the floors. He had been working on a little knife thing to help him do it. He had a few jobs out of town and he would work on this knife at night.
CHAPTER THREE:
One day Patty Jean noticed that Mama didn't have on her little gold ring that she always wore on her "married" finger of her left hand. Peggy Joe looked all over the apartment for the ring but couldn't find it. Finally she asked Mama where it was.
Mama always said that Papa was a good man but the spirits got him in trouble. Peggy Jo had never seen any ghosts around Papa but Mama sure did talk about those spirits when Papa didn't come right home. Mama wasn't scared of them ghosts but she sure got mad at them..
Mama worried about money all the time too. Mama said she had to pawn her ring for some money for food that week. All she has to cook was oatmeal and brown sugar. Peggy Jo remembered how delicious it tasted. Mama was such a good cook and she loved all her children.
CHAPTER FOUR:
A few weeks later, Mama said it was probably a good thing that they didn't have very many clothes or furniture because sometimes they had to play a game called "get out of town". Usually Mama would wake them up in the middle of the night and they would all be as quiet as they could (except for those noisy boys) and tiptoe down the stairs past the landlord's apt. They would take their clothes and whatever else they could carry and move to a new apt. the next day.
It was fun to have a new neighborhood to live in. Sometimes it was cold and rainy and Patty Jean would worry that Papa wouldn't find them. But he always did because Aunt Lucille could tell him where everyone had moved. If Papa was out of town for very long time, the moving game would be more often. But Papa always found them somehow.
Patty Jean liked to visit her Aunt Lucille. Aunt Lucille had a bigger apartment and pretty clothes and hats. She even had a telephone. Patty Jean always watched carefully when Aunt Lucille used the telephone. She thought she could probably make a call all by herself, even if she was only 10 years old.
Patty Jean went over the whole thing in her head. First you have to take the little ear piece off the hook, then you have to wind up the telephone several times with the 'winder" on the right side. When the Op Rater talks, you can ask her to find the person you want to talk to. Patty Jean didn't know how the Op Rater did it but she always found the person and they came to talk on her telephone. Someday Patty Jean wanted a telephone all for herself. She would even share the party line if the other people didn't talk on the phone too much. But, maybe that was why it was called a "party line" because you were supposed to have a party talking to everyone on the same phone line.
CHAPTER FIVE:
After a few years, Papa came home with so much money, the family got to move to a bigger apt. during the day. Papa tried to get Mama's ring back from the pawn shop but they must have lost it because he said they couldn't find it anymore. It had been about 3 years since she pawned it.
Everyone got new clothes and Mama cooked a big dinner and it wasn't even a holiday!!. Papa said he got a PAT TENT for his knife invention. Patty Jean didn't know what a PAT TENT was but it must have been a very special camping tent because Papa was really excited about it. He talked to a man at Sears and Roebuck who hired him to work installing the lin-o-leum for their store.
Mama was real happy but she still worried about the tavern in the neighborhood. No matter where or how often they moved, Papa always found the tavern.
CHAPTER SIX:
As the years went by, the family's living spaces got better. And the family expanded again with the arrival of Billy and then Kathy. Now there were 6 children to clothe and feed and house. There was Patty Jean, Michael, Thomas, Bettie, William and Kathryn. Papa's inventions were getting better too.
He had developed a metal strip to go around kitchen sinks so water didn't run through and the linoleum tops didn't rot out. He was good at inventing but not so good at business. He was still working for Sears and Roebuck. The Management convinced him that he would always have a job with them but they wanted to own the patents. Foolishly, he sold the patents for pennies of their real worth. He thought it was worth everything just to have a job all the time. He continued to invent just about as much as he continued to drink. A lot of the money he got for the inventions were spent in the tavern
CHAPTER SEVEN:
His children adored him and Mama loved him as much as the first time she met him. She had been writing him letters even before the children were born, when he was out of town on a job.
"My cherie:
Honey, you go where ever you think best and it will be all right with me. As for trusting you - you know, Bill, I trust you absolutely - I couldn't love you very much if I didn't - where there is no trust, there is no respect and where no respect - there is no love --See? I know, dear, you've always played fair - that's one of the loveable things about you - So you think I could have a man who lied to me - or did worse? Do you think I could give all of me to such a person - No - I have all the confidence in the world in you, cherie, and always let it be that way. I try so hard to understand you and I'm happy if you think I do - for you are a very odd sort of "guy", my Bill -but a most wonderful one too. Just so wonderful that no one else could ever take your place.
I would have answered yesterday, honey, but didn't have any stamps - am I forgiven? Did you get the letter I wrote you to the restaurant? I don't want you to leave, sweetheart, without me seeing you. I wouldn't like that - do you think you could manage to come down here? Try hard.
And never worry about me trusting you, dear. I do. and as someone had said "it's greater to be trusted - more of a compliment - than to be loved." Let me hear from you, honey, as soon as possible or rather be real sweet and come down. I like to hear you say "it's morning".
and remember, dear, "into each life some rain must fall, some days must be dark and dreary, just you think of what is to be and of how I love you - for I do, Bill - with all that's in me. I love you with a thousand kisses,
Your own, JO. (written by Josephine Hill Drain.....1922)
CHAPTER EIGHT:
Patty Jean was growing up right before Mama's eyes. Mama was very proud of her firstborn daughter. Patty Jean was turning into a beautiful young woman. She was slender with long dark hair, flawless skin and a little beauty mark by her right eye. She has a few beaus too. She went to a few dances. She had many friends.
Soon the war was breaking out. Patty Jean was going to graduate from High School. She wanted to help with the war effort and she especially wanted to get out of the house. She really wanted to move to California, Land of the Sun, warm temperatures and .......Hollywood!
Aunt Lucille had already moved out there and was married and had a daughter only a few years younger than Patty Jean. Her name was Norma and she looked just like a movie star in the Photoplay magazine that Patty Jean loved to read.
Patty Jean decided to try to get a job in a war factory to make some good money. She found out she would need her birth certificate to prove her age. She looked around the apartment in lots of old boxes but came up empty.
Finally she got the nerve to ask Mama where her birth certificate was. Mama said she would have to write to the State of Oklahoma for the certificate. She told Patty Jean the name of the town where she was born.
Okmulgee, Oklahoma on January 11, 1924. Mama got a really bad headache after Patty Jean asked about the birth certificate. Mama said Patty Jean had to write for the birth certificate herself because Mama didn't want to have anything to do with it.
Patty Jean just couldn't understand why Mama got so upset about it. She just wanted the birth certificate so she could get a job, why was that making Mama angry?
DISCLAIMER; THIS IS A TRUE STORY.....THE BASIC FACTS ARE TRUE. THE DIALOG COMES TO MY MIND FROM MY ANCESTORS....
