Memorial Day

Memorial day weekend was busy beyond busy- Thursday I went down to Savannah to fetch the boy, he is home safe- we took a quick detour to the campus bookstore (ExLibris) to return books and find treasures, then to my favorite Asian place- a tiny hole-in-the-wall that he discovered, so that I could have krispy fish for lunch.... long trip home, then school Friday, then the Manz and I headed down to Charleston to see Barbie and Tom. I was surprised by a Celebration cake! (with a pink rose- yay!) chocolate and raspberry.... the next day we went up to Loanstar for bluegrass and BBQ. Endless music (the lady with the accordion was amazing- she even yodeled), lots of good pictures of old stuff, I got to sit in the sun and paint and listen to bluegrass and Charles and Barbie talking to everyone around us. Mr. Thomas is like me- a good listener and observer- Barbie and Charles never met a stranger and become instant 'life of the party types'. They were cutting up so hard at dinner that Barbie's friend Sue could hardly eat for laughing.... we all had a blast. Sunday we headed back early- the AC in the car is on the fritz- but still stopped at a few yard sales (nothing), I talked the manz into looking at an abandoned house with me, and we found a lovely abandoned train car. It is in Conway, and is a passenger coach on the Louisville and Nashville lines. High ceilings, wooden cabinets, lovely milk-glass light fixtures (only one remained the rest had been smashed by vandals- shame). While I love abandoned things, I hate to see them go to waste- especially something so graceful as this- big enough for a store, or to live in, or a diner- or........ it could have another life. Then we visited the elephant (the abandoned one I found years ago and am still trying to figure out how to acquire), and headed home with our cargo of plants. Tom loaded us up with all sorts of things, including beautiful lacetop hydrangeas.

Memorial day itself was quiet- Charles was supposed to work but that had been changed (they didn't call! we could of stayed an extra day! boohiss!) so we all took it easy and watched tv all day. (I took lots of naps) I remember other Memorial Days though, how we would prepare by sprucing up the cemetery plot at Grandview, I would ride my bike or march with Girl scouts in the parade down Luzerne street to Grandview (funny, lots of things centered around that cemetery- maybe that's why I like them so very much). We would have cookouts and invite Old Mr. Benson next door- Karen and I would make him desserts and Daddy always grilled burgers, had homemade potato salad. Every house had a flag, all the bikes had streamers and we would play badminton until dark. The first fireflies would come out, school would be over and the long summer would begin. Hello summer, I'm ready!