Mom would always tell me and my brother stories in bed. We would giggle as she described in detail all the things she and her sisters and brother used to do when they were little to entertain themselves. This was way before computers, cell phones, IPods, Gameboys, Xboxes, and sattelite tv. This was before electronic toys and battery operated toy cars. They made their own. With sticks for cars they would carve their way a little village in the middle of whispery bushes beside their house and play all afternoon, giving life to this little village in their big imaginations. My grandma would sew them stuffed dolls out of old printed fabric, with button eyes and yarn for hair. They were the most loved dolls. Sometimes on a special occasion grandma would sew a dress for one of my aunts or Mom, with a dress for her doll to match. My grandma made me one of her handmade creations when I was born. She specially designed a cotton stuffed, green paisley printed crocodile with a red tongue. I have photos of me as an infant in my crib clutching my crocodile. I still have that crocodile 42 years later. Just a bit tattered but he is a gift from my grandma. One of many in my life. Despite a time of poverty and the end of the depression, they made happy times.
We sure have made things much more complicated these days, haven't we? Years ago I bought my daughter a beautiful (and expensive) doll which is also a "replica" of a photo of herself when she was a baby. This doll with gorgeous brown eyes and curly dark brown hair dressed in a pink knit sleepy suit, is in the garage now because my daughter is "scared" of it. She says it looks like it is always staring at her. I guess it was really for me. I know this doll is one anyone would have envied to have had in the 40's when my mom and her siblings were little, But none would mean as much or would have left as many memories as the ones made by Grandma. Since the Recession Crisis, I have had lots of time to reflect on what is important. We make so many THINGS important. My mom and aunts talk about those things as they are getting older. They watch the arguments that lead to broken families over "THINGS." When someone dies, they don't take anything with them, but leave so much behind. Not only the sadness for the loss of never being there in physical form again, but belongings that remind us of them, their clothes, their favorite video movies, their nick knacks that were given to them by loved ones that don't mean anything to anyone but them. Their collectibles, if they collected Coca Cola items, or cats, or tea pots. My grandparents died over 20 years ago now and we used to call them Sanford and Son. They collected bits of everything in the back yard. License plates, hub caps, wheels, bike parts (Grandpa used to fix old bikes and paint them with spray paint and he said they were as good as new!) odd shaped pots and old farming tools. Although some of it in the years has now rusted or whithered over time, it all is part of our story. Of a time when things were simpler. When kids woke up early, played outside all day, came in before dawn for dinner and a shower and went to bed from exhaustion. My grandma's tubs that went with her old fashioned washing machine are still in the back yard. We have had offers from people to buy them. But to us they are not antiques or items of monetary value. They have a value that money can't buy. My grandparents and their children, through every move, as they were traveling farmworkers, loaded all their belongings along with these tubs, onto the back of the wooden trailer my grandpa built himself. They are a piece of our history. And being that I have inherited them, it is my job to teach my children about our family and I am so thankful to have my mom around to describe to them the vivid stories of her childhood that made her and her family so important to me. My children also have the cherished memory of laying with Grandma , laughing until tears came out of their eyes, as she described sights, sounds, smells and tastes of her childhood that are so different from life now.
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