A to Z Blogging Challenge · family

I is for Irwin

Sally8 Comments
Irwin Army Hospital 1962

There once was a man named Irwin
Fort Riley named their hospital for him
A good man, I would say
Building’s still there today
[can you finish my limerick for me?]

I’ll be honest. I have zero recollection of our family’s time in Ft. Riley, Kansas.

This photo was taken 8-9 months AFTER that move.

I was 6 weeks old when we moved from Ft. Knox to Ft. Riley. My father had gone on ahead and my mother had essentially done the move by herself.

Of course, I had no idea about any of that until 50 years later. I had asked my mother many times about what I was like as a baby. She had always dodged the question — which made me think I must have been a fussy baby. One day, though, she said, “That was a terrible time,” and she went on to talk a little bit about that move.

I think the military does stuff like that — insensitive to the service-person’s family. They’re getting better though. I’ve followed this story: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c98kn1k3nreo about a young wife arrested and taken from her new husband when he was trying to get her settled in base housing. She had come into the country illegally when she was 22 months old and had been working through the paperwork.

Clearly NOT the “worst of the worst.”

After being taken away in handcuffs and held five days in a detention center, she was released. She has been fitted with an ankle monitor and told to report to ICE every week.

I’m proud that my father served in the military. I’m not always proud of what our country is doing today and think it would be a hard time to serve.

A to Z Blogging Challenge · family

H is for Hay

Sally2 Comments
Cooperstown 1967

There was a red Radio Flyer of hay
On a hot sunny summery day
We loaded the wagon
And then started draggin’
[how would you finish this limerick?]

Next door to our property was a dairy farmer who cut, baled, and hauled away the hay. We “helped.”

A few years ago I did the A-to-Z Challenge using collages I had made alongside unfinished limericks. I especially enjoyed the unfinished limerick part. It was very audience-participation-ish.

This year I thought I would try using old photographs and unfinished limericks. Can you finish this limerick?

A to Z Blogging Challenge · family

G is for Gauze

Sally5 Comments

There once was a girl dressed in gauze
Not a mummy! But a white dress it was –
With shawl and a smile
Ethiopian-style
[Can you finish my limerick?]

? 1963

This is my sister, looking quite lovely in her dress and shawl. The style was definitely Ethiopian. The fabric is very gauzy, with multiple layers of fabric. The dress itself is lined.

? 1964

This is Gazachen, our housemaid, dressed in the shawl and white gauzy dress, and me, not to be trusted in a white dress.

1964

Okay, yes — I had a dress, too. Did I pose well for photos? No.

? 1996

This is my oldest daughter wearing my old dress. (And one of her brothers photo-bombing)

I still have all these dresses. What to do with them?!?

A few years ago I did the A-to-Z Challenge using collages I had made alongside unfinished limericks. I especially enjoyed the unfinished limerick part. It was very audience-participation-ish.

This year I thought I would try using old photographs and unfinished limericks. Can you finish this limerick?

A to Z Blogging Challenge · family

F is for Flying

Sally7 Comments

There once was a family who flew
‘Cross the ocean in 1962!
Six cities, 40+ hours
Bet they needed showers!
[how would you finish this limerick?]

In this photo of the Asmara Airport, I’m pretty sure that’s my mom turning to look at the camera, but it begs the question, where are all the kids?

From my father’s journal:
“On 10 December we arrived via TWA and EAL at Asmara (Eritrea) Ethiopia to begin a 2 1/2 year tour at this post — KAGNEW STATION. Having left Idlewild at 1930 hrs on 8 Dec by TWA jet we flew to Paris, Rome, Athens, and finally Cairo arriving there at 1745 hrs on 9 Dec. EAL was delayed at Frankfort so we spent a total of 14 hrs in Cairo divided between the Nile Hilton and finally the Cleopatra Arms. Because of our exhausted state and a rather slow dinner we were unable to visit the pyramids by moonlight as we’d hoped. The children travelled well but were completely exhausted by the time we arrived in Asmara at approx 1300 hrs on 10 Dec …”

I had to look up what Idlewild was. Today we call is JFK.

A few years ago I did the A-to-Z Challenge using collages I had made alongside unfinished limericks. I especially enjoyed the unfinished limerick part. It was very audience-participation-ish.

This year I thought I would try using old photographs and unfinished limericks. Can you finish this limerick?

A to Z Blogging Challenge · Earliest Memories · family

E is for Ethiopia

Sally10 Comments

There once was a man in Ethiopia
(Where the roads resembled twisted rope-ia)
He drove a VW Bug
With family quite snug
[how would you finish my limerick?]

Roads in Ethiopia 1963
The VW Bug our family squeezed into
Our family that fit — albeit snugly — into the VW Bug

In an undated journal entry — sometime early January 1963 — my father wrote, “We’ve purchased a 1959 VW sedan with under 15,000 miles from L. N. for $800. This is an ideal car for this area.”

I remember riding in that car. I think there were times when we also had another adult in the car with us, a native Ethiopian woman who helped my mother with us — so 7 people in a VW on windy narrow roads! Crazy, right?

A few years ago I did the A-to-Z Challenge using collages I had made alongside unfinished limericks. I especially enjoyed the unfinished limerick part. It was very audience-participation-ish.

This year I thought I would try using old photographs and unfinished limericks. Can you finish this limerick?

poetry

Words and Seeds

Sally7 Comments

Words are seeds; seeds are words
They are scattered by the breeze
Who knows where they will go, take root
On land or stormy seas

Words, you know, are regional
They similar to seeds
When they emerge from babe or soil
You glimpse the paths life leads

Our world is global in many ways
People, plants, ideas, thoughts
English full of foreign words?
American English is British ersatz!

Even with our deep deep roots
We are fragile. We are frail.
We are NOT in cahoots
Hoping to see others fail.

Let me welcome and embrace
Those who do not sound like me
Or look like me or think like me
We’re still similar at our base

This weeks W3 Challenge was to explore the theme: Beneath the Surface.

Write in any form, but keep your poem to 20 lines or fewer.

I started with one idea for a poem — but then it took me in another direction entirely. Like a seed blown with the wind.

William Shakespeare, in Merchant of Venice, wrote these words spoken by Shylock:

If you prick us, do we not bleed?
if you tickle us, do we not laugh?
if you poison us, do we not die?
and if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?

I agree up to the last line. I do not want revenge.

There’s a scene in Searching for Bobby Fischer where the chess teacher is telling the boy, Josh, that he has to hate his opponent and Josh says, “But I don’t hate them.” The instructor says, “Well, you’d better start.”

No, no — he had not better start.

We need to look for commonalities, not ways to win.

family

Easter Egg Hunt

Sally4 Comments

Today I went to an Easter Egg Hunt with two of my granddaughters. One is 6, the other 10 months old. Here is the crowd waiting to get in:

And here’s a shot at the Easter Egg Hunt (or should I say “hunt”) itself. Clearly, the eggs were not hidden, just strewn on the ground.

I watched from the sidelines. The last Easter egg hunt I had gone to had done me in.

It had been 15-20 years ago. Parents participated elbows high, shielding eggs so their child could pick them up and prevent other children from grabbing them.

Today, it was chaos on the lawn. My 6 year old granddaughter gathered eggs. Her mother told me that, early on, when W– had about 5 eggs and other kids had their baskets full, she turned to her mom and asked if she was doing something wrong.

“No,” her mom said, “you are being smart and kind.”

Smart — because at the end, kids turn their eggs in for a goody bag. It didn’t matter if they collected 2 eggs or 52 eggs. Everyone got the same goody bag.

Kind — because she wasn’t fighting other kids for the eggs. She was picking up eggs, not picking fights.

“What a great answer,” I told my daughter-in-law.

It was wonderful to spend part of a day with them — and I love the way they are raising their children.

This is in response to Linda Hill’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt: hide.

A to Z Blogging Challenge · family

D is for Dog

Sally10 Comments

Bimbo was the name of our dog
(Tho’ my memory is a bit of a fog)
We left her behind
When we were reassigned
[how would you finish my limerick?]

Was this dog Bimbo?
Or this dog?
Or this dog?

True story — I don’t really remember our dog, Bimbo. I do, however, remember that Bimbo turned up in Ft. Devens after we had to leave her behind in Ethiopia. I mean, we found another home for her before we returned, and my parents had told us that we couldn’t take her back to the states, and yet, somehow, her new family had solved that problem.

Is it really a tragedy? I don’t know. I can’t even remember what Bimbo looked like.

A few years ago I did the A-to-Z Challenge using collages I had made alongside unfinished limericks. I especially enjoyed the unfinished limerick part. It was very audience-participation-ish.

This year I thought I would try using old photographs and unfinished limericks. Can you finish this limerick?

A to Z Blogging Challenge

C is for Corn

Sally6 Comments

Do you see those cornfields in the foreground?
Where I live, I’ll tell you, they are all around
Rural, bucolic
So lovely to frolic
[how would you finish my limerick?]

A few years ago I did the A-to-Z Challenge using collages I had made alongside unfinished limericks. I especially enjoyed the unfinished limerick part. It was very audience-participation-ish.

This year I thought I would try using old photographs and unfinished limericks. Can you finish this limerick?

That house in the distance across the valley? That’s the house where I grew up.

A to Z Blogging Challenge · family

B is for Bird

Sally9 Comments

She wanted to touch the wee bird
Which, to me, seemed a little absurd
But she reached out her hand
When the bird came to land
[how would you finish my limerick?]

A few years ago I did the A-to-Z Challenge using collages I had made alongside unfinished limericks. I especially enjoyed the unfinished limerick part. It was very audience-participation-ish.

This year I thought I would try using old photographs and unfinished limericks. Can you finish this limerick?

I think this picture was taken in Cooperstown, where my father did his internship and residency. That’s my sister and my oldest brother.