Another Life

In search of childhood pictures of my mom for a scrapbook i am doing of her, i brought up her crate that i rescued from the echo house. The yellowing old crate once sat up in the top of her closet. It is where she kept all of her favorite pictures, draft letters to her sisters, a letter to wish her and my dad a very happy first anniversary from my aunt carol, and spiral notebooks that i imagined lived on the kitchen table or kitchen counter from when her and my dad were married. These notebooks are strange to me- Seeing my dad's lists and my mom's lists in one notebook. I don't remember my dad living at echo, but this notebook helps me to imagine the fast-paced, busy, life they both lived there. There are countless notes to the various babysitters, notes from my mom to my dad, sometimes nagging him, sometimes giving him information, and warnings like "the mushrooms and bean srouts are for another meal-please don't use." There is trial runs of Jered's cursive, lists of where things are packed for a camping trip, directions to places in farmington, mention of Elton John tickets, phone numbers of faintly familiar names, doodles, and coffee stains. By her lists, i can tell my mom liked to garden even back then, she liked her nails done, she liked to have parties in the backyard (complete with kegs), she loved us so very much, she left over-specific notes for the babysitters, she shopped at k-mart and hudson's, she cleaned a lot, she read, she wrote. I love looking through the yellow pages of the past and smelling the pungent nicotine smell of the pages and pictures. I love to see what pictures she valued and what she thought important enough to leave behind in her crate. There is pictures of my dad holding each one of us as newborns. There are graduation pictures of each of us. There is a picture of my dad dancing with his mom at my mom and dad's wedding. There are pictures of my aunt carol with us. Then the pictures jump to more familiar, yet stranger times, of george and his kids and trips that mom and george took. So much of the things are of when i was little--things i don't quite remember, but then suddenly i come across a picture of my mom and george or a picture of jered's graduation or jason's graduation party. She had a happy life, i think- Very hard, at times. She seemed to be able to capture many happy times at least. One of my favorite treasures is repeated note to my cousin leigh, who used to babysit, telling him that i was grounded to the back yard or to Erica's house. I was not allowed at Annie's because i had too much junk food. She actually wrote that i had a malt, two Popsicles, and a candy bar befroe dinner while i was at annie's. After that i was only allowed to get a snack from my babysitter, my dad, or my mom, according to the note. Another funny/ sad part is when my mom left a note for my dad about a funeral they had to go to. My mom was saying that she made beans for the wake. She wrote "P.S. i heard about my inheritance check- i hope it came home intact." My dad wrote under that "sorry- i made a down payment on some swamp land in Florida." Well, i have one more notebook to look through. i've found a couple of childhood pictures that i might be able to use.