tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26981893785520053512024-03-13T21:18:56.639-07:00Stories from Mom's Mouth<i>Blog by Lelanda Lee</i>LELANDA LEEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00007493781222383380noreply@blogger.comBlogger20125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2698189378552005351.post-39941076381693623672009-09-13T20:51:00.001-07:002009-09-14T23:01:22.187-07:00Dinner for a Hungry BabyWhen we left Storm King and Councilor Tom Tam, the councilor-cook had just made a gift of the three eggs he had set aside for his king's dinner so that the very hungry baby phoenix would have something to eat. Lady Phoenix pounced on the offering of eggs mixed with rice as soon as the councilor and king had backed away. She picked up bits of the meal in her beak and put them directly into the beak of her infant. Soon the crying of the baby bird turned to cooing as it fed.<br /><br />Hungry though Storm King was, since his dinner had been interrupted by the hatchling, he was also fascinated to be in the presence of the mother phoenix and to have witnessed such a rare event, the birth of a new phoenix. Legend tells us that a new phoenix is born only when it is nearing the time for an elder phoenix to die and rise no more from the ashes.<br /><br />Linda asked Nancy, "Do phoenixes have expiration dates," and her mother laughed.<br /><br />"No," said Nancy, "they don't exactly have expiration dates, but it is told that there is a limit to the number of times that a phoenix can fly through the hot flames of the underworld known as Hell and rise from the ashes."<br /><br />Lady Phoenix's under feathers were brilliantly colored like the rainbows of the sky after a torrential rain, which indicated that her life was yet to be long. But the under feathers of a phoenix that has grown dull means that the life of that elder phoenix is nearing its final end. The mighty mythical birds yearn for life just as humans yearn for long life. Nancy said to her attentive children, "It is a likely possibility that Lady Phoenix had hidden her egg in the desert sands to hide it from the elder phoenixes.<br /><br />Gus, ever the boy and fascinated by stories of fighting and death, chimed, "I bet she was protecting the egg and the baby inside from those elder phoenixes. I bet they would have stolen the egg and made sure the baby didn't hatch, so that they could live longer."<br /><br />When the rice mixture was completely fed to the hatchling, the baby bird stretched and flapped its black wings and struggled to stand up on its two scrawny feet. The mother phoenix cooed to her infant a melodic song that was beautiful in a strange, eerie way, and the hatchling cooed a response. Storm King and his councilor watched with wide eyes, because something very strange was happening before them, and they doubted what they saw.<br /><br />As the melodic song grew longer and stranger, the baby phoenix seemed to be growing larger in size. First its head would double in size, and then its right wing and left wing, and then its feet would catch up so that it looked the right size all over again, only much larger than a moment before. The hatchling stretched its newly larger wings and flapped them experimentally, hopping a few steps on the desert sand. It stopped when its head doubled in size again, followed by its wings and feet. Then more stretching and flapping for the new infant was trying to fly.<br /><br />The once black feathers all over the little bird, who was quickly becoming a much larger bird, began to take on the colors of the rainbow on the underside of its wings. There was a shimmering all over the baby bird, like the wavy, visible air one notices on a very hot summer day in the dry desert, as its feathers grew longer and they changed from black to rainbow colors. The transformation of the newborn hatchling to an almost fully grown phoenix happened in a very short time.<br /><br />The councilor and king barely had time to adjust to what they had seen before they found themselves in the presence of two black phoenixes that towered over them. Lady Phoenix was only slightly taller and fatter than her hatchling, who certainly did not look like a hatchling any longer. The mother bird turned to Storm King and Councilor Tam and said, "I am glad that you did not eat my egg so that my young could be hatched. I believed that I had hidden the egg well enough that no one would find it here in the Western desert where hardly anyone travels.<br /><br />"I could not sit on the egg myself, but the hot desert sand kept the egg warm and safe while I was away. How was I to anticipate that Storm King would leap from mountain to mountain to soothe his boredom and end up in this desert? For your sacrifice of your eggs and rice for my young one's dinner, so that he could grow into a true phoenix, I will grant you each a wish."<br /><br />Lady Phoenix turned her beak to her left wing and pulled out a bright red feather. She beckoned to her son, and he came near her. She reached under his left wing with her beak and pulled out a blue feather. She said to the king and his councilor, "When you are ready for your wish, you have only to burn one of these feathers, and one of us will come to you as soon as we can. Burn the red feather to call me, and burn the blue feather to call my son."<br /><br />Then, with a great flapping of two sets of black wings, the mother and son lifted into the air, circling around the king and his councilor, swirling the sand all over and stinging their eyes. When Storm King and Tom Tam opened their eyes as the wind died down from the draft caused by the beating of the phoenixes' strong wings, the birds were gone, and they couldn't tell the direction they had taken.<br /><br />"We shall continue the story of Storm King and Councilor Tam at another telling. Good night, children," said Nancy.LELANDA LEEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00007493781222383380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2698189378552005351.post-12595532953958853142009-09-12T22:53:00.000-07:002009-09-13T20:43:13.321-07:00TeachersIn sixth grade, Linda's favorite teacher was the math teacher, Mrs. Laney, and her favorite class was math class. Mrs. Laney had the class do magic squares occasionally as a way to challenge the students to think of math as fun. The reward was a chocolate candy bar for the student who finished the magic square first and got it right. In the beginning, it took Linda a little while to figure out how to solve the magic squares, but once she got the hang of it, Linda finished the magic squares first every time. Eventually, Mrs. Laney had to ask Linda not to do the magic squares so that other students got a chance to win. Because Mrs. Laney was her favorite teacher and Linda recognized that she had won every day in a row for several weeks, she agreed that it would be fair to drop out of the game voluntarily. But Linda always regretted missing out on having that chocolate candy bar.<br /><br />The junior high social studies teacher was married to the science teacher, and Linda was in both their classes in both the years she attended that school. Mr. Berringer, the social studies teacher, had a habit of giving the kids in the class new nicknames. Sometimes the nicknames were just making their names shorter, like calling Jameson "Jim" for short and Penelope "Penny." But other times it was a descriptive nickname, like calling the fastest runner on the school's track team "Flash" and the girl who liked to bake and bring decorated cupcakes to class to share "Betty," short for Betty Crocker, the name of the character found on boxes of cake and pancake mix, even though the student's name was Catherine. <br /><br />The nicknames made the kids feel like they were part of the in-group. They took the nicknames in stride, because they felt accepted and liked by Mr. Berringer. He made social studies fun and personal, telling stories about the trips that he and Mrs. Berringer took to countries they were studying in their textbook and talking about their college days where they had met and married. The kids were fascinated to hear about their teachers' lives outside of school, because the teachers seemed so different from their own parents who worked in factories and other blue collar and service jobs. <br /><br />Mrs. Berringer was very young for a teacher who was not a student teacher. She had graduated from college at age eighteen, an age when most students were graduating from high school. Mrs. Berringer was very informal in her teaching style, because she was not only younger than the other teachers who had been around for a long time, but friendlier and more comfortable with the slang words that the kids used all the time. She would often sit with the students when they watched a film about some scientific experiment and worked hands-on in helping them with their projects like building models of the molecules. <br /><br />One day in class they were talking about race and the different skin tones that people have. Mrs. Berringer sat next to Linda and compared the color of her very tan Caucasian arm with Linda's tan Asian arm and said, "I don't know why they call your skin tone 'yellow' since my skin tone is almost darker than yours." Linda liked Mrs. Berringer for her honesty and informality. It was nice to have an adult, and especially a teacher, with whom she could talk openly about things. At home, talking with Mom was more about observing the boundaries that come from respecting authority. Mom did not think it was dignified to talk about certain topics with her children.<br /><br />Mr. and Mrs. Berringer weren't the only married couple in Linda's junior high. Mr. and Mrs. Dubcek were the shop and home economics teachers. The boys took shop with Mr. Dubcek and learned how to use tools. They built things like wooden tool boxes and welded metal fruit bowls out of thin strips of dark flexible metal. The girls took home ec with Mrs. Dubcek and learned how to sew and cook. Sewing included making an apron and a gathered skirt as semester projects. Mrs. Dubcek encouraged each girl to bring ingredients from home to cook one meal during the semester to show how different ethnic groups ate. Linda's school had kids who were African American, Greek, Italian, Chinese, Polish, Irish and Lebanese. Eating what they cooked was the best part of home ec, especially when the projects were desserts like cakes, cookies and pies. Washing dishes and measuring ingredients were Linda's least favorite parts of home ec. <br /><br />Both Mr. and Mrs. Dubcek were very tall and on the heavy side, and they seemed much older to the kids in their junior high classes. Linda and Marcy, her French horn playing friend with whom she walked to school most days, used to gossip about Mr. and Mrs. Dubcek and how fat they were. Marcy was braver than Linda about poking fun at the teachers. Linda was much shyer about doing that, because she knew that Nancy wouldn't approve if she found out. Because Mr. and Mrs. Dubcek were not hip and good looking the way that Mr. and Mrs. Berringer were, the junior high girls were unkind in their comments about the Dubceks. Imagine their surprise when it was announced during the second year that Linda and Marcy were at that junior high that Mrs. Dubcek was pregnant. That just gave the girls more material to gossip about. Pre-teens can be very unkind while they're learning how to grow up and become good citizens.<br /><br />Later, Linda would become an outstanding citizen, which we will learn about when we tell stories from her high school years.LELANDA LEEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00007493781222383380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2698189378552005351.post-76281751466959798702009-09-11T16:57:00.000-07:002009-09-11T22:25:17.399-07:00ThanksgivingThe one day a year that Dad was guaranteed a day off from work was Thanksgiving Day. Even restaurants closed on Thanksgiving, and restaurant workers got to spend the day with their families. Linda, Gus and Tim especially liked Thanksgiving, because it meant that they were entering the season before Christmas when stores would decorate their windows and presents were in the offing.<br /><br />In their hometown, there was a Thanksgiving Day parade to rival the New York City Macy's parade. One year, Dad shepherded his family downtown to view the parade in person. Everyone went to the parade except Mom, who stayed home to cook the traditional Thanksgiving Day dinner, so that it would be ready mid-afternoon when everyone got home.<br /><br />Like the Macy's parade, this one was sponsored by the town's big department store. It was difficult to get close enough to the edge of the sidewalk to see the parade coming down the street, and it got awfully cold by the time the parade was over. There were vendors on the street who sold cotton candy and roasted chestnuts, and Dad bought each of his children a treat of their choice. Linda really liked the smell of the roasted chestnuts, and they were warm in her hands even if she did have to remove her wool gloves to peel the skin off each chestnut before eating it. From the gang of three's point of view, the best part of attending the parade occurred near the end when the candy-striped girl elves and the green-clad boy elves tossed hard candies to the parade-goers as they skipped down the street doing somersaults and cartwheels in front of Santa's float.<br /><br />The gang of three visited Santa Claus at the big department store only once when Linda was nine years old and sporting a nasty scab across her nose and cheek. Although Nancy bought the photographs sold by Santa's girl elves of each of her three children sitting on Santa's lap, Linda's photo was spoiled by the scab on her face which she had received in a fight. Grandmother criticized her son's wife, Nancy, for allowing Linda to have her photograph taken with the very noticeable blemish on her face. Grandmother thought it was unseemly.<br /><br />The family had moved to the new neighborhood just as winter break was starting, and the gang of three were the new kids on the block. Little Tim was only six and didn't know what to do when the kids on the new block taunted him for being a kid from an ethnicity that didn't live in the neighborhood. However, when one of the boys decided to push and then punch Tim, he spoke up and said, "You better watch out or my big sister will beat you up."<br /><br />Children can sometimes be very cruel to other children, picking on them for no better reason than because they're bigger and they can. One day when Linda was outside playing with Gus and Tim and the bully picked on Tim again, Linda let him have it. She hit him really hard, and the boy hit her back. Linda ended up with a cut on her face where her eyeglasses got smashed into her face, but she was pleased to have landed some good punches that left sizable black and blue welts on the boy. Linda was only doing what she had taken as her responsibility - to look after her little brothers when Mom and Dad weren't around. None of the three siblings ever got picked on again on the block after that first and last fight.<br /><br />After the parade Dad took Linda, Gus and Tim to look at the window displays at the big department store. Each window had a winter wonderland scene with animated characters and animals, and music was piped from speakers under the awnings protecting the people on the sidewalk from the snow and rain. The big department store took up a whole city block, and there were twelve scenes depicting the twelve nights of Christmas to delight everyone who passed by. Later when Linda went to the magnet high school downtown, she would spend the time between transferring buses visiting each display window until she knew them by heart.<br /><br />Thanksgiving Day was special because of the time and attention that Dad was able to pay to his children since he got to stay home from work. Thanksgiving dinner was the one meal a year when the entire family, Mom, Dad, Linda, Gus and Tim all sat down and ate together. Nancy always served roast turkey with cranberry sauce out of a can and homemade stuffing at Ted's insistence.<br /><br />When Ted's sisters were still in school, his youngest sister, Merry, came home very upset from the first school day after Thanksgiving. Her teacher had asked the class how they enjoyed their "turkey day." Merry had burst into tears, because Grandmother had prepared goose for Thanksgiving dinner and not turkey. Grandmother and Grandfather preferred goose and duck with their rich dark meats, which they were used to eating in their home country, to the white turkey meat that Americans ate to celebrate Thanksgiving. Ted was just a teenager himself, but he had vowed then and there that when he had a family of his own, his children would eat turkey on "turkey day" and not goose or duck.<br /><br />The food choices and meals that Nancy prepared reflected her ethnic background and what she was used to eating. You'll have to wait until another night to hear about those dishes and their unusual ingredients.LELANDA LEEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00007493781222383380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2698189378552005351.post-12391087384297855702009-09-10T21:42:00.000-07:002009-09-11T01:31:05.591-07:00The Most Stubborn One of AllOver the years, it was always a contest between Linda and Gus, one year younger than his sister, as to which child was the most stubborn. The youngest, Tim, wasn't in the running, compared to his brother and sister. When Linda and Gus refused to budge in an argument, Tim would often wind up being the peacemaker. Poor Tim usually got stuck washing the dishes that were supposed to be done before Nancy came home from work, because Linda and Gus couldn't agree on whose turn it was. They were frequently still yelling at each other when Mom walked in the door.<br /><br />Linda's stubbornness could be traced back to first grade. One day when Linda returned home from school at lunchtime and sat down to eat with the boys in front of the Howdy Doody Show on the television, she pitched a fit. The nerve of her brother! Gus was drinking from the glass that she wanted. The drinking glasses were jelly jars, and they were each decorated with different cartoon characters. Porky Pig was playing the trumpet on Linda's favorite glass. She had helped Mom pick out the jar of jelly at the market, caring much more about the pig on the outside of the jar than the flavor of the jelly inside.<br /><br />"Ma-om," Linda whined, "I want to drink out of the Porky Pig glass," as she stomped into the bathroom. Behind the closed door, Nancy could hear Linda sobbing loudly. Linda screamed, "Nooooo" when offered another cartoon character glass, her voice full of anger and frustration. By the time Linda had to walk back to school for the afternoon session, Tim had finished his lunch. He ate extra slow, because Linda couldn't have the glass as long as he was still drinking from it. Nancy patiently washed and filled the glass with milk, and brought it to her daughter who was seated on the toilet. After finishing the milk, Linda rushed back to school, leaving her uneaten lunch and the boys in front of the television set.<br /><br />Later that night, Gus got sick and threw up. Linda thought that it served him right for drinking out of her favorite glass when she wanted it. Gus was still sick the next morning when Linda left for school. Mom held Gus and felt his forehead with the palm of her cool hand, noticing how hot Gus was. He had thrown up several more times, and Mom asked Dad to call the doctor before he left for work that afternoon. After dinner, Dr. Weinstein came over to the tenement apartment to check on Gus. Those were the days when doctors still made house calls, which was a good thing, since Nancy would have had to take two buses with a sick child plus her two other children to get to the doctor's office.<br /><br />Dr. Weinstein took out his stethoscope and listened to Gus' chest as he breathed big breaths and then normal breaths. The doctor put a thermometer into Gus' mouth and waited to check it. Then he told Nancy and Gus that he would need to give Gus a shot. "Ouch, a shot," thought Gus. "No, I don't want a shot," he announced to Nancy and Dr. Weinstein. As the doctor took the medicine out of his black bag to prepare to give Gus the shot, Gus wriggled out of bed and crawled under the bed. There, Gus clung to the wire underframe of the bed with both his hands and feet and refused to come out no matter how much his mother demanded it. Nancy and Dr. Weinstein tried together to pull Gus out, from one side of the bed, and then the other, and Gus just held on even tighter. Finally, Dr. Weinstein gave up and left the little apartment, and Gus climbed back into bed. Nancy was exhausted from fighting with her son.<br /><br />Nancy sure had a story to tell Dad when he came home from work the next morning. Gus was someone whose stubbornness couldn't be overcome even by two grown-ups tugging at his four-year old body. Gus' stubbornness would make his school years challenging for Mom and Dad as he grew older, which we'll save for another storytime.LELANDA LEEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00007493781222383380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2698189378552005351.post-83490944214899679952009-09-09T21:43:00.000-07:002009-09-09T22:51:23.020-07:00ShoesBirthdays and Christmas always meant new shoes for Linda, Gus and Tim. For as long as Linda could remember, twice a year Great Uncle Eugene would show up just before their birthdays in early March and just before Thanksgiving to take the children and Nancy for an outing. <br /><br />Eugene was an older gentleman who knew Nancy’s family in the old country, a distant relative who lived in the same village of Nancy’s ancestors and family. Because so many families had been separated by war and the vast miles across the globe, even distant relatives were held in high esteem in America. Great Uncle Eugene had been in America for many years before Nancy married Ted and came to America herself. Meanwhile, Eugene’s own wife and children were still living in the old country, and Eugene treated Nancy’s children as his own. <br /><br />The birthday and Christmas outings were as predictable as a visit to Santa Claus at the department store in December. They always included a visit to the Galaxy Bakery downtown for a treat at the store’s soda fountain. Galaxy made its own hot fudge and caramel fudge toppings for ice cream sundaes and was justifiably famous for its dessert sensation, the hot fudge cream puff. What a calorie rich confection - a large cream puff pastry filled with two scoops of ice cream, topped with a generous portion of hot fudge. The hot fudge cream puff was a more expensive choice than a single scoop sundae. It was rare that Nancy would approve of Linda's choosing such an expensive treat, and Linda would eat her single scoop hot fudge sundae while yearning for the hot fudge cream puff.<br /><br />The next stop on the outings was the basement shoe department of the large eight-story department store. There were men’s, women’s and children’s shoe departments on the upper floors of the department store, but the basement shoe department was where the discount shoes were sold and where Nancy and her family shopped. There were still many shoes from which to choose, and it was still hard to decide what pair to buy, but the décor of the basement departments was not as fancy as the upstairs departments. For the different seasons, the upstairs departments would be decorated with whole scenes depicting the theme for each season, but the basement had only the most basic decorations. <br /><br />Mom very sensibly would instruct the children to choose a pair of dress shoes as their Christmas present from Great Uncle Eugene and a pair of school shoes for their birthday present. One year when Linda felt especially brave, she asked if she could choose white lace-up ice skates, and to her surprise and delight, both Eugene and Nancy said “Yes.” Of course, if Nancy chose ice skates, then her brothers wanted skates, too, and theirs were black ones like hockey players wore. Later that winter, Nancy and her brothers would spend many hours on the great lake east of the city teaching themselves to ice skate while Mom watched from the shore. The boys quickly mastered skating backwards, but Nancy could only skate forward.<br /><br />In junior high all the girls wore nylon stockings, but Linda was only allowed to wear tights in the wintertime and white bobby socks in the warmer months. Nylons, as nylon stockings were called, were expensive, developed snags and runs easily, and exposed the girls’ legs. Runs, or ladders as they were sometimes called, would require the application of clear nail polish at their ends to stop them from running further up or down the stocking. Nylons had dark seams up their backs, which were replaced by seamless nylons by the time Linda entered high school two years later.<br /><br />Mom, whose favorite word was “dignity” and whose prized attitude for anyone, but especially for women and girls, was dignified, thought that at ten years old, Linda was too young to be exposing her legs for everyone to see. That would not have been dignified. One year very pointed shoes were in fashion, and Linda wore those pointed flat shoes with bobby socks, which made her deeply self-conscious. It just seemed to Linda that was a very unfashionable way to wear those pretty shoes. <br /><br />Linda thought it was unfair that she wasn’t allowed to wear nylons, but she mostly didn’t mind wearing the more sensible tights that kept her legs warmer than nylons on the long winter walks to the bus stop. What was really unfair was when the party invitations began in high school, but that is a story for another day.LELANDA LEEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00007493781222383380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2698189378552005351.post-42320566809561989272009-09-08T19:38:00.000-07:002009-09-09T08:00:36.145-07:00Cake and Comics<meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 12"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 12"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CLELAND%7E1%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><link rel="themeData" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CLELAND%7E1%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_themedata.thmx"><link rel="colorSchemeMapping" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CLELAND%7E1%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_colorschememapping.xml"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> 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gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style="">The end of winter melting into the beginning of spring was always a time of anticipation in Linda’s family.<span style=""> </span>Tim’s and Dad Ted’s birthdays were still officially in winter, occurring before the spring equinox, March 21, and Linda’s and Gus’ birthdays followed near the start of April.<span style=""> Mom Nancy was born at an altogether different time of year, in the fall, and her temperament reflected the difference of her birth month from that of the rest of her family.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style=""><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style="">
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style="">As special as receiving birthday presents was, nothing compared to the birthday cakes with sliced almonds on the sides and soft pink and yellow buttercream flowers winding around the cake tops on green frosting vines.<span style=""> </span>The cake was always a yellow cake, and it came from the Galaxy bakery chain where Mom occasionally bought an almond coffee ring with caramel streusel.<span style=""> </span>The ladies who worked at the bakery wore lacy hair nets that smashed their permed hair close to their heads, making them all look like their hair had been styled by the same hairdresser from the same salon.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style=""><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style="">
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style="">Linda had a sweet tooth and craved chocolate from an early age.<span style=""> </span>By the time Linda and her brothers had reached double digits, they had at least as many cavities in their mouths as they had years in their ages.<span style=""> </span>A favorite snack after school was a 16-ounce bottle of cola and frosted chocolate cupcakes with a sweet white cream filling that surely contributed to the gang of three’s metal-filled smiles.<span style=""> </span>One school year it seemed to Linda that she spent every Saturday in the dentist’s chair.<span style=""> </span>How she hated the sound of the drill and the smell of tooth enamel being ground away.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style=""><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style="">
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style="">On Sundays after church, Nancy and the three children would take two different buses to the West side where Dad was working as a restaurant cook to pick up the family car for their regular summer outing to Ford Island to meet Mom's ethnic lady friends<span style=""> </span>and their children. The Ford Island picnics were the only opportunity for the women and children to gather to catch up on gossip and games, because everyone lived in different parts of the city, on the East side and the West side, on the South side and the North side. Mom often made fried chicken for their picnic basket, and the boys would bring their baseball bats and mitts to play with the other boys. The girls sometimes brought their dolls, but more often just brought themselves and their ability to make up and tell stories to one another. The mothers played Mahjong on card tables brought from home.
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style="">
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style="">At the downtown block where they transferred buses after church, Linda, Gus and Tim were each allowed to spend one dime on comic books at the corner newsstand.<span style=""> </span>The boys invariably chose superhero comics, while Linda’s choices reflected no single interest, although Wonder Woman comics were definitely a favorite, followed by comic books about Katy Keene, a triple threat model, actress and singer billed as </span>"America's Queen of <span class="mw-redirect">Pin-Ups</span> and Fashions" by Archie comics. The occasional odd choice for Linda would be the comic books that <span style="">contained two or three horror stories in one issue, and she would remain scared from those stories for months after reading them.<span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style=""><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style="">
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style="">Linda liked to dream about how an ordinary career woman like Army Lieutenant, Diana Prince, hid a secret identity as princess of the Amazons and Wonder Woman.<span style=""> </span>As a superhero, Wonder Woman belonged to the Justice League of America, fighting in the company of Superman, Batman, Aquaman and the Green Lantern, to name just a few.<span style=""> </span>The comic book covers described Wonder Woman as “</span>beautiful as Aphrodite, wise as Athena, swifter than Hermes, and stronger than Hercules,” which whetted Linda’s appetite for stories about the Greek gods and goddesses.<span style=""> </span>Linda’s new favorite book would soon become Edith Hamilton’s <u>Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes</u>.<span style=""><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style=""><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style="">
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style="">Nancy and the children always stopped at a nearby donut shop to have a snack after they got off the second bus, near the restaurant where her husband, Ted, worked.<span style=""> </span>Those were the days when donut shops and bakeries typically had lunch counters that served great American sandwiches such as egg salad, ham and cheese, and hot turkey and hot roast beef sandwiches for not much money, and lunch counter waitresses wore white uniforms and hair nets topped with white half caps.<span style=""> </span>For the children, eating such American food represented a treat and a departure from their usual fare of ethnic food prepared by their mom at home.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style=""><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style="">
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style="">The glass case at the donut shop held the specialty donuts, the ones covered with chocolate, white and pink frosting and different colors of sprinkles and shreds of white sugared coconut. <span style=""> </span>Mom always chose a French crueller donut with its eggy taste and holey insides like a cream puff pastry.<span style=""> </span>Gus and Tim favored the no-hole donuts filled with cream and covered with frosting and rainbow sprinkles, because you got more donut than the ones with holes.<span style=""> </span>Linda’s choice was chocolate through and through with chocolate filling and chocolate frosting.<span style=""> </span>The family would sit at the lunch counter to eat their donuts and drink hot chocolate for the children and coffee with cream and sugar for Nancy.<span style=""> </span>Most Sundays were spent this way.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style=""><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style="">
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style="">There are more stories about Linda’s family’s sugar-filled appetites, which we’ll have to save to sweeten another night of storytelling.<o:p></o:p></span></p> LELANDA LEEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00007493781222383380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2698189378552005351.post-64329944925493893692009-09-07T07:20:00.000-07:002009-09-07T08:21:51.537-07:00The Girl with a Hole in Her Heart<meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 12"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 12"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CLELAND%7E1%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><link rel="themeData" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CLELAND%7E1%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_themedata.thmx"><link 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{mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} .MsoPapDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; margin-bottom:10.0pt; line-height:115%;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style="">Linda was reading the newspaper with Dad one morning, as she did almost every morning, when a story about a little girl, who had come from China to her Midwestern city for an operation, grabbed her attention.<span style=""> </span>The little girl’s picture in the newspaper showed a very tiny five-year old.<span style=""> </span>The reporter said that the little girl had been born with a hole in her heart that would kill her before she had the chance to grow up unless the hole was repaired.<span style=""> She needed a special operation. </span>Such surgeries were very expensive, and the little girl’s family lived in a poor Chinese farming village that didn’t have a modern hospital or any doctors who knew how to perform such an operation.<span style=""> </span></span><span style="">The doctors at Linda's city hospital had volunteered to do the surgery for free, and a church had raised the money to bring the little girl and her mother to the city for the operation.<span style=""> </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style=""><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style="">
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style="">Moved by the story of the little girl, which the reporter wrote about everyday that week, Linda decided to visit the little girl in the hospital.<span style=""> </span></span><span style="">Linda didn’t know what she would say to the little girl or even if the little girl would understand her, since the little girl spoke Chinese and Linda spoke English.<span style=""> </span>Linda had never been to a hospital before, and she couldn’t have explained to anyone why she wanted to visit this little girl.
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style="">
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style="">At ten years old, Linda didn't have the words to say what filled her heart so fully, but her passion was strong.<span style=""> </span></span><span style=""><span style=""></span>This would not be the last time that Linda would read something in the newspaper that would cause her to take action.<span style=""> </span>Linda, it would turn out, had the ability to read stories that many people read and find in them a call to action, as if the writers were talking directly to her.<span style=""> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style=""><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style="">
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style="">Perhaps Linda was influenced by the books she had read about famous nurses like Florence Nightingale, the English nurse who took care of wounded soldiers during the Crimean War.<span style=""> </span>Or maybe it was the stories of Cherry Ames, Student Nurse, in a series of mystery books that Aunt Blossom, Linda’s favorite aunt, sent for her birthday and at Christmas.<span style=""> </span>There was a whole set of Cherry Ames, Student Nurse, books, and Linda collected, read and loved them all.
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style="">
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style="">It also could have been</span><span style=""> the lessons learned at home that motivated Linda to want to visit the little girl with the hole in her heart. Mom had taught Linda that she had a duty to be responsible, and Linda had observed the way that Dad helped people with translations and filling out official forms.<span style=""> </span></span><span style=""><span style=""></span><span style=""></span>Linda, as the eldest sister who was entrusted with the care of her little brothers, believed that she was also supposed to help other people. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style=""><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style="">
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style="">Linda’s mom, </span><span style="">Nancy, </span><span style="">in her quiet way, understood her daughter’s tender heart and knew that this was something that Linda was determined to do.<span style=""> </span>So, one night after work, Nancy and Linda went all the way downtown, taking two buses, and walking several blocks after they got off the second bus, to visit the girl with the hole in her heart.<span style=""> </span>Linda brought a treasured doll of her own to give to the little Chinese girl.<span style=""> </span>
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style="">
<br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style="">The girl’s mother and Linda’s mother visited with each other, even though they did not speak the same language either, while Linda took the little girl for a walk down the hospital hall.<span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p>The little girl let Linda hold her hand.<span style=""> </span>She liked having someone who wasn’t an adult visiting her, because a hospital is a scary place with machines that beep and people in white uniforms rushing around.<span style=""> </span>Linda couldn’t really communicate with the girl, but she could play with her like a big sister.<span style=""> </span>Even with different languages, girls know how to play pretend games with dolls, and that is what Linda and the little Chinese girl did together.<span style=""> Linda made funny faces and made the little girl laugh and giggle. The little girl's happiness at her visit made Linda smile.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style=""><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style="">
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style="">The hospital visit reminded Nancy of her own situation.<span style=""> Mom</span>’s sisters and brothers still lived in the old country.<span style=""> </span>Although Mom was very busy with her job ironing shirts in a laundry and taking care of Tim, Gus and Linda, she still missed the siblings with whom she had grown up.<span style=""> </span>Linda once overheard Nancy say to another grown-up that she would feel like crying when a letter arrived in the mail and she could read about what her parents and sisters and brothers were doing in the old country.<span style=""> </span>She would feel happy reading of their daily lives, but she would also feel sad, because their lives were so difficult in the old country.<span style=""> </span>Then when Mom did not receive a letter in the mail for a few weeks, she would feel like crying, because she worried that things were not going well in the old country for her sisters and brothers, and she would feel sad that she wasn't there to help them.<span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style=""><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style="">
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style="">The fact is, that Linda’s mother felt sad a lot when Linda was growing up, but those stories are ones we’ll save for another time.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p></o:p></span> LELANDA LEEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00007493781222383380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2698189378552005351.post-23378038470962508462009-09-06T07:48:00.001-07:002009-09-06T08:12:22.950-07:00Lady Phoenix Arrives<meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 12"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 12"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CLELAND%7E1%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><link rel="themeData" 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mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">At that moment, Lady Phoenix was close enough that both the king and his councilor-cook could see that the great phoenix was not entirely black in color even though she was depicted by all the artists of history as a great black bird.<span style=""> </span>For behold, the underside of her great wings were covered with feathers of every color in the rainbow, blue and red, and green and purple, and orange and yellow.<span style=""> </span>It was true that her feathers were tipped in black, even the vibrantly colored feathers, because the phoenix’s feathers and wings were singed by the fires of the lower regions of Hell, her home.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">
<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">A keening sound was soon heard carried by the wind to the ears of not only Storm King and Councilor Tam, but also to the ears on the sides of the tiny black head that had broken free of the gray shell fragments.<span style=""> </span>The keening sound was low at first but soon became quite loud, as Lady Phoenix neared the place where Storm King and his faithful attendant were standing.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">
<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">Just as the little baby phoenix was finally breaking free of the last of the eggshell, turning its head and picking at the shell fragments stuck to its back with its little red beak, the mother phoenix landed on the desert sand.<span style=""> </span>She folded her great wings close to her body, hiding the colorful feathers so that she appeared black as coal and fierce as a thunderstorm, her movements kicking up the sand, which whirled over the king and his attendant.<span style=""> </span>They had to lower their eyelids to avoid the gritty sand’s sting in their eyes.<span style=""> </span>Lady Phoenix towered over Storm King and Councilor Tam, staring down at the basket in Tam’s hands.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">
<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">The baby phoenix shook itself as it stepped out of the broken eggshell and then stopped to peck under its wing to scratch itself.<span style=""> </span>It didn’t seem to notice its mother standing nearby until she called to it with a low cooing sound.<span style=""> </span>Have you ever heard a phoenix cooing?<span style=""> </span>It is a sound that makes the goosebumps on your skin appear, a sound at once low and sweet and yet mysterious and menacing.<span style=""> </span>For the phoenix mother’s call is an affectionate call to its own birdling but a stern warning to any persons nearby to stay away from its offspring.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">
<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">“Put the basket down!” whispered Storm King to Councilor Tam urgently.<span style=""> </span>“Put it down right now.”</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">
<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">As Tam began to set the basket with the baby phoenix down between his feet and his king's feet, Storm King whispered even more urgently, “No, you foolish son of a foolish mother, not here, not near us.<span style=""> </span>Over there, a distance from where we’re standing.”<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">
<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">The Councilor hurriedly set the bird and the basket down a distance about ten paces away. Lady Phoenix promptly walked over to the basket and bent her head to the birdling.<span style=""> </span>With her large red beak, she gently picked up her baby and set it down on the sand, cooing all the while in her low, sweet voice.<span style=""> </span>The baby bird turned its head to its mother and tried to answer, but could only manage a few short squawks, and then promptly sat down.<span style=""> </span>It opened its beak wide and began to make a sound that could only be described as crying.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">
<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">Storm King was puzzled to hear the crying of the little bird, but Councilor Tam knew what the crying meant.<span style=""> </span>After all, as the king’s own loyal cook, he knew what a hungry person sounded like, and a hungry baby phoenix doesn’t sound any different.<span style=""> </span>Tam thought, “What shall we feed this little birdling?<span style=""> </span>We must not upset the mother phoenix by allowing her little baby to go hungry.”<span style=""> </span>Then an idea came to the wise Councilor, who had regained his composure after his initial fright at greeting the great black Hell bird.<span style=""> </span>Why, he would offer the mother phoenix the three small eggs that he was saving for his king’s dinner.<span style=""> </span>Raw egg mixed with cooked rice from his supplies would make a fine meal for a baby phoenix.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">
<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">Tam carefully set the raw egg and rice mixture before the mother phoenix and backed away quickly, all the while bowing to Lady Phoenix. He hoped that she wouldn’t peck his eyes out or rip his arms from his shoulders.<span style=""> </span>He prayed to the gods and goddesses of the High Sky that the gift of the food he had prepared for Lady Phoenix to feed her youngster would be pleasing to her.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">
<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">The councilor-cook began to worry, too, about what he would feed his still hungry king, whose dinner had been interrupted by the hatchling.<span style=""> </span>Shall we find out tomorrow?</p> LELANDA LEEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00007493781222383380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2698189378552005351.post-87735312793784068392009-09-05T13:48:00.000-07:002009-09-05T14:00:58.995-07:00The Egg<meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 12"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 12"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CLELAND%7E1%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><link rel="themeData" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CLELAND%7E1%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_themedata.thmx"><link rel="colorSchemeMapping" 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1.0in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">As it turned out, Councilor Tom Tam did not cook the two small white eggs and the one small brown one for Storm King’s dinner, because something interrupted him.<span style=""> </span>Right there in the egg basket, as Tom Tam was still deciding what to do about cooking dinner, the fourth egg, the largest one with the mottled gray coloring on its shell, began to rock back and forth rhythmically.<span style=""> </span>As it rocked, bumping into the other three eggs in the basket, cracks began to appear in the large egg’s shell.<span style=""> </span>First, one long crack that was as fine as one of the Storm King’s white hairs on his furry chin.<span style=""> </span>Then a second crack that wasn’t quite so long.<span style=""> </span>Then several small cracks appeared all at once.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">
<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">Councilor Tam was stunned.<span style=""> </span>He had never seen such a thing and didn’t know what to do.<span style=""> </span>He was a councilor and a cook after all, not a man of action.<span style=""> </span>While he had great wisdom helping his king make wise decisions, he had no experience making fast decisions.<span style=""> </span>Making fast decisions was the job of Storm King himself, who was the fiercest warrior of his entire kingdom.<span style=""> </span>A soldier on the battlefield who did not decide quickly which way to release his bow so that his arrow would fall among the most enemy warriors did not survive long on the battlefield.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">
<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">In Storm King’s particular case, he had a lot of practice deciding quickly exactly when his battlefield attendants would be called in to trim back the ends of his living staff made of a large cluster of bamboo tree stalks.<span style=""> </span>If the attendants arrived in the middle of a maneuver with an enemy soldier, Storm King could lose his advantage and lose the fight.<span style=""> </span><span style=""></span>If the attendants arrived after the war staff had grown too long on each end, then Storm King had difficulty lifting the staff to whirl around his body to strike his enemies down.<span style=""> </span>So, Storm King knew how to decide things with only a moment’s thought.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">
<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">Storm King reached into the egg basket without hesitation and removed the three small eggs one by one, setting them on the ground next to him to save for his dinner later.<span style=""> </span>“Hold the basket tightly, Councilor Tam, with both your hands,” commanded the king.<span style=""> </span>“I think we’re about to welcome a baby phoenix into the world.<span style=""> </span>I will watch the skies meanwhile, to see if Lady Phoenix is coming to claim her baby.”</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">
<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">Councilor Tam did as he was commanded by his king, holding the basket tightly against his chest with both his arms.<span style=""> </span>He was so frightened that it was hard to tell if his shaking was causing the egg to crack faster. The egg shell began to show cracks all over it, not just on the side that Tom Tam could see, but also on the underside of the shell lying against the bottom of the basket.<span style=""> </span>This cracking went on for what seemed like a long time as both Storm King and Councilor Tam watched in fascination.<span style=""> </span>Every once in a while, the king would glance upwards into the Eastern sky, looking for any sign of Lady Phoenix.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">
<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">Suddenly, Storm King spied a dark speck in the Eastern sky, rapidly becoming bigger and bigger as it drew nearer and nearer.<span style=""> </span>He could just make out the shape of large wings flapping furiously in the sky.<span style=""> </span>It seemed like the large flying creature in the sky was moving not only quickly but with great purpose as its strong wings beat the air bringing it closer and closer much faster than the great war horses that Storm King was accustomed to riding into battle, much faster than even Storm King himself could leap from mountain top to mountain top.<span style=""> </span>
<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">
<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">Lady Phoenix was, after all, a mythical creature, one that dwelled in the lower regions of the underworld known as Hell.<span style=""> </span>She was not limited by the powers of humankind or animals of the earth like the horses and cows domesticated by humans. We are not certain even if the rules of the King of the High Sky would apply to the creatures who dwell below, whether or not their powers would be limited when they came to play on earth and cause their kind of mischief. One knew Lady Phoenix only by the stories told of her famous battles with the dragon of the ruby eyes that lived under the mountain range that separated the Han kingdom from the Mongols who lived to the north. There were no stories told of people who had met Lady Phoenix in person who still walked upon the earth.
<br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">
<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">Storm King was so taken by the sight of Lady Phoenix coming towards them, that he was shocked to remember where he was and whom he was with, when Councilor Tam exclaimed, “A beak, I see the tip of a red beak.<span style=""> </span>It is breaking through the egg shell.”</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">
<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">Oh, when will we find out what happens next?<span style=""> </span>Mom will continue to tell her story on another night.</p> LELANDA LEEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00007493781222383380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2698189378552005351.post-55572652914183638772009-09-04T14:55:00.000-07:002009-09-04T15:01:56.814-07:00Linda Objects to Wars in Heaven<meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 12"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 12"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CLELAND%7E1%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><link rel="themeData" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CLELAND%7E1%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_themedata.thmx"><link rel="colorSchemeMapping" 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1.0in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">On the next night, Mom was ready to continue telling the story of how Councilor Tam found the phoenix egg and to reveal whether or not the egg was cooked for Storm King’s dinner.<span style=""> </span>Linda settled on the floor in front of Mom, so she could see Mom’s facial expressions as she recounted the story.<span style=""> </span>Gus and Tim each sat on one side of Mom on the couch.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">
<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">“Are we all ready to listen, now?” asked Mom.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">
<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">Linda replied, “Mom, I have a question.<span style=""> </span>I’ve been thinking about the story so far, and I don’t understand.”</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">
<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">The boys sighed, loudly.<span style=""> </span>They each snuggled closer to Mom and looked at each other across Mom’s lap as if to say silently to each other, “Oh, brother, Sis is going to delay the story, again.”</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">
<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">Linda persisted, “Mom, you said that the world where the gods, goddesses, and the phoenix and the dragon, and Storm King all live is a place where they conduct wars!<span style=""> </span>But you also said that the heavenly creatures lived in perfect harmony under the Old King and grew bored.<span style=""> </span>Which is it?<span style=""> </span>Were there wars in heaven under the Old King?”</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">
<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">Mom thought to herself how all three of her children were so smart.<span style=""> </span>She reminded herself that she must stay alert to be one step ahead of her brilliant children!</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">
<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">Then Mom explained, “Linda, you know that these stories are stories from my mouth.<span style=""> </span>I tell them to you each night before it’s time for you three to go to sleep.<span style=""> </span>Do you know how difficult it is to remember all the details of the heavens and the earth not to mention Hell, too?<span style=""> </span>Perhaps I made a mistake.<span style=""> </span>Do you believe that the Old King would allow wars in his kingdom of the Highest Sky?”</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">
<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">Tim, the baby, said, “Oh, boy, I like war stories.<span style=""> </span>I bet the Old King had the bravest soldiers.”</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">
<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">“No,” said Gus, “the Old King had the fiercest warriors.”</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">
<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">Linda chimed in, “No, boys, you have it all wrong!<span style=""> </span>The Old King did not allow wars in the kingdom of the Highest Sky, because he was a wise and peace loving king.<span style=""> </span>He was so ancient that he had seen all the wars fought by everyone everywhere over a very long time, and he knew that wars are bad things.<span style=""> </span>They create terrible messes, and then someone has to come and clean those messes up.<span style=""> </span>The Old King did not want his gods and goddesses going to war.”</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">
<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">Mom laughed.<span style=""> </span>She said to her children, “Now wait.<span style=""> </span>Who is telling the story?”</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">
<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">The boys remarked in unison, “Mom, you are.”</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">
<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">And with that remark the story picked up where Mom had left off the night before the night before.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">
<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">Storm King commanded Councilor Tam to bring the large gray mottled egg closer for him to examine.<span style=""> </span>Storm King held the egg up close to his eyes and peered at it.<span style=""> </span>He turned it around and around.<span style=""> </span>He held it first in one hand, then in the other, trying to see if he could tell anything about its weight or how the contents of the egg shifted in his hands.<span style=""> </span>The king held the egg up first to one ear, then to the other, listening intently to hear any sounds from the inside of the egg.<span style=""> </span>Finally, he looked closely at it again, noting the marks on the egg’s mottled exterior.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">
<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">“Councilor Tam, I believe that we have to put this egg back where you found it.<span style=""> </span>Can you remember the exact place in the desert sand where you dug this egg up?<span style=""> </span>I am fearful that this egg is, indeed, a phoenix egg, and that it is very near to hatching a baby phoenix.<span style=""> </span>Lady Phoenix herself will surely be back soon to greet her new son or daughter when the little one pecks its way through the shell of its egg.”</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">
<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">Council Tam was shocked to hear what Storm King said to him.<span style=""> </span>A phoenix egg in his basket, and it was soon to hatch.<span style=""> </span>Did he remember from where exactly he had gotten the egg?<span style=""> </span>After all, he had dug and found four eggs.<span style=""> </span>Could he retrace his steps?<span style=""> </span>Meanwhile, the king’s loyal councilor, cook and food taster was aware that his king’s stomach was beginning to growl very loudly from hunger.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">
<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">What should he do first?<span style=""> </span>Return the phoenix egg to its place in the desert sands, if he could remember exactly where that was?<span style=""> </span>Or prepare the remaining three eggs into a delicious omelet for Storm King’s dinner?<span style=""> </span>We shall have to wait till another night has come to hear the rest of this story.</p> LELANDA LEEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00007493781222383380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2698189378552005351.post-80191607279949379582009-09-03T12:14:00.000-07:002009-09-03T13:01:56.244-07:00Gus and Tim Object to Snake EggsLinda, Gus and Tim compared notes on the story of Councilor Tam's discovery of the phoenix egg. They loved hearing stories of Storm King and his adventures, but they thought something was screwy in Mom's telling of the story. Mom had said that Councilor Tam hunted in the sand, digging for snake eggs and the eggs of other desert creatures to cook for Storm King's dinner. <br /><br />"Wait," said Gus and Tim together. "Snakes don't lay eggs. Snakes have baby snakes." <br /><br />"Yeah," added Linda, who was in a higher grade in school than her little brothers. "On a field trip to the zoo, we saw snakes and their babies in the Reptile House. It was really dark inside the Reptile House, and the snakes were kept inside of cages that had glass so we could see them. They had two snakes that had just had baby snakes, a lot of them. The zookeeper told us that snakes have live babies just like humans do."<br /><br />Mom stopped in her storytelling to explain. She thought to herself what smart children she had that they would know such a scientific fact when they had not even attended school for very long.<br /><br />"In the Western desert of the Han Kingdom," Mom said patiently, "there is a crossover between the world as we know it and the world where the gods, goddesses and creatures like the phoenix and the dragon, and even Storm King, live and conduct their wars, adventures, romances and business. It is recounted from time to time that the heavenly creatures," explained Mom, when Tim interrupted. <br /><br />"And demon creatures, too, don't forget, Mom," Tim added, feeling very smart for his age, especially since he was the baby of the family.<br /><br />Mom continued, "From time to time the heavenly creatures, and yes, also the demon creatures from the very depths of Hell, cross over into our earthly realm to interfere with humans. For it is true that the heavenly creatures get bored with their perfect lives lived in perfect harmony under the rule of the Old King of the Highest Sky. Such perfection is not nearly as interesting as walking on earth where humans argue and disagree and then take their disagreements to the extremes of wars waged with vast armies and weapons of great imagination and destruction.<br /><br />"It is equally true that the gods who live under the rule of the Old King of the Highest Sky are a randy bunch, who like to come to earth and romance the Han Kingdom's beautiful maidens. Such beauty is irresistible to gods who love beauty so much, and everyone who walks on earth knows that Han maidens are the fairest maidens among all earthly maidens.<br /><br />"When the gods cross over into our world, they leave behind in the heavenly skies some of their godly powers, so that they do not appear too frightening to humans. It also wouldn't be fair to the humans for the gods to use their heavenly powers here on earth. Why, the humans wouldn't stand a chance of rivaling the gods in the tea house brawls and drunken fights that the younger gods sometimes get into.<br /><br />"And, of course, part of the reason that the Old King of the Highest Sky limits the gods and goddesses when they come down to visit the humans is that he must limit the powers of the demons who come up from Hell to walk among the humans, too. After all, the Old King is not only the oldest god, but he is also the wisest one, too, having learned many lessons from his long life lived above the world watching all of its inhabitants live and die since the beginning of the kingdoms."<br /><br />By this time, Mom saw that the children were tired, and it was time for bed, because tomorrow was a school day. So, we shall have to wait for Mom to continue the story of Councilor Tam's finding of the phoenix egg.LELANDA LEEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00007493781222383380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2698189378552005351.post-43893364051291318552009-09-02T00:56:00.001-07:002009-09-02T01:16:32.144-07:00Councilor Tam Finds a Phoenix Egg<meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 12"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 12"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CLELAND%7E1%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><link rel="themeData" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CLELAND%7E1%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_themedata.thmx"><link rel="colorSchemeMapping" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CLELAND%7E1%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_colorschememapping.xml"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> 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gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style=""></span>Storm King had amused himself all day leaping from mountain to mountain.<span style=""> </span>It was especially fun to jump into a river and get his feet wet before leaping onto a mountain, sprinkling the trees with the water that fell from his feet. Soon, though, he got bored and tired, and he decided to lay down for a nap on the soft sand beyond the Western mountains.<span style=""> </span>Storm King had behaved very well for a very long time, not frightening any Han soldiers or stealing any peaches from beautiful goddesses.<span style=""> </span>It wasn’t easy to be good when mischief was Storm King’s basic nature.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">
<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">The white fur on Storm King’s head grew long and fluffy right into the white beard on his chin and cheeks.<span style=""> </span>When he howled with laughter or shrieked with joy, he would shake his head side to side. His snowy fur would whip around and catch in his mouth and teeth.<span style=""> </span>When Storm King closed his mouth quickly mid-laugh, he would chomp down on a clump of fur, causing angry yowling from the pain.<span style=""> </span>Storm King was a noisy, fearsome fellow, who growled loudly when he chased Han soldiers, leaping just far enough to land where the soldiers’ next footsteps would fall, looking like a demon who was friends with death.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">
<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">Accompanying Storm King everywhere was his most faithful attendant, Councilor Tom Tam, who was also Storm King’s loyal cook and food taster.<span style=""> </span>Councilor Tam was the most hardworking man in Storm King’s entire kingdom.<span style=""> </span>Tom Tam was wise enough to give the king advice about everything from how much in taxes to demand from the village lords before they raised a rebellion to how much poison the king could ingest before it became dangerous.<span style=""> </span>Tam cooked sumptuous meals truly fit for a king even when on military campaign with Storm King, using ingredients that he found wherever he found himself to be when it was dinner time.<span style=""> </span>Councilor Tam was possessed of a nose that was like no other nose in all the land. He could sniff poison in food in the smallest proportions.<span style=""> </span>So long as Councilor Tom Tam served Storm King, the king never had to worry about danger from poisoning.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">
<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">Upon waking from his nap, Storm King was mightily hungry.<span style=""> </span>He bellowed to Councilor Tam, “I’m hungry.<span style=""> </span>Feed me.<span style=""> </span>Feed me now.”<span style=""> </span>Councilor Tam heard the great hunger in his king’s bellow.<span style=""> </span>He hurried as quickly as he could scurry, hunting in all the little dips in the sand, looking for eggs hidden there by desert snakes and other egg-laying creatures to prepare for his king’s dinner.<span style=""> </span>This night he was lucky and found four eggs, two small white ones, one small brown one, and one very large mottled gray egg.<span style=""> </span>When Tam brought the eggs back to the camp where Storm King was waiting for his dinner, he showed the king what he had found.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">
<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">“Wait,” roared Storm King, in a loud voice.<span style=""> </span>“What do you have there, Councilor Tam?<span style=""> </span>Why, it looks like . . . could it be?” said the king.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">
<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">Tom Tam was confused.<span style=""> </span>All he had in his basket were the four eggs.<span style=""> </span>What was Storm King pointing at? <span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">
<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">“That large egg, the mottled gray one, Councilor Tam.<span style=""> </span>What have you got there?<span style=""> </span>Why, it looks like a phoenix egg!” remarked Storm King, who actually was someone who was friends with the ones who live in the underworld.
<br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">
<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">“No, it can’t be.<span style=""> </span>Why would a phoenix egg be buried in the desert sand?” asked Councilor Tam.<span style=""> </span>The great phoenix was a mythical bird, who had the rare ability to rise from the ashes even after it had fallen in battle and was burned in the fires of the kingdom below the earth, the one that we commonly call Hell.<span style=""> </span>Now Councilor Tam was worried.<span style=""> </span>Why, if this gray egg were really the egg of a phoenix, he couldn’t possibly cook it up and serve it to the king.<span style=""> </span>Who knew when the great phoenix would return looking for her buried egg?<span style=""> </span>What would the great bird do if she learned that Councilor Tam had cooked her hidden egg and that Storm King had eaten it for dinner?</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">
<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">What did Councilor Tam and Storm King do?<span style=""> </span>Would the lady phoenix come to reclaim her egg? Well, my friend, that is a story for another telling.</p> LELANDA LEEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00007493781222383380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2698189378552005351.post-67021286075143888302009-09-01T01:11:00.000-07:002009-09-01T01:19:11.306-07:00Scary Things<meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 12"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 12"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CLELAND%7E1%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><link rel="themeData" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CLELAND%7E1%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_themedata.thmx"><link rel="colorSchemeMapping" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CLELAND%7E1%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_colorschememapping.xml"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves/> 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table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">Linda cannot remember the time before television.<span style=""> </span>When she entered school for the first time at age six, there was “Howdy Doody Time” during the lunch hour in the apartment with Gus and Tim.<span style=""> </span>The song “It’s Howdy Doody Time,” would stick in Linda’s head, but she cannot remember any of the stories or who the other characters on the show were.<span style=""> </span>Mom’s favorite program was “I Love Lucy,” which Linda watched, sitting beside her mother, fascinated by these examples of how other people dressed, talked and lived.<span style=""> </span>Lucy and her husband, Desi, argued a lot in the television show but always kissed and made up. <span style=""> </span>Linda had never seen Mom and Dad, or for that matter, anyone else, kiss.<span style=""> </span>Lucy and Desi, being real people in “I Love Lucy,” made them more memorable to Linda than the puppets on the “Howdy Doody Show.”<span style=""> </span>For Linda, “I Love Lucy” was a small window into the wider world that she longed to know more about.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">
<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">Public school was a long walk away from the ethnic ghetto where Linda and her family lived.<span style=""> </span>Each day Linda walked across a foot bridge over an expressway to the other side of downtown where the school was located.<span style=""> </span>On the very first day of school, the teachers dismissed the children for lunch, and Linda didn’t know what to do.<span style=""> </span>Mom had walked Linda to school with Gus and Tim, but her mother was nowhere in sight at lunchtime.<span style=""> </span>There was no big sister or big brother to tell Linda what to do, and she was too scared to ask the teachers, whom she couldn’t understand anyway since they spoke English and Linda spoke her mother’s home country’s language. </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">
<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">Linda finally decided to follow the other kids, got into the lunch line and was led into the lunchroom where she sat down and had a hot lunch of unfamiliar food.<span style=""> </span>Then the teacher noticed Linda, realized that she wasn’t signed up for hot lunch and sent her home for lunch.<span style=""> </span>All the other kids who walked home for lunch had already left, and poor Linda had to run all the way home across the foot bridge by herself.<span style=""> </span>“What a dummy,” Linda thought to herself, as ran into the apartment to eat lunch with Gus and Tim and watch “Howdy Doody Time.”<span style=""> </span>Linda managed to chew and swallow a second lunch without anyone knowing that she had already eaten strange food at school.<span style=""> </span>That was the first of many secrets that Linda would keep.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">
<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">One summer evening, after Linda and her family had moved to a new apartment across town, because Mom got a job ironing shirts in a laundry, there was a big thunderstorm, and the sky got very black outside even though it was early.<span style=""> </span>Linda and her brothers and Mom were hunched together in the living room watching the black and white television.<span style=""> </span>A murder mystery was on, and the music became very dramatic whenever the story got to a scary part.<span style=""> </span>Since Gus and Tim were leaning on either side of her, Mom couldn’t get up to turn the volume down on the television and asked Linda to do it for her.<span style=""> </span>Linda liked being the eldest child and being helpful; so got up to do as she was asked.<span style=""> </span>But Linda turned the knob the wrong way.<span style=""> </span>The volume got very loud suddenly.<span style=""> </span>The loudness startled Linda so much that Linda shrieked, and Mom had to jump up quickly and turn the volume down herself.<span style=""> </span>Besides the television, the only other electric device in the apartment was the radio.<span style=""> </span>The clock was a wind-up Big Ben that the kids took turns winding for Mom each night.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">
<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">From that day forward, Linda avoided dealing with electric devices, because she was afraid that they would do unpredictable and scary things.<span style=""> </span>What those unpredictable and scary things were are stories for another telling.</p> LELANDA LEEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00007493781222383380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2698189378552005351.post-56580575964738786392009-08-31T07:23:00.000-07:002009-08-31T07:26:24.594-07:00Pulp Fiction<meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 12"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 12"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CLELAND%7E1%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><link rel="themeData" 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mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">Dad smoked Lucky Strike cigarettes without filters, allowing the ash to collect until it was quite long, finally falling off due to gravity onto the floor of wherever Dad happened to be standing.<span style=""> </span>Dad was always standing, when he wasn’t prone on the couch “watching” TV with his eyes closed.<span style=""> </span>“Lin – da,” Dad would shout from the living room couch, and Linda would come running to find out what Dad needed.<span style=""> </span>Often it was to change the TV channel – no remote controls in the 1950’s and ‘60’s.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">
<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">Sometimes it was to fix him a cup of coffee, which meant pouring a cup from the stovetop percolator into a saucepan and heating it up, then adding cream and sugar.<span style=""> </span>Linda liked everything about making coffee, including helping Mom to grind the coffee in the noisy red store grinder mounted on the wall opposite the check-out stands of the grocery store.<span style=""> </span>At night, when Linda turned on the kitchen light to reheat the coffee, cockroaches would scramble from the sink into the crevices behind the kitchen counter into the walls.<span style=""> </span>If she was quick, she would manage to squish a few before they all escaped.<span style=""> </span>Cockroaches were just a fact of life in the apartment flats that Linda’s family occupied first on the west side, then on the east side of the Midwestern midsized city where they lived.<span style=""> </span>As the oldest child, Linda couldn’t be squeamish about things like cockroaches, since she was entrusted with tasks like fixing Dad’s coffee.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">
<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">Once a week Dad had a half-day off from his job as a cook in an all-night restaurant.<span style=""> </span>In the early years, his shift started at 4:00 in the afternoon and ran until 4:00 in the morning, and Linda only got to see her dad for a quick half-hour before it was time to leave for school in the mornings.<span style=""> </span>Later, Dad worked the day shift, starting at 10:00 in the morning and returning home just before midnight six days a week and working the dinner shift until closing on his half-day off.<span style=""> </span>Since Mom also worked six days a week in a laundry pressing shirts and pants, Linda grew up thinking that it was normal to work hard all the time, because that’s what responsible grown-ups like Mom and Dad did.<span style=""> </span>Her friends’ fathers and mothers who worked five days a week had union jobs in factories or office jobs that required secretarial skills.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">
<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">The best times spent with Dad were those spent talking about what Dad was reading.<span style=""> </span>Usually it was pulp fiction – paperback books by Louis L’Amour about the Wild West and frontier life, stories about hardnosed detectives like Mike Hammer by Mickey Spillane, and the occasional Ernest Heminway, Jack London and John Steinbeck book.<span style=""> </span>Dad always had his nose in the newspaper or a book, and Linda adopted that habit at a young age, sitting beside her dad at the formica kitchen table with a book in her hand.<span style=""> </span>Dad would often start off with “Linda, did you know . . . ,” and of course, Linda didn’t know and would listen raptly to what Dad told her.<span style=""> </span>Interestingly, her brothers didn’t participate in this ritual with Dad, because at one and three years younger than Linda, and being that boys matured more slowly, Gus and Tim just didn’t have the attention span in those early years to be interested in Dad and his books.<span style=""> </span>Later, they didn’t have the habit.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">
<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">When the James Bond movies came out each year over the Thanksgiving weekend, Dad would take the family to see them.<span style=""> </span>Dad had read the novels, and later, Linda would also read the novels, even if she had seen the film first.<span style=""> </span>The extreme quirkiness of the bad guys in the Bond films coupled with the exotic locales of James Bond’s heroics grabbed Linda’s imagination.<span style=""> </span>Dad didn’t have the time or money to travel or to take the family on vacations, and the Bond films were like a travelogue to Linda.<span style=""> </span>Instead of identifying with the beautiful women in the Bond films, who wore exquisite gowns, tiny bikinis and cat-like eye makeup, it was Bond himself that Linda fantasized about.<span style=""> </span>Oh, to be a world traveler, who knew hand-to-hand combat and how to use a gun, who stayed in luxurious hotels and wore elegant clothing , doing deeds of derring-do without a thought to keeping his clothes clean!<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">
<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">Little did Linda know that in her adult life she would become a world traveler who stayed in five star hotels and wear designer clothing, but that’s another story to be told at a later time.</p> LELANDA LEEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00007493781222383380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2698189378552005351.post-80899720211010025082009-08-30T02:44:00.000-07:002009-08-30T02:46:15.524-07:00Department Store Fun<meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 12"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 12"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CLELAND%7E1%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><link rel="themeData" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CLELAND%7E1%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_themedata.thmx"><link 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Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">During her high school years, Linda took two buses, an hour’s ride each way, to and from the magnet school located just outside of city center.<span style=""> </span>It was an honor to be invited to attend the magnet school in ninth grade, entering high school a whole year earlier than the kids who went to the local high school.<span style=""> </span>Linda was excited by the idea of the larger high school, which attracted kids from all over the city.<span style=""> </span>She was told that only the top two percent of eighth grade students received such an invitation.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">
<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">Linda liked the idea of being in a bigger environment.<span style=""> </span>Although she liked her friends in junior high, she was also quite bored with the idea of being in school with the same students for another four years.<span style=""> </span>Linda was no longer satisfied with receiving her stimuli only from books.<span style=""> </span>Her pre-teen hormones were raising her interests in new relationships and challenges.<span style=""> </span>When she finally began to attend the magnet high school, Linda was not disappointed with her experience.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">
<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">One of the best parts of attending the new high school was the chance to hang out downtown when she changed buses after school each day.<span style=""> </span>If Linda timed it right, she could sometimes cruise the big eight-story department store downtown for about 45 minutes before having to complete her bus transfer without paying another bus fare.<span style=""> </span>The big department store had a third floor ladies’ restroom that featured lines of vanity stations with lighted mirrors and seating, separate from the toilets, sinks and lounge.<span style=""> </span>It’s really too bad that there are no restrooms like that in any department stores today.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">
<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">Linda and her girlfriends would spend the entire 45 minutes in that restroom trying on new make-up looks and fixing their hair into exotic hairdos.<span style=""> </span>Sometimes the girls would even make a date to spend Saturday downtown exploring all eight floors of the department store, meeting in the third floor restroom as each girl bused in from the west side and the east side of town.<span style=""> </span>It wasn’t unusual for the girls to be late for their dates by an hour or more, but they would wait for the other girls to get there before beginning their explorations.<span style=""> </span>Their second favorite spot was the mezzanine magazine, book and greeting card departments, where the girls liked to linger over the movie magazines and extra special greeting cards with lace, cellophane and glitter that cost over a dollar each.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">
<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">Once a year the store had a sewing fair that took over the entire third floor where the sewing machines, fabric, patterns and yarn departments were located.<span style=""> </span>Vendors representing all types of merchandise sold to seamstresses and knitters would demonstrate their products, and a lot of free samples were given away.<span style=""> </span>Linda and her girlfriends loved to collect all the free samples and admire the ribbon and lace, examples of party dresses sewn from patterns by Vogue and Butterick, and the intricate sweaters knitted from the fanciest yarns.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">
<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">One fall Linda used her parents’ charge account at the department store to buy the most extravagant red suede purse that she’d ever seen.<span style=""> </span>It had a front flap over two pockets and a wide shoulder strap.<span style=""> </span>The purse was in the glass showcase of the purse department on the first floor of the store and cost $40, which was a lot of money, because people earned much less than $1 an hour in those days.<span style=""> </span>Linda loved that purse, even though the red suede got dirty quickly and didn’t stay new looking for very long.<span style=""> </span>Another time Linda bought high heeled leather boots that had lamb’s wool fur all around the ankle, which meant that she had to wear those impractical boots all winter long.<span style=""> </span>Instead of walking firmly in the snow and ice, Linda often tiptoed to the bus stop, hoping she wouldn’t trip on those spiky high heels.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">
<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">Linda had become a shopper, who would continue to make shopping mistakes over many years into her mature adulthood before learning how to make good shopping choices.<span style=""> </span>But those are stories from Linda’s future to be told at a later time.</p> LELANDA LEEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00007493781222383380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2698189378552005351.post-41907637570855804762009-08-29T03:00:00.000-07:002009-08-29T03:02:06.052-07:00A Nickel's Worth<meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 12"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 12"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CLELAND%7E1%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><link rel="themeData" 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mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">The walk to the junior high school was more than a mile, and the cost to ride the public bus was ten cents for students.<span style=""> </span>Linda still had to walk over two city blocks to get to the nearest bus stop, and she would transfer to a second bus on that route.<span style=""> </span>It was almost half way to walk to the other bus line that didn’t involve transferring buses.<span style=""> </span>On cold winter days, girls wore leggings, thick padded pants worn over tights that they took off and hung in their lockers when they arrived at school.<span style=""> </span>The school rules at that time required the girls to wear dresses or skirts. <span style=""> </span>The gym uniform for girls was white blouses with Peter Pan collars and navy blue shorts with your name embroidered on the inside.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">
<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">On nice days, which were most days, and certainly on the way home each day, Linda would walk both ways with her girlfriend, Marcy, and save the ten cents each way, which was then theirs to spend.<span style=""> </span>Sometimes Marcy, who played French horn, would stay after school for band practice, and then the walk would seem to take forever as Linda walked alone all the way home.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">
<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">The year was 1962, and Woolworth’s Five and Dime still existed in neighborhoods all over the United States.<span style=""> </span>On the major cross street near the junior high, a wide street with three lanes in each direction, there was a Woolworth’s where all the students would stop almost daily after school.<span style=""> </span>At the soda fountain and lunch counter of the Woolworth’s, where they served Campbell’s cream of tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches, Linda would get a Coca Cola in a cone shaped paper cup standing inside a silvery cup holder for a nickel.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">
<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">For another nickel Linda would buy a little white paper sack of salty tasting chocolate covered peanuts or the chocolate nonpareils that are still sold in movie theater candy counters.<span style=""> </span>The chocolates in the candy counter’s glass cases sold for 39 cents a pound, and Linda would sometimes ask for “a nickel’s worth” and other times for “an eighth of a pound” or “two ounces” of candy from the female clerks.<span style=""> </span>All the five and dime clerks were females, while most men Linda knew worked in factories, tool and die shops, and restaurants as cooks and waiters, or as salesmen.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">
<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">On rare occasions Linda would save her bag of chocolates to eat later at night, in bed, where she would sit up with her textbooks to study, often with a 16-ounce glass bottle of Pepsi propped between her legs.<span style=""> </span>Mom would sometimes find Linda asleep in that position in the middle of the night and have to put the candy, soda pop and books away and turn off the lights.<span style=""> </span>Linda was the lucky one, being the only girl in the family besides Mom, because she got a bedroom all to herself, while her brothers Tim and Gus slept in bunk beds in the dining room with Mom’s brothers, Sam and Bill, and Mom and Dad had the second bedroom.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">
<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">One of Linda’s favorite activities was to pretend that her bedroom was a library.<span style=""> </span>She would make her brothers sign out books from her collection of hardcover books that she had received as birthday gifts from her aunts who lived in the big city.<span style=""> </span>She had a collection of Andrew Lang’s “colored” fairy books, Laura Ingalls Wilder’s novels, and a big illustrated volume of the complete Shakespeare’s plays.<span style=""> </span>Linda had not yet seen any of Shakespeare’s plays performed, but she had read every one of them from beginning to end.<span style=""> </span>Gus and Tim seldom wanted to play library with Linda and didn’t have much interest in reading Shakespeare or fairy tales.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">
<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">A special set of books that Linda never leant out was the five volume pig-skin bound foreign language dictionaries in miniature size that Aunt Meredith, who worked as a travel agent, brought back from Europe.<span style=""> </span>Their thin pages were as fine as the pages in Linda’s red leather bound King James Bible with the gold leaf pages that her sponsors had given to her when she was confirmed at age twelve.<span style=""> </span>The church that Linda attended with her mother and two brothers was a beautiful gothic church near downtown, standing next door to a huge brewery.<span style=""> </span>Its stone building was similar in architecture to the public library down the street where Linda spent her after school hours and summers surrounded by books that brought the world closer to a girl everyone else called serious.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">
<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">Why everyone thought Linda was serious is a story for another time.</p> LELANDA LEEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00007493781222383380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2698189378552005351.post-26959528128874378412009-08-28T00:18:00.000-07:002009-08-28T00:22:58.895-07:00Madame and Storm King<meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 12"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 12"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CLELAND%7E1%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><link rel="themeData" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CLELAND%7E1%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_themedata.thmx"><link rel="colorSchemeMapping" 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1.0in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">Mom loved to read, but didn’t have the same opportunities to read often like Dad.<span style=""> </span>She didn’t read English, and the books in her language were expensive and difficult to obtain.<span style=""> </span>So, instead, Mom told stories to the little Gang of Three, Linda, Gus and Tim, on cold wintry days when it was too dark and cold to play outside.<span style=""> </span>The story blanket Mom wove wrapped around the three little siblings like magical warp and woof of truth and fantasy. </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">
<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">Mom told stories that she heard as she was growing up in her old country.<span style=""> </span>Other stories were current history, things that were happening in real life that future school children would study.<span style=""> </span>One such story was about Madame President’s Wife, who, unlike Linda, was a youngest sister.<span style=""> </span>Mom admired Madame, because like Mom, Madame came from a Christian family that taught their girl children to read and write, just like the boys were taught.<span style=""> </span>Linda thought it was very strange that girls would not know how to read and write, because she already loved books even though she couldn’t read very well yet.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">
<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">Madame was a scholar who spoke several languages and translated her husband’s speeches and papers into the languages of world leaders.<span style=""> </span>Linda asked Mom if Madame ever put her own thoughts and words into the speeches and papers of her husband, the President, and Mom agreed that “Yes, it is possible, but scandalous, that the proper Madame might have snuck her own words in.”<span style=""> </span>Linda thought it was delicious that the dignified Madame who dressed in long white gloves and floor-length gowns to dine and dance at state dinners with kings and queens would do something so sneaky.<span style=""> </span>“Dignified” was Mom’s favorite description of anyone she admired.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">
<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">Gus and Tim were a whole lot less interested in the stories about Madame than the ones Mom told about Storm King, mighty warrior king, who leaped over whole provinces with one push-off from his muscular legs.<span style=""> </span>Storm King had white fur instead of hair on his head and where his beard would have grown.<span style=""> </span>He carried a thick staff made from the stalks of bamboo trees that were still alive, bundled together and squeezed tightly in the middle where the Storm King’s hand grasped it.<span style=""> </span>What trouble the poor Storm King had when his staff would grow without warning as he was using it to fight an enemy soldier or to dig for grubs to eat while on military campaigns far from home.<span style=""> </span>It was even worse when the staff was strapped to Storm King’s back as he galloped across the countryside on horseback, and the staff began to stretch out its length from both ends at the same time!<span style=""> </span>No wonder Storm King had attendants who carried sharp swords and stayed nearby so that they could help him trim his staff when it began to grow.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">
<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">Because Mom had no books from which to read stories of Storm King, the children had to imagine what he looked like and how he moved and fought.<span style=""> </span>Linda never shared her images of Storm King, keeping them secret inside herself, and Gus and Tim didn’t talk much, preferring to poke each other when Mom was telling stories and breaking down into giggles while jumping from the family bed to the baby crib in the one bedroom of their tenement house apartment.<span style=""> </span>When Linda played with their green molded plastic soldiers and tan plastic cowboys, she would imagine stories about Storm King and his heroic journeys across the old country, looking for trouble to sort out and poor people to help.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">
<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">Sometimes Linda would imagine that she was a grown up lady just like Madame President’s Wife, educated in medicine and science and knowing how to dance in elegant ballgowns, able to speak in any language of the world to important people about important things.<span style=""> </span>Linda would ask Mom how Madame learned to do all the things she knew how to do and promised herself that when she grew up, she would learn to do those things, too.<span style=""> </span><span style=""> </span>Even at a young age, Linda knew what was real and what was fantasy.<span style=""> </span>It just turned out as Linda got older that she sometimes couldn’t separate the two, but that is a story for another telling.</p> LELANDA LEEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00007493781222383380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2698189378552005351.post-69279513459167874782009-08-27T01:33:00.001-07:002009-08-27T01:33:57.546-07:00Gang of Three<meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 12"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 12"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CLELAND%7E1%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><link rel="themeData" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CLELAND%7E1%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_themedata.thmx"><link rel="colorSchemeMapping" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CLELAND%7E1%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_colorschememapping.xml"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves/> <w:trackformatting/> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> 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mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">When Linda and her brothers were little, they were a gang of three.<span style=""> </span>Linda was the big sister followed by Augustus and Timothy, Gus and Tim for short.<span style=""> </span>In the early years, they lived in a tenement house in the ethnic ghetto of the Midwestern city where they grew up.<span style=""> </span>Next door was a trucking firm where large trucks that hauled big cargo trailers were parked on the weekends.<span style=""> </span>It was fun to sit outdoors on the front stoop of the tenement house and watch the eighteen-wheelers pull into the lot as Friday afternoon marked the beginning of the weekend, and the truck drivers went home to their families.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">
<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">Linda would often watch the truck drivers maneuver their big cabs into the tightly packed spaces and wonder where they had been during the week and what they were hauling.<span style=""> </span>At five years old, Linda was too small to read the lettering on the sides of the trucks to know whether the trucks carried household goods of people moving to a new home in another city or whether they carried groceries that would supply a big supermarket in the suburbs.<span style=""> </span>She only knew that the trucks were big and noisy, and Mom said not to walk past the trucking company’s driveway.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">
<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">As the big sister, Linda was responsible for keeping an eye on four-year old Gus and the baby, two-year old Tim, when they were allowed to play outside for a little while before it was time to come inside for supper.<span style=""> </span>The boys usually played together, chasing each other around and around in silly baby games like tag and racing to the corner to see who ran faster.<span style=""> </span>Linda preferred quiet solitary games like sitting on the sidewalk and watching the ants crawl up and down her arms and legs.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">
<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">Linda’s brothers were noisy just like her older cousin Mikey, born only two months earlier than she.<span style=""> </span>When Linda visited Grandmother’s home in the big city, she and Mikey would play cowboys and forts, and Mikey always made a lot of sounds like horses, rifles shooting and cannons roaring.<span style=""> </span>Linda, however, would imagine elaborate stories about the cowboys and townspeople including the wives and children, and she would tell herself long, involved stories in her head.<span style=""> </span>Each person in her stories had a name, and they had jobs and interests that were different from the other townspeople’s activities.<span style=""> </span>Linda’s stories were like a chapter book, continuing from one day to the next as she played quietly beside her cousin Mikey.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">
<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">One Sunday afternoon, Linda, Gus and Tim were outside for a long time, figuring out new games to play as they waited for Mom to call them inside for supper.<span style=""> </span>The trucks next door to the tenement house were beckoning to Linda, and she dared her brothers to come with her on an adventure.<span style=""> </span>Leading the way, Linda climbed onto each of the big truck cabs parked neatly in rows, pulling Gus and Tim up after her.<span style=""> </span>Back then, Linda was what was called a “tomboy,” a girl who acted a lot like a boy, loving adventures, climbing and running fast.<span style=""> </span>Pretty soon, the gang of three had as many windshield wipers as they could hold in their small hands without dropping any.<span style=""> </span>The first wiper was hard to get off the truck, but Linda and the boys figured out how to remove the wipers quickly after the first tricky one.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">
<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">What a wonderful treasure hunt they were having, when Mom came downstairs and hollered for them to come inside and wash up for supper.<span style=""> </span>Oops, what to do with all those windshield wipers?<span style=""> </span>Linda figured Mom wouldn’t let them keep all of them, and so she and the boys dropped them in the corner of the truck parking lot as they ran home for supper.<span style=""> </span>That was the first of many adventures that the gang of three would have over the years, but those are stories for another day.</p> LELANDA LEEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00007493781222383380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2698189378552005351.post-25158337340081124232009-08-26T00:10:00.000-07:002009-08-26T00:15:55.698-07:00Walking the Dog<meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft 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font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">When Linda was eight-years old, she went to visit Aunt Pansy and Uncle Thomas in the big city.<span style=""> </span>Her aunt and uncle were world travelers, who had lived abroad in her uncle’s home country for many years after they were married.<span style=""> </span>Now they had returned to the United States with their little baby boy to raise him with Aunt Pansy’s side of the family nearby.<span style=""> </span>Things were very different in Uncle Thomas’ home country.<span style=""> </span>His family was very rich, and they had servants and nannies who did the housework and helped take care of the children.<span style=""> </span>In the United States the women and mothers took care of the housekeeping and the children.<span style=""> </span>Aunt Pansy was depending on her sisters to help her raise her little boy.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">
<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">Aunt Pansy was a petite woman with exquisite taste in clothing.<span style=""> </span>She wore the very prettiest dresses with wide skirts and brilliant colors in the softest cottons and silks.<span style=""> </span>Aunt Pansy had an artistic flare, and everything that Aunt Pansy did felt like it was a celebration.<span style=""> </span>She talked with a soft, teasing voice that just invited you into her sense of fun and happiness.<span style=""> </span>Uncle Thomas was a dashing gentleman who knew everything about race horses.<span style=""> </span>Together Aunt Pansy and Uncle Thomas brought some of the glamour that everyone read about in Life magazine into Linda’s life, and she was so excited to be their summer guest in the big city.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">
<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">Linda’s parents were poor and worked long hours everyday to provide for their family.<span style=""> </span>There wasn’t any money to spare for extra things like vacations or trips abroad or silly things like a pet cat or dog.<span style=""> </span>Linda’s brothers had a pet turtle purchased for 39 cents at the local variety store and a little salamander.<span style=""> </span>While the salamander was not a very good pet, the turtle lived for many years and was a memorable pet.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">
<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">Imagine how wonderful it was for Linda to visit Aunt Pansy and Uncle Thomas and discover that they had an elegant dog as a family pet.<span style=""> </span>The dog was a beautiful, long-haired collie just like Lassie on TV.<span style=""> </span>It was still a young dog, probably no older than a year and a half, and it was really spirited, like a race horse would be.<span style=""> </span>Linda really wanted to be helpful while visiting Aunt Pansy and Uncle Thomas, but knew that she was too young to be trusted with taking care of their baby boy.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">
<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">Linda did think that she was old enough to take care of the family’s dog and asked if she could take it for a walk one day.<span style=""> </span>Aunt Pansy called the dog over to put on its leash.<span style=""> </span>Then she handed the leash to Linda and told her to walk the dog to the corner and back.<span style=""> </span>Linda and the dog walked out to the sidewalk joyfully, and Linda expected to have fun spending special time with the collie.<span style=""> </span>Instead, when they reached the sidewalk, the young dog, overly excited about going for a walk, started pulling on the leash.<span style=""> </span>Linda tried to hold on to the leash, but the dog was too strong.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">
<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">Pretty soon, the collie had dragged Linda down the street, and it was beginning to drag her across the street.<span style=""> </span>Linda was scared, because she was hanging on as tightly as she could, and the dog wasn’t slowing down.<span style=""> </span>Just as Linda was beginning to panic, Uncle Thomas came to the rescue like a dashing hero.<span style=""> </span>He took the leash from Linda, and together, the dog, Linda and Uncle Thomas walked back to the apartment.<span style=""> </span>That was the last time that summer that Linda tried to walk that big, energetic dog.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">
<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">A lot of other fun things happened that summer in the big city, but those are stories for another time.</p> LELANDA LEEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00007493781222383380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2698189378552005351.post-18235086755303867652009-08-25T16:43:00.001-07:002009-08-25T18:00:59.629-07:00Going to the OperaAt age twelve, Linda was on the verge of womanhood and great things in her life, only she didn’t know any of that yet. She was the eldest child in a poor immigrant family, and she loved to read. Each morning she would sit at the breakfast table with her father and read the newspaper. He would read the front page and the sports section, and she would read the comics and the advice column by Ann Landers. Sometimes Linda and her father would discuss what was in the newspaper that morning, and her father would say, “It’s important that there are people who trouble the elected leaders, because disagreements make people stop and think.”<br /><br />In the summer, Linda spent every day in the public library that was just a few blocks away from the apartment where she lived with her parents, two younger brothers, and two uncles. The two-bedroom apartment was tiny and crowded, while the library, an old stone building with tall ceilings, was spacious. The library had a large window seat with leaded stained glass windows, where Linda sat for hours each summer day. Linda’s family was too poor to afford vacations and travel, but Linda took flights of imagination with every book she read, imagining the places to which she would travel and the things she would do.<br /><br />Linda read some very long novels, such as Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell, The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu, and Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert. She was fascinated by stories of women who were bound by the customs and standards of their times and yet motivated to do unconventional things by their passionate feelings. One summer Linda read all the biographies contained in one floor-to-ceiling bookcase of that library, starting with the letter “A” for Jane Austen until she finished the alphabet. She especially liked the stories about women like Florence Nightingale and Amelia Earhart, who had built careers that were notable for women in their day from interests that they couldn’t resist pursuing with all of their energy and willpower. <br /><br />In school Linda sang in the school choir. Her music teacher was a fiery Italian man who described the composers whose music he taught with great demonstrative gestures. Her music teacher’s introduction of great classical music had inspired Linda to borrow records from the library so that she could listen to the music at home. She also read biographies about Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Johann Sebastian Bach and Giacomo Puccini with extra zeal. <br /><br />One Friday night Linda decided to go by herself to see a performance of Puccini’s famous opera, Madame Butterfly, at the big downtown theater. She dressed up in a red suit and low-heeled pumps and took two buses to get to the theater and sat way in the top balcony. Linda was so happy during the entire opera and felt like a very adult lady when she rode the two buses back home late that evening. She thought it was the very best night of her young life. Later that night, Linda found herself shedding tears of frustration, because she thought that her life couldn’t possibly be as beautiful as the opera that she had seen performed that evening.<br /><br />It would be many years later before Linda found out that she was wrong about how beautiful her life would be, but that is another story.LELANDA LEEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00007493781222383380noreply@blogger.com0