May. 14, 2004 - 22:03 MST

THE WONDERING JEW

Odds And Ends

My early memories of the house I grew in is of the gravel street, with an irregular sort of earthen drain thing where a curb and gutter would later be.. I remember finally our alley being paved as well as curb and gutter put in at the street. Little by little I grew in stature and experience with a mind lagging behind a bit. I knew the questions but not what to do with the answers - and few of them I could find.

Then the city blacktopped our street.

Our house wasn't much as houses go, a two room brick house originally intended to be a garage, it was my home and I loved it. It sat on the back of the lot right by the alley which left us a stretch of lawn that was an inspiration to me in more ways than one. The only time I would go barefoot was when I could wiggle my toes in our grass. My feet didn't have calluses like the other kids, but I had beaucoup callouses and scabs on my inner ankles, scabs on my knees and elbows, most of the time simultaneously. Guess I was a "tender foot," but seemed to get other projections of self scraped, cut and abraded like any of the other boys.

Back then I was fighting the Cardigan battle. Only old people wear that kind of thing I was told, the only ones I saw being worn were very plain black or brown with a huge row of buttons up the front I desperately wanted one for the cool weather, I would have been happy with one. Other kids might not have had the same characteristics but I hated pull over sweaters, utterly despised them. In the first place I had grave trouble keeping my hair in a semblance of order, so putting on or taking off a sweater really messed my hair up. In the second place most of my warm, cold weather wraps could be opened down the front -- except a pull over. I liked to regulate my comfort by opening and closing my wraps, the warmer I got the more layers of wraps would be opened down the front. If a chill came I could always button back up. I couldn't open the front of a pullover, and to take it off I would have had to take all my other wraps off to get out of the damnable thing.

I'm still that way. There is a drawer of pullovers and thingys Heather calls vests (armless) that I use only if I am going somewhere posh ? uppity ? Most of them are in mint condition. In my closet there is a multiplicity of cardigans, jackets, hooded sweaters, etc. all can be zipped up and down when so desired. Most of them are showing wear, there are a few fairly new good ones though.

Coupled with my dislike of neckties, suits and white shoes I guess that makes me a hick. So be it. I yam what I yam but I yam reasonably comfortable in all seasons.

Back at our small house. It was so small that only necesssary things had a place to be put. We did have storage however, a more or less attic under the peaked roof, accessible only through a tiny opening in the ceiling of the water closet. Somewhat better was down below. A basement had been dug and a set of concrete stairs led down to it, my uncle built the housing for it to keep out rain, snow and things that blow. But the floor and walls were earthen.

Makes me reflect that human life is an ephemeral thing. From Junior High I looked back to the time I was a first grader, from High School - back to events in Junior High, from working days looking back to the idle days of being a youngster. Then about the time I perfected making a living - that evanescence also evaporated. Met my love, we married, raised kids and are now spoiling great grandkids as we did our grandkids. Elapsed time from going to work and now ? It varies from three centuries to three seconds and all points between. Its been a good and interesting life with enough scary worries to make things interesting.

Looking back it seems that life consists of so very, very many Odds And Ends . . . . . . . . .

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