Jan. 06, 2005 - 19:14 MST

THE WONDERING JEW

Who ? Boo !

I guess she is so special to me because of the fact that she can communicate so well with so many different people. That thing alone stirs my admiration. And she can put it into written words so well. Our daughter in Oregon was the editor for her church paper for quite a time. One edition she put in memories of hers. It follows:

Penny Candy Memories

"With the doll sized brown paper sack clutched in one hand and my Father's hand engulfing the other, I walked back to Grandma's feeling like I'd won the second grade spelling bee. This, however, this was better."

"This was our walk to Wahylen's grocery, a Mom and Pop neighborhood store set up in an old house a few blocks down from my Grandma's. When I had helped my Grandma, Mother and Aunts all I could with the current kitchen project, be it making pickles or canning tomatoes, my Father would sense my need for a walk to Wahylen's."

"The walk there always seemed so long. Once there the penny candy choices seemed overwhelming, although I think the hot dog shaped gum always made it into my selection. The walk home was a memory that I still cherish, thankful for my Father's time. Thankful he made the time for a needed walk, thankful for the season of summer." Then she added under that, "There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven" - Ecclesiastes 3:1

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Ahhh, those walks to the store, such a small amount of money changing hands. She still held my hand when we went to the store well past her first grade. I think it strengthened both of us, I know for sure it did me.

She was 40 the summer that she wrote that. I think the same year that Heather had resurrected her favorite doll. The hair was almost gone from the many washings she had given it in love. The eyes still did their moving thing but the paint had pretty well worn off the poor doll. I am sure we could have bought a brand spanking new doll for a fraction of the amount it cost to restore Baby Boo, but it just wouldn't have been the same.

I don't really know if it was a trade-mark thing or just a whim of the women, but the doll was called Baby Boo. Which became a loving name bestowed on dolly by family. Later on she herself inherited the name Baby Boo. When we gave it to her that Christmas, she went to her daughter's room and dug up her little, kidney shaped footstool she used to sit on when she was three years old. One which I made for her of the very best scrap fir available where I worked. A place which was trying to make the big blades for the wind tunnel at Langley Field in Virginia I think it was. She used to sit her little bottom on it and watch TV and things like that holding Baby Boo in her arms.

Baby Boo was a bit broad in the beam, but sit on it she did with her beloved doll in her arms. Baby Boo has passed along the love given her tenfold in the raising her kids.

That was enclosed in a Father's Day card given me, in which she said in part, "For Father's Day I'd like to spend some time with you. While we can't go back to Wahylen's (Which I am sure I misspelled) we could go out for coffee or lunch. Plan to collect your outing when I come in July."

Which we did and I enjoyed it very much. Her time is so limited for unemcummbered visting because of the need to pay attention to the kids frequently that any time we get one on one is a rarity and a treasure beyond compare.

True, she never saw the grocer's name written out, it was Whalen. A little store on a corner a couple of blocks from her Gram's. A building which Heather's older sister and husband lived in for a time until they bought their house.

But there is more history there. Mr. Whalen was a salesman for a grocery distributor and ran the grocery part time. His wife ran the store while he was at work. Like Mary Wise says, the Whalen's were a good Catlick family, and family they were, the last I heard there were ten progeny. His store when Heather and I first married was across the street and down the block from the store Baby Boo remembers. Heather's dad was Mr. Whalen's customer of long standing. So, as long as Heather and I lived in that neighborhood we grocery shopped there. Long before Baby Boo's time we had moved from that area but it was so nice to take her into a place where we were known and who ever was keeping store treated her especially nice.

My kind of people, they were.

When you see my chest swell when I am talking of someone, the question and answer is, Who ? Boo !

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