Sunday, April 14, 2013

sanctity of the lane...



for many reasons,
i have always treasured
my life on the lane...
especially in the spring
and summer.

when the flowers and trees
are in full bloom,
the lane looks much like
an original,
thomas kinkade
painting.

the lane is also a bit enchanted...
we have deer,
squirrels,
foxes,
raccoons,
opossums,
groundhogs,
moles,
turtles,
owls,
bats,
and
birds...
lots of birds. 

what i've always 
treasured most
though
are my next-door neighbors,
the davis'.

when i moved here 
as a little girl
with my parents,
jack and stella quickly became
my best friends
(even though i was only nine
and they were in their sixties.)
i remember in the summers
anxiously 
watching out the living room window
or them to arrive home from work.

i got so giddy 
when i saw their woody station wagon
 pull into their driveway.
like clockwork, 
the two got out of the car,
stella went in to start supper, 
and 
jack headed to his garage.
as soon as i saw jack 
sitting in his lawn chair.
i ran over to 
"play."

when he saw me coming,
he stood and 
grabbed an extra lawn chair for me.
"dani, sit down here with me!"
he would say.
we sat and watched 
sanford and son
almost every afternoon together.
although i was only a mere fourth-grader,
 jack talked to me like i was grown.
i liked that!
we talked about school,
politics, family, money,
bb guns, gardening, 
etc...

when stella saw that i was there,
she brought jack and me
Coca-Cola
or sweet tea
poured over ice
in ball jars.
she handed us our drinks 
and then dried her hands on her
apron.

stella was beautiful.
(stella.is.still.beautiful.)
she always had her hair
fixed.
and...
whether she was dressed 
for church
or
in shorts, a polo,
tennis shoes,
and apron,
she looked like
a model-modern-housewife-and-mother.

she never failed to ask me about my day.
i remember trying to come up
with a good tale
because i loved, loved, loved
to hear her reply,

"well, good grief!"

it reminded me of charlie brown
and always made me giggle.

she then usually returned to her kitchen
to continue preparing dinner.

jack and i sipped
our drinks
(well, jack took swigs of his 
after each spit of tobacco;)
all the while watching 
 fred sanford
grab his shoulder 
and tell his late wife,
elizabeth,
he was coming to join her.

jack could imitate fred
to a t, 
which also made me giggle.

after a while,
mom would holler 
for me to come home
for dinner,
and
stella called jack in as well.

~@~

many nights
after we ate supper
mom allowed me 
to rejoin them in their backyard..

i don't know if i was a bother to them,
but if i was,
they never made me feel like it.

there were no other children on the lane.
they were all i had.
they were 
all i needed.

i.loved.them.

~@~

when i was little
we never took summer vacations.
but,
that was okay
because jack and stella didn't either.

my jack
preached the sanctity of the lane...
he would scoot to the front of his lawn-chair
expand his arms as wide as he could
as if presenting something  really special
and rhetorically ask,

"why would we want to 
go anywhere else
when we have everything we need
right here?"

 i would look at him,
he had a sparkle in his eye.
grin,
and think to myself,

"why?" indeed!

love and God's blessings,
dani xxx

1 comment:

Sally said...

So beautiful, Dani. I love this; you have a wonderful way with words.

xoxo