My niece, Jasmine, e-mailed me and said I needed to update my blog! Ha! Here is a picture of her with her boyfriend, Braeden, taken Thanksgiving Day. I told her I really didn't have anything new to tell, but here goes...
Our niece, Caitlyn, is apparently doing fine, according to her "Poppy" Bruce. I think Cindy told me she goes back to the plastic surgeon this week for a checkup. See below for an explanation of what happened to her over the weekend.
Monday was my cousin, Eddie's birthday, so Greg and I paid him a visit. I took him a jelly roll... his favorite. If you haven't had jelly roll, you've missed an old-fashioned treat! It's basically a very light spongecake, rolled up with jelly inside... YUM! Eddie has Alpha1, which in a nutshell is a congenital disease (meaning he was born with it) that manifested itself about 5 or 6 years ago. Generally, it affects the liver in children, and the lungs in adults. In Ed's case, he first had liver problems, followed by lung... so he is battling to get rid of a 2-year+ lung infection, in order to get back on the liver transplant list... the ultimate cure for Alpha1. We keep praying that this will happen. We had a good visit yesterday, and we talked about old times and the way things were when we were kids in the 60's and 70's.
Today is the birthday of my childhood friend, Marla Ann, who is 4 years older than I. Marla Ann lived "catty-cornered" from me, and I thought she was amazing - I still do! She lives about 4 hours away, but we revived our friendship in earnest about 10 or 12 years ago, and we stay in touch as best our busy lives allow. I miss not having her close by.
My neighborhood was unique... at least to me... in that within a 1-block radius, nearly every person in every house was either related to me by blood, or may as well have been! Most families were older... friends of my grandparents, in some cases. There were my mom's parents a block away, alongside my Aunt Altha, then the Edwardses, whose kids were older, Mr. Morris, an elderly couple on the corner, and I cannot recall their names (their house is gone now and the US Bank drivethru occupies that corner). Then, on MY corner, there was Mary Butler; the Shelbys -- Prudy, Ray and Martha Raye; the Baileys -- Barbara, Bill and Bill Baker (later the Davises -- Inez and Lovard and Annabelle -- now State Supreme Court Justice Imber!); and across the corner, the Bakers -- Maurel, Blanche, and Marla Ann! Marla has a sister, Mary, who is near my mother in age, so she was already out of the house when I came along. Mary lives in Paris with her husband, Arthur, and when I was a child and she was single, she lived in New York. I always thought she was so exotic... and her visits to our little neighborhood were always exciting and special. Hey... we knew someone who lived in New York City!!! When you are a little girl in a small town, THAT is SOMETHING!
Marla Ann is tall and stately, with the best posture of any woman I've ever known. She got that from her mother, Blanche, a schoolteacher FOREVER... she even taught my mother's friends! Marla has beautiful NATURALLY blonde hair, and she rarely wears makeup, but doesn't need it... don't you just hate people like that! (only kidding, Marla). Marla sings like a bird, and she married a very musically talented man, Bill, so often they sing together... for parties, friends, etc.
Marla's mother, Blanche, loved to sing and play the piano. Her dad, Maurel, loved to whistle. When I was a kid, we didn't have central air, so 3 seasons of the year, you would often hear Blanche playing and singing, and most days we heard Maurel wandering around in the early morning hours outside, whistling away. I learned later in my adult life that he possibly had some "liquid encouragement" on some of those days, but hey... as a 10-year-old kid, what I didn't know about those things contributed to memories of some lovely early-morning wake-up calls from a whistling neighbor!
Maurel and Blanche doted on Marla Ann when she was a child. She had a little motorized car that you could actually drive around the block. Since it was the 60's, there was no plastic in this car... it was all HEAVY metal! It held 2 people, and sometimes I was lucky enough to get to ride down the street in it with Marla! The Bakers loved my sister, brother and me, and they were always so kind and thoughtful of us. One summer, Blanche decided my sister and I needed a project, so she bought us both an art activity to finish... mine was a paint-by-number picture of the Lord's Supper! My sister got a mosaic, made with those little colored gravels like you see in fishbowls. We both finished our projects, and Blanche hung both of them proudly in her house! Amazingly, not so many years ago, the mosaic was still hanging in Marla's old bedroom!!!
In later years, Marla's parents declined in health, and Blanche was moved to a nursing home. Maurel filled his days with ordering "sweeptstakes rewards" -- one of those magazine scams that frequently plagues elderly and lonely people. His house was filled with his "rewards" and magazines, and occasionally Marla would try to wade through it, clean it out, and try to get the Attorney General to put a stop to it. On at least 2 occasions, Jasmine and I "shopped" at Maurel's with Marla, as I attempted to help her clean things out and reorganize. There was so much stuff that it literally was piled higher than the top of the bed in one bedroom! While much of it was cheap, useless junk, I still have a hummingbird feeder and an outdoor thermometer I got there, and they remind me of Maurel each time I see them. I remember fondly his melodious whistle, his loving spirit, and his every-present kindness.
Today, my mom and Mrs. Edwards are the only two "originals" living in the old neighborhood. The old saying "things just ain't what they used to be" is certainly true. But as I drive around the block, I still can recall a slower, seemingly simpler time when we ran in and out of each others' houses, stopped in for coffee in our bath robes in the early morning, and enjoyed a mid-day song or an early morning whistle, courtesy of Blanche and Maurel.
So, Happy Birthday, Marla Ann!!! Remember the "good ole days" today... and consider how lucky we were to have had such a wonderful stomping ground!
