Gabby!

It’s funny how we (OK, I’ll just say how ‘I’) change over the years. For instance, when I was 7 years old, my mom painted my room PINK. In fact, she painted a lot of things in my room PINK, including a pistol storage trunk that came off a ship or somewhere. Anyway on the inside lid of my trunk, someone had written in  pencil, ‘pistols’. It looked a lot like this trunk.                                                        My mom gave this trunk to me for Christmas in 1964 when I was 7. She got it from a second hand store. That was the Christmas we were REALLY poor. We had just moved to a new house (new to us!) with running water and indoor potties.  We thought we had died and gone to heaven. That was the BEST BEST BEST Christmas I can remember. We didn’t get anything new. I think we all got a lot more that Christmas because we got USED stuff. (SEE???? Junkin’ is in my GENES!!!!). That year, I also got a new (used) red coat (with a hood!), a bunch of costume jewelry, a few pair of way too big high heels, and two dress formals that were HUGE on me.  Unfortunately, I don’t have the pictures of the dresses, or my first friend and next door neighbor Debbie and I wearing them, but I do have a picture of Debbie and I.                              We lived next door to each other in our old house in ‘the Mills’ (Oxford Mills), and we were photographed together several times, one being on our first day of school even (this could be one of our first day kindergarten pictures). See the fuel oil barrel behind us? We spent many days playing ‘Club’ sitting underneath that barrel, playing with junk mail, no less.  We didn’t get fuel oil poisoning, or some other deadly disease from playing too close to hazardous chemicals, and our mothers never fretted that the barrel would drip, or collapse on us. We found pleasure by using our imagination rather than the newest, hottest toys on the market, which our families definitely could NOT afford.

(Do you know I have been spelling definitely wrong for 51 years? I was spelling it definately….thanks ‘Live Writer’ for correcting me!)

Have you noticed I ramble a lot?

I loved my pink room, and my pink trunk. My pink room also had PURPLE SHAG carpet. The whole upstairs had purple carpet (except maybe the ‘boys’ room….I can’t remember). My mom and a friend were going to ‘Elaine Powers Figure Salon’ in Cedar Rapids at the time, and the salon was putting down new carpet. My mom asked to have it, and our bare, unfinished hardwood floors became PURPLE shag carpet. I just heard, 44 YEARS LATER, that the owners of that house just removed that same purple shag carpet.

Sorry…back to the story. My room stayed PINK until we moved from Oxford Junction to Maquoketa in 1973 and I left my room there.

When we moved to Maquoketa in 1973, I was 15, and my new room got a theme I’m not really quite sure of, or why. It sure wasn’t ME, or anything I represented. I had drapes and a bedspread in a nautical theme, with red background, so I painted my trunk RED with the hardware and handles in black. It became my HOPE CHEST, or as my brothers used to call it, my ‘HOPELESS Chest’. I don’t have it anymore, but I think I remember who I gave it to, and I could probably go visit it anytime I like, but I won’t.

So where am I going with this story? Well, I’m sure not getting there fast, as I have taken several detours down ‘Rambling Road’! What I started to blog about, and say, was that after I had a PINK room for so long, and I began to ‘mature’, I began to hate the color Pink, and Purple. I didn’t want to ever see pink and purple again. I also disliked GREEN of any shade…until we bought our house, and there was green everywhere. I knew I had to live with it. My bathroom had a lavender tub, toilet and sink. I knew I wouldn’t be replacing them soon, so I decorated around them. (We have since replaced the toilet, but the sink and tub remain.)

So what are some of my favorite colors now? PINK, PURPLE, GREEN. Go figure!

ANYWAY….Louie and I had to run to Clinton the other night to return a few things, and pick up some Thompson’s Concrete Sealer for our driveway. Of course, we couldn’t leave Clinton without hitting the Goodwill store! So what did I leave the store with? This Pink lady from Home Interiors.

                                            I also saw this PINK planter, which I originally thought I would make into a pin cushion.                           Somehow, the look on his face shows surprise and despair, which I often feel when dealing with paying bills and balancing my checkbook.  I think I found  a better purpose for him…holding our debit card receipts. I usually have a pile of them on my desk waiting for me to verify that they have been entered into the check registry, before I move them to the drawer which holds all my credit card offers and junk mail, until it gets full, then I move on over to the paper shredder and feed it . Maybe this will make me deal with my receipts and debit slips quicker….probably not, but I don’t think he will become a pincushion…at least not for awhile.  He and I share a common emotion. I think I’ll keep him right here on my desk.  Sometimes I need a friend while I am dealing with finances!                     

So last night, Louie sealed the driveway. Now, time is the only thing we are waiting for. Time for the driveway to cure so we can drive on it.

Oh driveway, how I love thee!  Y

Oh, the title of this blog post? When I was a little girl, a friend of my dad’s started calling me ‘Gabby’ because he said I ‘chatted’ nonstop. Later, he started calling me ‘Gabby Hayes’.

Do you think I ‘chat’ nonstop? I didn’t think so!

Hmmm…I think he must have had me mistaken for someone else!

 

Be blessed!