Ms. Chanel
Pocahontas
Me? I’m around somewhere. Mostly behind my camera, or driving, or reading, or knitting….
and paying attention.
One of my favorite teachers in high school described me as “Eagle eyes” because I was always watching, observing, but not necessarily saying much. But whenever he needed to know something about someone in class, he knew who to ask.
I guess I’m that same girl, usually quiet, non-obtrusive, but watching and listening.
Alecto and CG are so very different, and at the same time, so very similar. They are both articulate, opinionated, well-traveled, self-sufficient, self-confident, and down right crazy at times. Riotous fun.
Who else but Alecto would bring the wrong chicken, so that we’d have to make a chicken feed run? She went into that feed store wearing someone’s mamaw’s dress, purple socks and orange tennis shoes, and we had to stop her from tasting the salt blocks. She offered to bail me out of jail if I got into trouble on a run into a college town on Saturday night for supplies. She let CG and I both indulge in her secret stash of Chanel face cream and lipstick. Decadent.
And CG? CG cooked. I’d forgotten how much I love the sound of a pressure cooker. I was twelve years old again, in my gramma’s kitchen, hearing the sounds and smelling the fragrances of country cooking at its finest. Country ham and gravy, beans and cornbread (with onions and chow-chow), fried apple pies, BACON!
We practiced yoga on the back porch. We relaxed in the hot tub. We went to the local tourist trap and braved the crooked house and dressed up in costumes and had our picture taken.
We were, in a word, girls.
I was never very good with girls. It wasn’t that I “did not play well with others”, it was that I never stayed around long enough to make lasting relationships with other girls. These adventures are new territory for me. As CG says, it’s never too late to have a happy childhood.
So, here’s to you, Alecto and CG: thanks for letting me be one of the girls.
Petticoat Junction
Front porch swing
