growing & learning with him
Xanthous- Of the fair haired type; having brown, auburn, yellow, flaxen or red hair.
Mary Lee sat in one of the rocking chairs just outside of the general store located on the Nevin’s farm. She was surrounded by pumpkins off all shapes in sizes. The three pumpkinsat her feet would be going home with one her grandchildren. She was asked to guard them while the children went to explore the play area in front of the general store. Guarding pumpkins while getting to rock on lovely day had sounded like a wonderful idea to her.
It had been a wonderful morning. Mary Lee’s daughter Sarah and her three children had come to get her at about 9 and they had arrived at the farm by 9:30. Thankfully it was short ride from Simpsonville to the Nevin’s farm in Woodruff. It is had been even a minute longer Davey, Martha’s three year old, would have jumped out the car and run the rest of the way. He was so excited about picking out a pumpkin and getting to go on hayride.
They had barely parked the car when Davey and his older brother William and other sister Lydia had all run to check out the John Deere tractor attached to the hay wagon.
Following a very bumpy hayride each of her grandchildren has taken a very long time selecting just the right pumpkin. Just when it looked like the right one had been found a more right pumpkins would come into their view.
Once they had made their final choices. They had wanted to check out the farms animals. What fun it had been to see a small pink pig kissing a neighboring donkey! All of the children had giggled! Mary Lee and Martha had both smiled at how adorable they looked.
After all the animals had been oohed and ahhed over,children had been ready to bound to the swinging tunnels and play teepee.
Martha had helped Mary Lee gather up the pumpkins and bring them around the rocking chairs before Martha head off to see that the children had gotten up to.
While the children played and Martha tried to keep an eye of her wild tribe, Mary Lee rocked and took in the beauty of the farm.
Mary Lee had spent many summers working on a local farm detasseling corn and doing whatever else Mr. O’Brien needed done. The work was hard under the hot Carolina sun, but Mrs. O’Brien would always send out gallon jugs of sweet tea and lemonade to cool the work crew off and they had paid a very fair wage.
Getting to work beside the O’Brien’s oldest son John made the time fly on days when they were given the same area of the farm to work on. John had blonde hair that glistened in the sun and smile that would brighten anyone’s day or at least Mary Lee had thought so. John wasn’t a big talker. He tended to concentrate on the job at hand. Mary Lee really didn’t care. Just being near John was enough to set her heart a flutter.
John had been a senior in high school when Mary was a freshman. She had known who he was, but hadn’t really spent much time around him until her Uncle Budd had mentioned to her that the O’Brien’s were looking for summer help.
For the past three summers she had looked forward to getting to see John while she worked. He seemed to grow taller and more handsome as each year past. She had heard that he would be leaving in the fall to start a job in Chicago. Mary Lee would have to go out of her way to catch as many glimpses of him as she could she had decided at the beginning of the summer.
She had been quite surprised when he offered to get her a glass of cool lemonade on a particularly hot day in July. She had been barely able to nod her head yes and say that she would love some.
When he returned carrying glasses brimming with cool lemonade and motioned to a bent old apple tree, she had barely been able to move one foot after the other to get to it. The world seemed to have started to moving more slowly.
Yet she tried to look calm when she finally made it there and sat down beneath the tree to wait to be handed her glass.
She tried to remember what they had said as they sat under the tree so long ago, but she couldn’t remember specifically what either of them had said. She did remember smiling a lot and taking really small sips of the cool lemonade. There had been a cool breeze under that bent old tree and she remembered she had felt like she was floating on a cloud.
From that day on John had talked to her frequently. He would ask about her family and her how she was doing. He had never asked her to go to the movies or offered to drive her home.
She would have been over the moon if he had, but she knew that he was moving away at the end of the summer and she tried to enjoy every moment that she was around him.
“He was wonderful boy,” Mary Lee whispered to herself.
She had heard that he still lived outside Chicago. He had married a girl he had met at church and had five boys.
“Remember John today was special, but I am sure glad that the man waiting at home for me make his lunch is Frank,” Mary Lee said to herself as she rocked back and forth in the autumn sun.
There was no man that had ever made her heart flutter more than that dark haired man she met in college her sophomore year. It was Frank that had lengthened days and made her truly feel she was floating.
Watch for the story of how Mary Lee met Frank! It will appear on the last Thursday in October.
This post is linked to Mrs. Matlock’s Alphabe Thursday and I’m sharing my it with Momma Made It Look Easy. You can too.
This is the second Mary Lee story I have shared. Over By the Tree Sits a Memory was the first. It features a lovely older lady named Mary Lee and her thoughts on how quickly children grow up.
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Sarah sat in a rocking chair beside her mom cradling a tall glass of sweet tea as she rocked. Her crying had left her breathless and she was now taking deep breathes as her mother had advised her to do. Mary Lee rocked beside her on the porch that summer morning waiting for Sarah’s emotions to settle. She had known Sarah would probably been stopping by this morning.
Sarah had arrived at her house in tears with a frantic look on her face. She had just dropped two of her children including Davey her youngest at Simpsonville United Methodist Preschool moments earlier. Mary Lee was grateful that she and Frank lived only minutes from the school. Sarah hadn’t looked like she would have been able to drive much further.
After hugging Sarah for ten minutes or so, Mary Lee had guided her oldest daughter to the porch and given her a wad of tissue and glass of tea. She had encouraged to take deep breathes and sip the sweet tea to help her calm down.
Sarah didn’t remember being this upset when she had dropped Lydia and William of a preschool. She remember them crying, but she had been excited for them.
When Sarah’s emotions seemed to have calmed, Mary Lee had asked her to share what the morning had been like so far.
Sarah ran through the getting ready for school routine.
Each child had special pancake waiting at their place at the table. Sarah always made smiley face pancakes with blueberry eyes, a chocolate chip nose, and a bacon mouth for the first day of school.
Lydia and William had headed off to their rooms to put on their first day of school clothes and new shoes. Lydia had tan Mary Jane’s with rhinestones and William had new sneakers with blinking lights.
Sarah had guided her three year old Davey to the room he shared with William to help him put on his new robot t-shirt, khaki shorts, and sneakers with racing stripes. William could put his arms in his shirt after it was pulled over his head and was able to pull up his shorts after your helped him put the right leg in the correct leg hole. Shoes on the other hand were difficult. Even his slip on sneakers seemed to frustrate him. Sarah still had to help him put them on.
After everyone was dressed and had their hair had been brushed ,the backpacks and lunch boxes were gathered up. Davey and Lydia really didn’t need a lunch boxes, but Mama you had bought them one anyway. You had told them that they could come to your house to celebrate Davey’s his first day of preschool with lunch with you under the big tree in the front yard and share about their day.
John, Sarah’s husband, took a picture of each of the children dressed for school on their own and individually. John needed to head off to work in a few minutes, but he loved getting to be a part of the first day by taking pictures.
After the pictures were done, the children were piled into the car and strapped in. When Sarah had looked into the backseat via the rear view mirror, her children looked excited and ready to go. Tears had threatened to start as she back out of the driveway, but she was able to contain them.
The first stop was William’s elementary school. It was less than a ten minute drive from their house. As soon as the car had pulled up to the unloading zone. William had jumped out of the car and headed to the door. It had only been just as he went through the door that he turned and blew his mom a kiss and waved good-bye.
Then it was off to Simpsonville United Methodist where Lydia would be in the K4 class and Davey would be in the K3. Sarah a hoped there would be a number of red lights on the way that would delay the inevitable, but they had been all green.
Sarah was able to find a parking spot in the crowded lot. Every parent was required to escort their children in during the first week of school. That meant every parent had to find a place to park during the morning drop off. If the lot had been full, Sarah would have had to circle until a spot had opened up, but she had had no such luck.
Lydia was ready to leap out of the car as soon as Sarah had come around to open her door. Davey had been more tentative. He had been to the preschool many times to drop of his siblings and to attend various family events, but he had never stayed behind on his own.
Despite her desire to keep Davey strapped in and take him home, she had unbuckled him and helped him leap down from his car seat. “Everything is going to be wonderful!” she had reassured him. “You have wonderful teachers and your friend Joe will be in your class.”
“I know,” Davey had said in a whisper. “Are you going to be okay?” he had asked her. “I can start on Thursday if you need me to stay home today,” he had commented after grabbing her hand.
“No, I think I will be okay,” she had said forcing herself to smile and walk towards the entrance of the preschool.
They had first gone to Lydia’s room and helped her hang up her backpack. She was thrilled to see many of the same children from her class last year. She had given Sarah a hug and then bounded to a work table where the teachers had set out puzzles.
Davey had started slowly down the hall with Sarah stopping to point out the bathroom, the office, and the library. Each time Sarah had commended him for remembering where each of the rooms were.
Their pace slowed to a creep as they neared his door. It was like they were both walking in slow motion. It was like they both were putting off getting there.
When they finally arrived, Sarah had helped Davey take his backpack off and hang it on the right peg. Mrs. Robinson, one of Davey’s teachers, had welcomed them to class and offered to introduce Davey to some of the students that had already arrived. Sarah had bent down to hug her youngest and wipe away a small tear.
“Mama, Mrs. Robinson had take Davey‘s hand a guide him to a table with small blocks on it“ Sarah said rocking in her chair. “I’m not sure either one of us would have let go.”
I blew him a kiss and watched him place it in this pocket before I turned to walk away to walk into the hall.
“I tried Mama. I really tried to hold back the tears, but they forced their way out and tumbled from my eyes before I made it out of the building,” Sarah sighed.
“It is totally normal,” Mary Lee assured her daughter as she reached out to stroke her arm. “Many mamas go through this. I bet there were mamas all over the parking lot sitting in their mini vans in tears.
“I am so glad you were home,” Sarah sighed again. “ I just don’t think I could go home to an empty house today. I am not sure I could have driven through my tears much further than your house.”
“ I glad I was here too,” Mary Lee replied. “ I love that I can be here for you. You know I went through a similar challenge when your little sister Martha started school. I think I spent the whole morning crying.
“Really?”Sarah had questioned.
“Yes, I did and I think we need to do what I did that day once you finish your glass of tea. So, take your time finishing and we will go into the kitchen and make apple turnovers to have with Lydia and Davey when they came for lunch.
“Cooking always helps me feel better,” Martha said finally feel a little better. “Me too,” said Mary Lee rocking back and forth slowly in her chair.
Sarah sat in a rocking chair beside her mom cradling a tall glass of sweet tea as she rocked.
This post is linked to Mrs. Matlock’s Alphabe Thursday and Mama Kat’s Writing Workshop. It contains many back to school traditions. They are special pancakes, new clothes and shoes, blowing a kiss and having your child keep it in their pocket, crying moms, needing a place to go that isn’t home, and a special lunch with people you love to share your day with.
I am hosting a Back to School Traditions Link Up. If you have a post on Back to School pictures and/or traditions. I would love for you to link it up!
Mary Lee sat on her favorite white rocker watching the day turn to dusk. Her grey curls has begun to hung down low on her forehead. The summer air was still warm. The temperature earlier in the day had been hot and steamy.
Beside sat Frank her husband of fifty years. He had starting to doze in his rocker. Mary Lee loved to listen to the crickets chipping and Frank’s light snore fill the air around her.
She loved this time of day when things slowed down and she could just remember.
Mary Lee had such wonderful things to remember.
She and Frank had met in college. He was football player and she was the math tutor that helped him pass the required math classes for his major. Frank was actually a very good student. He just needed someone to go over things with him a few times. Frank loved to say that had met over the pluses and minuses.
After college they had gotten married and moved to Simpsonville, South Carolina. It was a small factory town. Frank had gotten a job in the business office of one of the factories and Mary Lee had worked as a bookkeeper for the local elementary school.
They had lived in a small house and saved money for several years to move to this big old Victorian on main street. On Sunday nights they had walked by this house and dreamed it would one day be theirs.
Mary Lee had fretted about the train tracks that lay only 100 yards away. Would it be a dangerous place to raises the children they would have? Frank had assured her that the picket fence around the house would be a deterrent and the backyard is where their children would want to be to play ball and chase butterflies.
Chiildren came quickly once they had moved into their dream house. First Sarah arrived and then Martha. They had hope for a boy too, but God closed that door and they had just the two girls.
Sarah and Martha had become their world. Mary Lee stayed home to raise them. She loved taking care of them.
On laundry day she enjoyed hanging their little dresses up on the clothes line in the backyard. The girls loved to grab onto the drying clothes and spin the circular clothes line around and around.
There had been many hours of creating special cookies and pies for dinner along with tiny cookie bites or fruit tarts made with the leftover dough.
The girls had loved to ride their bikes and trikes all over the yard. One would have thought the hard Carolina dirt and lumpy grass would have been hard for them to ride on, but it hadn’t held them back.
Mary Lee slowed her rocking and shock her head sadly remembering how quickly time has passed.
It seemed to her one fall that the girls had been in elementary school and by spring they were all grown up and beginning families of their own. How that had happened? Mary Lee couldn’t recall. It seemed like they went from little girls to ladies in mere minutes.
Each of the girls had stayed in town. They lived with their husbands and children not faraway. Mary Lee and Frank saw them often.
Mary Lee loved being a grandmother. She loved getting to see her girls as moms. They were wonderful moms.
Rocked slowly back and forth again. Mary Lee glanced across the yard at a tricycle covered in green by the tree near the front gate. One of the girls and forgotten to put it away one night and there is had stayed.
Frank had offered to take it out of the green tangle that surrounded it and Mary Lee had insisted that it stay. When he had asked her about it ,she had replied that it was a lesson. Frank had wanted to know about the lesson the tricycle had taught her. He loved to listen to her share her thoughts.
“The lesson,” she replied, “is that time is fleeting. You need to enjoy each moment and cherish each memory. That tricycle reminds me of our girls when they were little and loved to ride. It makes try to guess what must have caught their attention and drew them away from it and on to something else. It reminds me that for a time the white picket fence contained their whole world and they couldn’t bike beyond it.
Frank had a tear drop slowly from his eye after she shared the tricycles importance and agree that it needed to stay right where it was.
Mary Lee now wiped at tear from her eye. What a wonderful memories she had to think back on! What a wonderful lessons she had learned from them
End Note:
We walked a house on the 4th of July and I snapped a picture of this tricycle tangled near the tree. I had know ideas what story I would be able to weave based on it. I just knew there was one. It took most of this month to find Mary Lee and glean what reason there might have been for tricycle to be there.
I have no idea who lives in this house or why the tricycle is there. I am thankful that it was. I have loved getting to know Mary Lee and her story this month.
This post is linked to Mrs. Matlock’s Alphabe Thursday!
