Back When

 

The music was loud, and smoke filled the air as guys and gals did the razzamatazz into the wee hours of the morning.  Flappers and spats, cigarette girls with great legs and ruby red lips, Betty Grable hair and pearl cigarette holders. A time when tomorrow didn’t matter because you gave it all when unseen stars shined, and booze flowed freely in a basement speak easy. Stolen kisses that stayed on your lips as you sat at your desk typing and watching the clock daydreaming about the coming night and more stolen kisses as you danced and danced and made history without knowing it.

Wildflowers

 

 
She'd watch him as a child plowing the fields of his family farm imagining someday, he’d ask her to marry him. He barley noticed the younger girl, it was her older sister he had eyes for. She remembered times he’d come to the door calling on her with a bunch of wildflowers he picked on his way over. Her sister would smile, and they’d sit on the front porch swing sipping lemonade trying to find conversation that didn’t really ever come along.  A few months later her sister ran off with a farm hand who promised her the moon and we never saw her again. Momma said she wished the young man down the road had been the one but, sometimes life just wasn’t fair.

She grew up to be a beautiful young lady who still hid and watched the boy down the road as he plowed the fields, dreaming he’d bring her wildflowers someday. But like momma said, sometimes life just isn’t fair. On her sixteenth birthday they had a picnic and momma invited the family down the road. She wondered if he would come but why she wondered would he care about her birthday he didn’t even know she existed. She was putting bowls of fruit on the picnic table when they arrived.  Greetings were exchanged and her legs got week as he held out a bouquet of wildflowers. Happy Birthday he said smiling the most beautiful smile shed ever seen.

They got to know each other that day and the day after that. He was her first kiss, and she knew in her heart she’d found true love. The next few months were magical. Long walks across the vast fields and picnics under an ancient oak. It was on one such day he professed his love for her and two became as one. Two months later he was called to serve his country which he proudly did until he didn’t. She watched one hot summer day as the dust from a car made its way to the farm down the road and her heart sunk as she saw the U. S. Army painted on the doors.

He died a hero sacrificing his own life to save others and nobody expected anything less from him. One month later she gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. She had her daddy’s eyes and hopefully his gentle heart. Momma thought she was crazy naming the child Wildflower, but she didn’t care. Besides the child, wildflowers were his way of telling her he loved her and now every time she called her name, his memory would fill her heart with joy .Life just isn’t fair all right but other times its as true as a babies cry and a hand picked bouquet of wildflowers.

Salt water Taffy

 

He hit his knee on that darn cupboard door and an old cardboard box fell onto the floor. It must have been something his late wife put there to hide something. He sat on a chair and using his cane pulled the box towards him eventually allowing him to set it on his lap. Looking at it he remembered it. It was a saltwater taffy box she got one year on a trip to the boardwalk in cony island. He remembered how she loved that stuff and every color they offered. The box itself now sixty years old was faded and had a couple wet edges where something dripped on it over time. Although faded the scene of Cony Island with the big Ferris wheel could still be seen as he looked at it and remembered. She was a wild child when they first met. Always up for some excitement around every curve. If it wasn’t Coney park it was the ice rink in the winter or sledding down hills that made him nauseous. Summer meant the old swimming hole, or the quarries dotted all over the county map. She loved to dance and didn’t care where. A barn dance or city concert, or just him and her under the stars dancing the night away to a tune she sang as he held her close but never close enough. Opening the old box, the smell of taffy stood out if only for a second or two. It was as if she was right there again with him the smell of that taffy on her mouth kissing him like she did so long ago. He put the box on his nightstand where he could reach for it on those nights he couldn’t sleep. He’d hold it tightly to his heart and see her smiling as she tore off another piece of that saltwater taffy.

For the love of St. Paddy's day

 

There was still some pep in his step as he did a little jump and clicked his heels. He tipped his hat to passerby’s, humming a catchy tune he just heard on the old juke box in his favorite pub. The streets of the city were crowded a wee bit more than normal this day as was the custom on St Paddy’s day. The whole city was Irish proudly displaying their green attire and crazy buttons asking for a kiss. He himself dressed in Irish class with his hounds’ tooth jacket, green neck scarf and a bowler a top his wisps of red hair. His walking stick came from the old country by his great granddad who proudly handed it down through the generations. The parade would be starting soon, and he wanted a good viewing point, so he headed north on Main St until he reached Paddy O’Leary’s pub and eatery. Oh, the smell of corn beef and cabbage filled his nose and the clanking of glasses toasting the day with a pint or three. He wasn’t sure at that moment how many St Paddy’s parades he had seen over the years but, he knew it was at least seventy something. Like a kid he was as the bagpipes played and candies were thrown into the crowd of waiting children. He was proud to be an American but his love for Ireland was forever in his heart. He had his corn beef and cabbage and a pint or three then slowly walked the fifteen blocks home where he hung up his hounds tooth jacket and green scarf hopefully to be worn yet another year. Settling into his favorite chair he put a record on the old phonograph and listened until he fell asleep to the soothing sound of Danny Boy.

Happy St Patrick’s day!

Family tradition

 

A silent snow began to fall covering the colored autumn leaves. It was an early snow, a reminder of what lay ahead. He wasn’t dressed for it as he thrust his hands in his pants pockets and hurried his step towards home. Tonight, like most others he walked into Harrys bar and grill after his shift at the soon to close container factory. A place his dad once worked for twenty years. Now just shy of his sixty fourth birthday, he would be ending his time there as well. Much like his dad, life just kind of passed him buy as he did a stint in the army then married a girl he went to high school with and then there was him. He doesn’t remember much about growing up, but he remembered the shouting and the nights his dad didn’t come home until late smelling of booze and cheap perfume. And for reasons he never understood, his mom stuck with him until one day she didn’t wake up. His dad went on working his job and only had to look after him until he was old enough to sign up for his stint in the army. When he got out, he got a job at the factory but never married. He lived in an apartment over a hardware store where for many years he made it his safe place. Work, Harrys bar and grill and the apartment. That was his life, and it was winding down faster than he imagined it would.

There was a retirement party for him at Harrys bar and grill, but only the few regulars like himself had a few drinks and wished him well, even though they all knew he’d still be coming in every night until the day he didn’t. He’d still order a hamburger and a bag of chips that he’d wash down with a few beers before heading out the door into the darkness of his life. He knew the route back to his apartment like he knew his own reflection and that came in handy sometimes when he had a few to many and staggered home without looking. Thinking back, he never thought about making a change in his life but why would he? He liked woman and occasionally paid for one, but he didn’t want to chance becoming abusive and causing any pain. He’d thought about leaving the town and starting over someplace but he’d have to find a job and a place to live and a bar to frequent and that just sounded like to much effort. He remembered hearing someone say the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree and he supposed that was true enough as he staggered up the stairs to his safe place.

Mike