When I was a little girl, one of my favorite things to do was to dig in my mother's bottom drawer. Don't ask me why, but she kept her jewelry box in that drawer. Maybe so I could look in it? Anyway there it was, easy access for a probing six year old. It was 1957 and I was in first grade. My mother had a wealth of earrings: big red hearts, little brass tea pots, and my favorite the little grey mice earrings. There were others of course, but those tiny stuffed-grey-half-inch mice with little black -bead eyes, and wee tails were my absolute favorites. In those days all earrings were screw-on, only a few were clip-ons. Only the Catholic girls had ears pierced from birth. The mice had screws that held them on, and they were most uncomfortable.
I remember the conversation I had with myself about wearing the earrings to school, I told myself I would be the most enchanting girl alive at Dora Moore Elementary in Denver, Colorado. I was not hard to convince since I loved jewelry almost as much as the air I breathed.
So, they were carefully tucked into my pocket as I headed out for school wearing the red dress with a huge round collar with an apple embroidered on it. My mother made all my clothes, and my Ginny doll had the identical dress. All went well, then after lunch as I reached up to touch the little mouse whiskers, my stomach lurched...I only had one earring on! I remember looking high and low for that little mouse earring. The floors were wide hardwood boards, that I knew had swallowed the one dear mouse earring.
My mother knew something was terribly wrong as soon as I came home. I confessed all immediately, like a nun who had eaten all the chocolate. My mother gave me the worst punishment imaginable. Some viewers may want to look away at this point as it gets graphic. She said, "If only you had asked, I might have said 'yes'." Crap, I had suffered that day, and all I had to do was ask if I could wear the earrings. Secretly, I think she would have said, "no", but that is for another day. I would have rather been spanked.
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4 comments:
Oh I remember digging in my grandmothers "junk" drawer for hours and hours. Every time I was at her house I would dig in that drawer and my mother would try to stop me and my grandmother would tell her to leave me be. Thanks for stopping by my blog. It does seem that Banna is beginning to need a healing doll. This child started life at 5lb 8oz. Then she got sick at 2 weeks of age and was back in the hospital when they put her back in she only weighed 4 lbs 5oz as she would not wake up to eat. When she came home from the hospital the first time and when they put her back in she wore Cabbage Patch Doll clothes that I made her and even they were to big for her. She has asthma so every year at this time we battle trying to keep her out of the hospital. The Christmas right before she turned 3 she went in the hospital on Dec. 23rd and didn't get out until Dec. 27th. So far this year she has managed to stay out. Sorry this got so long winded. Loved your story is really what I came to say.
Hello my friend!
It is good that you are blogging, you have so many stories to tell!
I think I had a little pin similar to the mouse earrings...only it was brown...the mouse had little leather ears and a tail....next Christmas, we will have to post Sally's recipe for the candy mice!
Hi,
I was also in the first grade at Dora Moore in 1957/58 school year. What a great school! My first grade teacher's name was Miss Wyatt. -- David Steele
I used to go through my mom's jewelry box....I couldn't wait to go through everything when she didn't know. curious me. One time I went to school wearing her Ruby ring....luckily I made it through the day with it still on. Many years later she gave me the ring for Christmas...I treasure it. I enjoyed your story.
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