Western North Carolina Woman
February 2011 Vol. 10 No. 2
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Kodak Moment

 

He stood in the driveway, tall, handsome, smiling, Nordic-proud

in his fine felt hat, black, next to his new baby.

Ok, his second new baby. The first, held squirming in his arms, squinted

and smiled into the leather covered box camera from beneath her ruffled bonnet.

 

The mother was not smiling. She was not happy

not today, not this moment, not at all. How could he think of bringing that thing

to their home under the circumstances

people unable to pay their bills

homes going unheated

cupboards bare

men out of work

and he’s standing there like the president of J.P. Morgan

Mr. Big Shot with his brand new Hupmobile

and his almost new baby girl.

 

We can’t afford it. Two cars! As if we were the Rockefellers! The Model A

does just fine we don’t need another car where will the money come from

think of your wife and child!

 

He was riding high, high as the running board on that four door six passenger

wheel on the back ought to be in a funeral procession car, black

only rich people drove. It was a fool’s paradise

banks lending money all over the place for anything you wanted while some folks

weren’t getting paid a wage

especially not the Piper.

 

The wife, small-boned and pretty, worried. Well somebody had to

be the practical one and it certainly wasn’t Mr. Blue-eyed Head in the Clouds

not today, not ever.

 

                              *  *  *

 

The exquisitely enameled artfully scrolled Singer sat humming on the table

its tiny light showing the way along hems and seams and puckers and pleats

as my mother’s soft hands guided material over the silver plate skillfully

avoiding the sharp needle.

 

I loved watching her perform this magic as the machine went ticka-ticka-ticka

quietly turning out little aprons with pockets and dresses with panties to match

for her picture perfect little girl. The tiniest frown formed above her hazel eyes

as she stitched and turned the wheel gently

pushing the fabric back, and forth.

 

The house, picture perfect

wide six room yellow brick Dutch Colonial with sunroom attached posed

on its edge of town two years old lawn beside the quiet tree lined boulevard

a young wife’s paradise.

 

On the back of the fading sepia snapshot taken in the drive that day

was stamped the year: 1929.

Western North Carolina Woman
| COVER | INSIDE FRONT COVER | BACK COVER | INSIDE BACK COVER |
|1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8|9|10|11|12|13|14|15|16|
17|18|19|20|21|22|23|24|25|26|27|28|29|
30|31|32|33|34|35|36|37|38|39|40|41|42|43|
44|45|46|47|48|49|50|51|52|53|54|55|56
| PREVIOUS | NEXT | HOME