The year was 1989, I was 10 years old living with my family in a trailer park in Meridian Idaho. For the last 7 years we lived there among the other Houses all in a row. Though our home had a beautiful flower bed out front to hide the trailer hitch. The roses were Mothers day gifts and the rocks were keeping the flower bed built up high in such a tiny space of land. We also had the nicest looking long back yard, My Father seeded it and grew it all into one long strip for us to play on. He joined us often spraying with the garden hose or setting up our slip n' slide. Most all the neighborhood kids found their way into our yard. I was always relieved that my own Mother never yelled like theirs did. When it came to rubbing elbows with the trashy, lazy people our neighborhood was full of them. On the other side of our little home was a big boxed garden that every year had tomatoes growing. The neighborhood kids often ate my Mom's strawberries also, before she could catch them. Along with the stray cats using our gravel walk ways for litter boxes. We made due in our spot like it was a grand home on a beautiful farm. Inside the smell of chocolate chip cookies baking was just a daily event. My Mother was a determined homemaker getting her skill for perfection from her own Father. Grandpa Ansil was good at everything he did, he had a sense of confidence and understanding of perfection. His leadership was a shy quiet person who had strong opinions and views, yet he never step on anyone's toes. He knew he was right and lived it out by reaching his own personal standard for himself. My Mother followed almost perfectly after him. In our 3 bedroom 2 bath trailer house it was a perfect size for a young couple with 3 babies, then when I hit 10 years old,I noticed things began to look smaller then I remembered. Mom had her laundry room right next door to her bedroom and her own bathroom with a bath tub. The kitchen ran into the livingroom where my father had installed a wood burning stove. The 2 bedrooms were behind that stove and share a half bathroom. Often when I was tiny that toilet seemed like a big open mouth about to eat me and I was scared of it. Once having even fallen in with my feet up to my face I screamed. My Father ran in laughing while helping me out, yet I didn't think it was funny at all!
Our Mother was always there, We woke up to her every morning with pancakes and bacon, we napped to the sound of her sewing machine, We ate her dinners every evening. Back then in the trailer house styled in the late 70's shag carpet in bright orange and yellow colors. With wood paneling, yellow sinks and toilets. Our focus as kids was just about playing. When our mom began our home schooling, treating all 3 of us kids as one person. She didn't dive us into different grades or levels. She also set up posters and pictures in our kitchen to double as a classroom. When telephone rang we kids would run off to play for Mom hardly yelled at us when she was talking on the phone. No doubt we were little brats for most of her effort to teach us basic school work. My Mom also kept a very clean, very organized home but some days when she wasn't feeling good, we just laid around looking at books and magazines. Dinner was always ready for when Dad no matter what when he returned home from work. A common plate of food was green beans, pork chops and mashed potatoes. Along side a bread roll and a large glass of O.J., it would all be set out for Dad just seconds before he arrived to sit in front of the TV. He never wanted to miss the news then usually finished up his meal with a following episode of "MASH". Sometimes Mom could get him to sit at the table, she was always trying but we kids didn't like when he did join us. He would turn up the TV to listen and we had to sit silent under that kind of pressure. Every family has good and bad moments with each other. The years in the trailer house couldn't go on like that forever, I watched my Mother come to her breaking point in my 10th year. She had grown up on a farm and now living day in and day out in that tiny home with 3 small kids growing and needing her all the time. She began to look for other outlets to spend her time like shopping. When her own mother and sisters rescued her on a Saturday morning, We kids begged her to stay home for Dad just sent us to bed all day. He let us color or look at books. But Mom needed her time away, she found such happiness in shopping. It became her life time hobby. She would smile and wave at us as she left for the whole day shopping with her own very materialistic mother. I would watch her until she was gone on those days for my Mother was truly beautiful. She looked just like Barbie only with dark brown curly hair and she did every thing so perfectly. We really missed her when she was gone on those shopping dates. Now our Father wore eye glasses and had red hair. He had freckles mostly up his arms and brown eyes. He was very animated with us kids dancing a jig or waves his hands out from his face while looking silly, we always giggled at him. When he was pissed off though He had both a temper and strong vocal chords to prove his point, He also needed quietness to think. On those Saturdays quietness began almost the second mom was gone. Now with 3 small noisy kids, we no doubt drove him to moments of pure stress. He did however love Saturday morning cartoons, and the muppets on Sunday evenings. So in many ways he used the TV to teach us and to hang out with us. I loved the few times Dad taught us how to play basketball, how to throw a football and how to fly a kite. But he was also "trigger happy", so if the events unfolded wrong he would let us know by the frown on his face. Those years when my Mom lived for shopping dates, she circled them on the calendar. She was always excited the day before. While I complained as I got older how boring those times were when she was gone shopping, she would say "It's a good time to spend with your Dad." Then I would exclaim "He just tells us to be quiet or go lay down! we have no time with him!" She paused to look at me as if she didn't understand my complaint. Mom also sought after other homeschooling families to hang out with, go shopping or on field trips. Yet when I hit age 10 she freaked out all the more of being stuck in our tiny trailer home. Her Parents invited us to stay on their orchard farms for that summer, the same farm my Mom grew up on. All of this is important to understand for the future of my family. So while our Father stayed working and living at the trailer house in Meridian during the week days. We would come in to town and see him on the weekends doing our laundry and getting more our belongs to take out to the farm. Some weekends Mom refused to go back into town. Then Dad would join us on the farm teaching us how to plant things and how to care for animals.I will never forget that first night on the farm, while we stayed in the little blue cottage. That first evening was amazing as we kids stayed outside late late into the night just watching the very bright stars while roasting marshmallows over our camp fire. I remember it clearly, The singing of silly songs and us kids just laughing. Yet it was our Mother I watched closely. She came alive in her happiness, she had no rules for us that night. She had no tears or headaches. She taught us how to create the perfect roasted marshmallow. She was completely happy. She was finally at peace and ready to spend every night outside there with us, For she was finally truly home again.
No comments:
Post a Comment