Full Circle

My daughter, Allison, called me today.  Breathy and so excited with ideas for the nursery. She rambled on about the colorful vintage curtains she found at a thrift store and about the cribs she’s been viewing on craigslist.org. As she spoke I flashed back to my little girl, tagging along to the laundry mat and rubbing the old ladies hosed legs and engaging them in long chats. I have visions of a sweet child that visited our old neighbor, Hazel, and sat and chatted with her for hours on her front porch swing.  I flash to her a little older, tagging along to the thrift store as I scoured for clothes for my three children. How she would insist on no name brand, only vintagey hodge podge mixes that she always seemed to be able to pull together and make her own style.

“Mom, what’s the name of that old nursery rhyme book you used to read to me at grandma’s house?”  She pulled me from reminiscing on her childhood back into her conversation only to flash me into my own childhood.  “I want to use some of the poems and pictures to decorate the nursery!”

When I was a little girl, we had a family nursery rhyme book called, The Bumper Book.  The large yellow covered book and all its bright cheerful pictures are the literary background to my early childhood.  I constantly pestered my older sisters to read to me from it. If they couldn’t or wouldn’t, I would lie on the floor with my feet propped up on the couch and study the pictures and dream of a day when I would be able to read all the lovely poems on my own. When I became old enough to read, I read and reread this book to my little brother.  When the nieces and nephews came along, I read it to them.

Of course, years later, upon each visit to my parents’ home, I made sure to read this book to my own children. One of my favorites from this book is the poem about a grandmother with a very slippery knee. The pictures of the “Lollypop Jar” made my mouth water and the rhythm would stick in my mind for hours afterwards. I loved that short fat grandmamma and I especially loved that little cupboard.  I can still repeat this one almost by heart.

I know a little cupboard
With a teeny tiny key,
And there's a jar of Lollypops
For me, me, me.

It has a little shelf, my dear,
As dark as dark can be,
And there's a dish of Banbury Cakes
For me, me, me.

I have a small fat grandmama
With a very slippery knee,
And she's the Keeper of the Cupboard
With the key, key, key.

And when I'm very good my dear
As good as good can be,
There's Banbury Cakes and Lollypops
For me, me, me.

I think of all of this and it awes me of how life always seems to come full circle. How the little things that we cherish become the very ones that connect and bind families. And so, it seems so very fitting for my lovely daughter to choose to welcome and wrap her newborn daughter in the comforting literary love of our family’s generations.

Reviews

[redflutterby]

There is so much about this story that touches me. I'm a young grandma myself and I had short loving grandma I loved mote then anything. She also read to me as did my mother and stepmother. Passing along that gift is my way of continuing their love. You wrote this very well...your style is personal. As if your sharing this with a much loved friend not just random readers. I've always enjoyed that familiarity with the reader. Wonderful!!

[Samuel Dickens]

Sometimes we receive a dividend on all those efforts and more that we put into raising a child, and when we do, it's pure heaven.

[rootsandwingsmemoirs.com]

So very true! Thanks for reading! :)