Witty & Wise Ties, Trivia & Lies
TIE O’ THE DAY ran across this 1990 gem while sorting through photos of Dad yesterday, and I knew I had to share it. Dad is standing between his brothers, Derral and Wally. Dad’s sister, Shirley, sits on the couch by their parents, Walt and Zola Wright. And not a tie is to be seen.
According to Mom, for the first 6 months of my life, Dad was also my mother. Mom nearly died giving birth to me, and it took her a few months to recover. Dad did double-duty. Dad both surprised and honored Mom in my baby blessing by giving me her name. “Helen” wasn’t a name they had ever talked about for me, but Dad said it felt right and made perfect sense to him to bless me with her name. It’s a bigly name to carry.
I can remember riding to bee yards with Dad before I was old enough to go to school. I wasn’t any help to him at that age, so I watched him work the bees and talked to him from the truck. The truck radio was always tuned to country music on whatever AM station came in clear enough wherever we were. To this day, I love the smell of a stinky bee truck, with its odor mixed of wax, honey, burnt burlap, and sweat. Years later, I learned that some of these day-long outings were Dad’s idea, when he could see Mom needed a break— even though it made his work day more difficult.
Dad worked his butt off for us. He was a blend of tenderness, and humor, and ethics, and “gotcha.” He was curious and open. He respected everyone he met, unless they proved themselves a scoundrel. He was our dad, and we belonged to him. He loved us quietly and unequivocally.
But Dad’s deepest soul belonged to Mom. When Mom was in heart surgery, he was visibly scared. We were all in the waiting room, and I remember looking into Dad’s eyes. He was lost. After the surgery had been performed successfully, and Mom had arrived in ICU, Dad teared up at her bedside. When he saw Mom finally open her eyes, all I heard him say over and over was “Sweetheart.”
All the red-and-white, including candy cane Bow Tie o’ the Day, is telling me something. I’m not sure, but I think I’m feeling it’s time to make a drive to Delta to see my fave Delta Rabbit— Mom. That is always on my to-do list, as is “eat ice cream.”
The ice cream recommendations you saw here on this morning’s post seemed to hit their marks. I saw the comments. I heard the chatter. I fully expect some of you will be making an extra trip to the grocery store. Here’s Red Button Eggnog flavor to write on your list.
While you’re at the store in the ice cream section, I will be spending some time going through the pantry to make some space for actual pantry-type items. It was the ice cream containers I used for photos this morning which set me on this task. I’m sure you can’t imagine me doing it, but I save all sorts of “props” for possible TIE O’ THE DAY photos. I had saved a dozen or so empty ice cream containers of flavors I might want to recommend. I try to keep my “props” in The Tie Room, but the room— like June, in the song— is bustin’ out all over. Thus, about a dozen empty ice cream containers have been piling up for months in the pantry. My Big Gulp, 100-oz mini-kegs are in there too. There’s a fire extinguisher; 2 full bottles of generic NyQuil, which expired in 2014; 6 never-opened phone books, sent to our front door from all over the entire Wasatch Front; my personal drinking glasses; and Mom’s red-and-white apron she wore when she was a cook at Delta High School in the late 60’s.
Cases of Suzanne’s store-bought special water fill most of the pantry shelves. It’s not “special water” like the vodka you used to try to sneak into concerts and football games. No, it’s just the only kind of flavored, bottled water Suzanne will drink. And she truly loves her special water.
If I really crane my neck to look in the back corner on the pantry floor, I can see a can of Green Giant green beans. Its label has come unglued with expiration and it hangs, curled, partly off to the side of the can. I suppose 1 can is adequate proof there could have been a whole food pyramid of edibles in here at one point. I don’t remember that far back.
BTW Before you even ask: Yes, I will write a post about why my drinking glasses live in the pantry and not in the kitchen cupboards with all the other drinking glasses. Oh yes, there is a bigly story about that, and Suzanne won’t be happy I tell it. 🙀😱
After Suzanne went off whistling to work this morning, I dished out ice cream for breakfast. Holiday Tie o’ the Day is a bigly clue as to who helped me eat it. Skitter didn’t want to be in the actual photo, so Suzanne will never be able to stumble onto any visual proof she ate ice cream with me. We really can do whatever we want when Suzanne’s at work, as long as she doesn’t find out. Suzanne is kind of our year-round version of Elf on a Shelf. We are very, very, very good when she’s got her eye on us. My fear is that she will ask for indoor security cameras for X-mas, so she can keep track of me and Skitter from her work computer until she retires.
I and my beady eyes love me my Santa-hatted skull-and-crossbones Bow Tie o’ the Day!
What’s great about this season is that I can wear my warm night cap/sleep cap everywhere I go, without anyone batting an eye. Christmas is almost as good as Halloween if you want to wear out-of-the-norm clothing without garnering unwanted attention.
I mean— I would never recommend to anyone who wants to burglarize a house or steal a car around X-mas that you won’t get caught if you’re wearing a magnificent night cap, cuz you’ll blend in. But during the holiday season, you really do stand a better chance of not getting caught doing naughty things while wearing unusual clothing, if you do those naughty things amid all the Christmas lights, mistletoe mustaches, and tinsel droppings which blanket the city. And, of course, if you do them around the magnificent Christmas balls and ho’s.
Oh, dear! I think that might have come out wrong.😯
The first Christmas decor I dust off is usually the crop of Charlie Brown trees in the garage, but I thought I’d change it up this year and lead off with the leg lamps. Leg lamp Tie o’ the Day feels proud to be helping with December’s first X-mas decor duties.
The leg lamps gave Mom such a thrill during the holidays that one season I decided to leave them in the living room of my Delta house all year long. She commented on them and laughed about them every time she wandered over, which was daily. She also touched their stockings a bit too much. And she loves the shoes. I love her.