A Little Memory
I caught some of To Kill a Mockingbird on TV the other night. It was a wonderful movie. The book by Harper Lee was superb too.
Gregory Peck plays Atticus, a widower who raises his two children beautifully. He is a small town attorney and a man of high character. If he has to stand alone against the whole town to defend an innocent man, he will do it because it is right. And he will do it regardless of consequences to him.
This movie is about so much more than I just said, but there is one scene I want to tell you about and the stream of memories it set off for me.
Atticus’ daughter, who is about seven, is dressed as a ham for some play. Yes, a whole ham. She is encased in this whole stiff ham outfit with a cut-out for her eyes and just her feet showing. It’s awfully cute. And it’s awkward as the little girl tries to balance herself as she walks to school dressed as a ham and just her little feet showing.
It reminded me of the days when I was a housewife in Sacramento, California, and my daughter was barely one-year old. We lived on a cul de sac, and the children put on a parade every 4th of July. The parents would stand on the sidewalk and clap and cheer as their costumed children went by.
Feeling patriotic about where I was born, I decided Lauren would be a cranberry from Massachusetts. I made a costume from deep red crepe paper. I somehow made her cranberry outfit balloon out. Her costume started at the neck and ended just above her thighs.
Because Lauren was so young, the older kids who put on the parade had her ride in the wagon which was meant to be a float. The parade music came from a radio in the wagon, pulled by one of the boys.
I remember that in the hot sun the red of the crepe-paper bled onto Lauren’s skin.
How long ago that was. It is a simple memory of another time and another place and another person who carried my name.
Godwriting is a blog by Gloria Wendroff and is about Gloria's daily life as the Godwriter of the Heavenletters project that is having a profound effect on the lives of people around the world.
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