WHEW! I thought that Mountain Martha was kapoot!

 I baptized my cell phone and was OFF LINE from the night before Thanksgiving to TODAY.  Thanks to my patient husband ALL IS WELL!!

I had sent this memoir to a contest,  but heard nothing so I didn't win!!  It is now "published" for your enjoyment!

 

 

FLAMINGOS, FLAMINGOS

 

When I was a child with too much energy, one of MY JOBS was pasting the blue and green trading stamps in the booklets to be redeemed at the STAMP STORE.  These stamps were given at gas stations and even grocery stores to entice shoppers to choose to do business there.   When Mom had acquired several books, she allowed me to accompany her to the Redemption Center to choose the “FREE?” gift.  I insisted she get the grinder for making sandwich spread of the bologna rather than the pair of gaudy pink ceramic flamingos and their pond in which to float flowers.  Mom loved her flowers - whether roses, cosmos, or marigolds, and she did have a “green thumb.”

I was the oldest of four children plus a few extras – my cousin Tom, and Claudia a daily child care kid whose Mom had to work.  I knew those flamingos wouldn’t last long.

Mom went ALONE to the Redemption Center when she next managed to fill the number of books required for the Flamingos, and they graced our coffee table for years, long after I married and moved to California.  They survived the children and even some grandkids.

Fast forward many years, Mom died, I went from California to Colorado for her Memorial Service.  I wondered how I was going to get the piano, “my” bedroom set of twin head and foot boards, tall dresser, two nightstands, and a dressing table and bench with the “Hurricane lamps” that always sat on the sides back to California.  Oh, and the four door dark brown and beige Chrysler sedan that she had left me!  My brother had convinced Mom to make a list for the disposal of her STUFF, and being a “child of the DEPRESSION” she had plenty of stuff!  She was especially fond of kitchen equipment with cords attached - she had TWO three tier carts full of electrical appliances!!

Imagine my surprise when I found the lone Flamingo was in a drawer in one of  “my nightstands.”  I was going to share a chuckle with my siblings, who had all left for the day when I returned from my trip to the mountain cabin where my bedroom furniture was stored.  So I left the bird on the table in the kitchen of Mom’s apartment and my aunt and I left for the day, locking the door.  We would return the next morning for more sorting and deciding.  Mom surely had the LAST LAUGH on me by gifting that still bright pink flamingo to me!!

But that was not the end of Mom’s Flamingo Story.  I was the first to open the apartment door the next morning.  That bird had the audacity to disappear!!  We searched everywhere and I frankly expected it to reappear as a gag gift from one sibling to another.  Didn’t Happen!

Now what was the lesson to be learned by a disappearing Flamingo?  Not to be so bossy, so opinionated, so practical, or maybe beauty is in the eye of the beholder?  Take your pick! OR TAKE your Flamingo and be GRATEFUL!!  Hey, maybe that was the lesson!!  BE GRATEFU! “ Gratitude is the most exquisite form of courtesy” and that is a LIFE LONG lesson to be learned!   Thanks Mom.