GROWING UP ME -

Saturday, December 19, 2009

4:51 AM

Hometown Shopping

The people who owned this jewelry store were close square dance friends of my parents. They were older than my folks and most of the other people in their circle of friends. They're kids were almost as old as most of their friends but nobody ever seemed to mind. They were a very healthy, lively couple. My parent's square dance club was an active one. THey held dances every other Saturday night over at the "barn" and in between dances, they got together socially for various parties, etc. Furing the first 6 or 7 years of my life, we were always busily surrounded by a large group of super good folks from the square dancing club. It was SO much fun.

Because they were good friends, my parents did almost all of their jewelry shopping at the O'******** store. That's the store in which I bought that ID bracelet for Evans that got me into so much trouble. lol But I have two other very special memories that relate to that store:

Memory #1 is the Christmas that my dad, still hobbling around on crutches after his near-fatal motorcycle accident, surprised my mom by going to that store and buying a brand new, bigger, fancier diamond wedding set for her for Christmas. Big gifts like that were not something he usually handed out to anyone, even her but that year he went all out. He picked out a set of rings that just knocked her socks off. In order to fool her, he wrapped them up with a bottle of strawberry pop so that if she shook it, it would sound like cologne. You'd probably just have to have been there but it was an incredibly sweet thing. I faintly remember seeing my dad hobbling down the street the day he bought them because my mom and I were out doing other Christmas shopping. We almost accidentally blew his surprise. I got a kick out of just seeing him scurry around town at Christmas time. He wasn't one to go shopping, like, EVER so it was a rare thing to see. He was also giddy like a kid because he was so excited about the surprise he was preparing for my mom. She was beyond tickled when she opened those rings on Christmas and to this very day, they are the one tangible thing in her life that she truly, truly loves. All of my life, she has told me that those rings are going to be mine someday and but I always tell her that God and I have an arrangement whereby she'll always be here with me, and will therefore have no need to ever give them to me. I can't live without my mama.

I still tear up when I recall that sentimental Christmas when my parents were still very much in love and we were celebrating the fact that my dad was on the mend, after thinking that he would not ever be around for another Christmas. Good, sweet times for the little family on M****** Street.

Memory #2 has no "story" per se but it's just as important to me as the one relating to my parents. O********* was still in business the summer that Prince Kit and I got married so naturally my mom took me there to pick out the prince's wedding ring. I love that that's where the ring I put on the finger of my one and only husband came from. They had known me since birth so standing there visiting with them while picking out my future husband's ring made for a very sweet moment that I'll always remember. I never would have guessed that some of those people over at the square dance barn were one day going to sell me the ring I would put upon the finger of my precious groom.

Dear Prince Kit, I'm so glad I married you. I want to marry you all over again.