Where I am From Second Installment

I am from cheese from Stolting’s  Delicatessen,  from  Zest soap and  paper bags full of penny gob stoppers bought at Porter’s store with my weekly allowance.

I am from the AnJen Farm, with miles of white fences painted all summer long to earn a new saddle.

I am from the shade of the weeping willow tree, the yipping of the coyotes and the steamy heat of a barn full of cows in winter.

I am from heads bowed, eyes closed grace before dinner and Sunday night Disney, from Auntie Doris and the deVille’s and the family that lived on Kirkstall Road.

 

Me and Auntie Doris Oct 2014

 



I am from the Langley Flippers swim club and the Grovette school newspaper.

From catching colds if you went out with wet hair and eating all your dinner to save children from starving in far off lands.

I am from routine and rituals.

I'm from Manion Place and Shuniah School.  Standing in the kitchen in pajamas and bare feet on the cold floor with a glass of chocolate Nestle’s Quick before bed. Sometimes the strawberry flavor would trick me into begging for it, only to rediscover that I hated it.  Mom saying, ‘If I buy it, you have to drink it all before I buy the chocolate again”.

From the little calf named Bambi that we bought from auction.  Sickly from the start, we bottle fed it and kept it in an out-building near the house so we could nurse it easily.  I am from the heartbreak of Bambi’s death and from the poem I wrote about it. 

I am from cottages on lakes, black lab kisses, sunsuits and tobogganing.