Thursday, November 28, 2024

Shared Memories

 —Poetry by Caschwa, Sacramento, CA
—Photo Courtesy of Public Domain 


SHARED MEMORIES  

mutual friends introduced me to my future wife,
Jo Lynn, and we just really connected from 
then on…

both of our mothers were left-handed and abused 
for it, hers was the youngest of 10, mine the 
youngest of 5, each had a bossy older sister

both of our fathers were born on the same day 
and month, different years

when we decided to get contact lenses, the
prescription was
exactly the same for each of us, which we were
told was
extremely rare

Jo Lynn’s cat Joshua bonded with me like family
right away,
and likewise with our newborn son.

I told Jo Lynn that a blue reflector tab in the middle
of the street signified there was a fire hydrant curb-
side, and she was forever grateful that I just told 
her straight, no
tomfoolery added

we were at the butcher counter at a local market
and witnessed a trainee repeatedly put more and 
less ground round on the scale to try to measure 
a perfect pound; then
we ordered 2 pounds of ground round and a more
experienced worker just put both hands around a
lump of ground round,
placed it on the scale, and it measured 2 pounds
exactly

there was a nice lady “Flora” living in the house
next to our upstairs apartment who we would 
often see out in her front yard tending to some 
of the flowers, strongly
insinuating that
she had done intensive work on the yard herself;
one morning
I was arriving home after an early AM job collating
newspaper parts, and observed a whole crew of
guys tending Flora’s yard, including the flowers;
when I shared this with Jo Lynn, it was
as if a ton of pressure was suddenly released from
her shoulders

One cloudy day we had just finished a visit to our
medical offices and it looked like there was a fair 
chance the clouds could break and allow 
some sunlight to prevail,
but as soon as we got seated in our car, we were 
faced with the strongest hail storm we had ever felt 
all along the 6-mile route home; wipers on,
defrost on, heat on, we went with the slow flow
of traffic, marveling at the view of expansive 
parking lots blanketed with hail, till we could finally 
arrive home and park inside the garage

I had never bought rib eye steak before, but on one
grocery shopping trip I saw some that looked very
appealing and brought it home; aiming for
a medium-rare outcome,
I grilled it on the backyard BBQ, setting the 
burners on low,
and allowing an ample cooking time; it was a big hit
with me and Jo Lynn, and
even our somewhat toothless Chihuahua Chica just
couldn’t get enough of this tender, tasty treat.

___________________

Today’s LittleNip:

I believe the world is one big family, and we need to help each other.

—Jet Li

___________________

—Medusa, with thanks to Caschwa (Carl Schwartz) for today’s poem giving thanks for memories shared with his late wife, Jo Lynn, and their little Chica, also passed. Shared memories are real treasures, yes?  
 
Amd wishing all of you a peaceful thanksgiving!
 
 
 
 Chica








 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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Chica barks at LittleSnake,
who is trying to crash the BBQ~