One Writes to Make a Home for Oneself

One writes to make a home for oneself, on paper,
in time, in others' minds.
Alfred Kazin


JEJ found a like-new scanner at a yard sale for ten bucks last Saturday. I dug through pictures at my mom's house recently in hopes of being able to scan pictures eventually. Perfect timing!

The two children in the photo are myself and my brother Raymond Pert. We were living at 14 E. Portland in Kellogg, Idaho when this photo was taken. I found a fitting poem in my collection that reminded me of that house when I was old enough to hold the memories in my mind.

Bedtime

Sometimes I remember
the good old days

sitting in the kitchen floor
at night with my brother

each on our own squares
of cool linoleum.

I'm fresh from the bath,
wearing baseball pajamas.

Outside the screen door
summer breezes stir.

Mom gives us each two cookies,
a cup of milk, a kiss goodnight.

I still can't imagine
anything better than that.

Ralph Fletcher

Comments

  1. Awesome! I love the pic - and remember that furniture! LOL!

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  2. pinehurst and jennifer.. it is amazing the specific memories we have about a time or place.

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  3. Good grief. Am I wearing Dad's shoes. Could my feet be any bigger? Look at those brogans!

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  4. Anonymous24.5.07

    Reading your post sent me back for several minutes to my early childhood and my grandparents - whom we lived with until I was 9 - I remember a bath and having white and aqua "baby doll" pj's and taking turns with my sister, spinning in my grandmother's colander on the linoleum floor and laughing, laughing, laughing -- thanks for bringing out that memory!! Fabulous post!

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  5. Marcy,I loved your image of the baby doll pjs. Remember them well. We may have tried the colander. I will have to check with the sib. LOL

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