Family Tree Branch

I just went out to my car to get a sweater. A sweater! Hallelujah, the furnace of a summer is finally winding down. That’s not to say that the Heat Miser couldn’t make a return engagement but, dang, the break is sweet. Reminds me of days as a little girl in Denver hanging with my Granny in the dewy dampness of her front yard barefoot and shivering from the dawn’s chill. This is the same yard where we’d sit in the grass and actually find 4 leaf clovers for good luck. I haven’t seen my Granny in years but, unbelievably, she is coming to Texas to visit us in two weeks (I don’t think she’s ever flown in her life) and I am beside myself with excitement. She is my mother’s mom and is legendary for her legs. I remember fondly men complimenting her on her shapely stilts almost every time we were out in public. She’s a West Virginia native, the Cherokee descendant of the family, and married Papaw when she was 14, a coal miner’s daughter. Papaw passed away a few years back and it was such a sad day. I had a special place in my heart for him. We’d rake leaves into piles in the yard and then sit in them and pose for pictures. He loved his riding lawn mower and wore his black leather vest while he cruised the yard. He had a comb-over that would blow out of place and become a cranial airplane wing or awning. When my youngest brother asked Papaw about the follicle displacement, he replied that is was his stinger and he would sting Granny with it. I remember once when we were visiting family in “the West Virginny Holler” I was sitting in the backyard drinking Mt. Dew for the first time and feeling bored. Pears trees surrounded the property and Papaw mentioned that if I had a wish and could say it before a pear hit the ground then it would come true. What a way to keep a kid out of your hair and occupied. I think I practiced saying the phrase “I wish for a horse” as fast as I could for hours. Similarly, he got my little brother to stand very still in the backyard for unbelievable lengths of time with his arms straight out waiting for birds to land on him. Papaw was clever like that. As my little boy grows (lately by leaps and bounds, it seems), I look forward to summoning the creative energy necessary to make his little world interesting and memorable. I wish Papaw was still around so I could ask him for some tips.