CHILDHOOD

My father was born the youngest of 6 children.
He said his mother called him "a change of life baby".
Dad surprised my grandparents. They were in their 40s when he was born.
This meant Dad's grew up in a different world from his brothers and sisters.
Later this led to jealousy... misunderstanding... generational gaps
but also to good things
A lot of support
including Aunt A
who took more of a mothering role for Dad
and became a grandmother to me and my sister.
Farms inhabited my father's life
they formed him to.
He loved fresh vegetables
anything with a crunch.
As a boy he helped his parents run a farm stand
they sold corn and cantaloupe and lots of other stuff besides
but corn and cantaloupe were their pride.

Dad's mom baked cakes every day (what a time!)
She'd lay the cake out on the table
and as the day ambled forward
she'd cut a piece for the postman
a piece for the milkman
for the iceman (to live in a time when a man delivered blocks of ice from door to door!)
etc.

It aggravated dad to watch that cake slowly disappear
unable for him to come near
to it

They raised horses as well.
Now, where the family barn stood, stands a McDonalds and a bank.
A road he rode down from his town to a town called Princeton
In his memory once a dirt road
is now a 4 lane road
rampant with traffic
choked with strip malls and mall malls
laden with traffic signals
bordered by housing developments

arriving in Princeton there'd be a farm on the left
you could let your horse out into its pasture
if you paid a bit of money (a parking lot for horses!)
and then walk into town.

many years later
Dad would work as a landscaper in the town of Princeton
he'd drive
and he'd cut grass
on lawns where once
he'd rode his horse

My Dad excelled at the Yoyo
he won some sort of county or state competition

he used to want to show us what we could do
when I finally got interested in this talent he possessed
he couldn't do it anymore
isn't that life?

My Dad had bright orange hair
summer sky blue eyes
a smile as wide as the horses
he'd ride.

When my father started to ride professionally
Saddlehorse I think it was called?
He had a shiny silver saddle
silver all over the reins as well
He'd be dressed in a suit
that looked like the American flag
A white suit
with blue and red sequence
in ordered rows on the back
and formed into stars on the front
with his hair and his eyes
he looked like fireworks