Curlers in Your Hair

Today while waiting at the light at S. 11th an older woman turned left in front of me and she had a head full of blue sponge rollers. It took me to another place. Mike has blogged recently about old invitation songs and where that takes our thoughts and memories...well, rollers take my thoughts and memories back to my childhood. Every Wednesday and Saturday my mom would wash her hair and put it up in curlers. Not sponge rollers but the kind that were black and prickly and you needed bobby pins to hold them in. Yes, we were three time a weekers and the hair rolling schedule fit the church schedule. My mom never minded running errands with curlers in her hair and I didn't even think it was weird until I got older. Thinking about mom and her hair-rolling habits made me also think about grocery shopping with my mom. We went on the same day every week and always took my Aunt June with us (she didn't drive). We went to three different grocery stores. They shopped for certain things at each store. The three stores were less than a mile apart...so, that wasn't too hard to do. They were looking for the best deals. My mom would keep a running tally of how much she was spending on a paper bag as we walked through the store. No junk food was bought and almost everything was made from scratch. She was famous around the neighborhood for her cooking. For years, at the Giant Food Store the same man put our groceries in the car. His name was Willy and he was always smiling and my mom always tipped him. She was disappointed if he wasn't there...they would tease each other and I think that it would make my mom's day. When I got older and I had to stay home from school because I was sick but I wasn't so sick that I had to stay home, I would go grocery shopping with her and my Aunt and Willy would tease me about being out of school...he would say that I better lay down in the back seat and hide behind those grocery bags or the police would see me and take me back to school.
Growing up in my house wasn't a piece of cake but there were many good things happening.
My mom would take us to the dentist and sometimes run errands before we had two cars...she would pull us in a little red wagon. I now realize as an adult that was way too far to be pulling a wagon full of kids and the stuff you bought on your errands. She never complained. In fact, she made us feel like it was an adventure and that she was having a good time.
Sunday I will write more about my mom. Already you can see that she is amazing but there is lots more.