HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MY BROTHER!

 

 From Linda Lee Greene, Author/Artist

April 5, 2021

 

“This is where and when my clearest memories begin: you and I posing for Mom’s little Brownie Camera in front of the big snowball bush in the yard of the farm the summer Mommaw and Poppaw took possession of it. You were your usual wriggly, balking self, impatient to get it over with so you could go exploring—digging for fossils; chasing down spiders and snakes; shouting at birds on the wing to come back and take you flying; studying the trees, the wind, the sky; in essence trying to solve the mysteries of the universe. And I—I shushed you, fixed you to my side with my arm on your shoulder, and ordered you to smile. This was the nature of our relationship, and continued to be until the day of your death. Maybe it is no different, even now.

          “Sometimes I wonder if you were in too much of a hurry to know what God knows. Is that why you left us so soon? Are there such wonders there where you are that it was worth the going? Is there anything there more wonderful than the roar of the rivers in Earth’s center, the silver tinge on the leaves of Earth’s birch trees in the moonlight, the gay burst of intrepid little flowers through Earth’s hard crust in spring, the shenanigans of Earth’s hectic squirrels scaling treetops and rooftops? Do you look down on Earth now, filled with longing?”

          “Oh, Lin, as usual, you are such a skeptic!” I hear you retort in my mind’s ear. “I am here and there and everywhere. I dig in stardust now. Like Saint Francis, little critters ride on my shoulders and tuck into my hands. Saint Joseph and I fly across the universe together almost daily. And I am there in the ripples of the water, in the scent of the plants, in the chirping of the creatures.”

“I will plant a tree this spring in your memory, and look for you on its leaves in the moonlight. If you manifest there, then I might understand. In the meantime—Happy Birthday, my brother!”©

 

Photograph: Linda Lee Greene and David Marlin Greene, Summer, 1948

 

#BrownieCamera, #photography, #FarmLife, #SaintFrancis, #SaintJoseph

STRIPPING WOODWORK AND HANGING WALLPAPER by LINDA LEE GREENE©

STRIPPING WOODWORK AND HANGING WALLPAPER by LINDA LEE GREENE©

Columbus, Ohio, USA, March 30, 2019…I was a born-photographer before I knew I was also an artist and a writer. The instrument at the end of my grubby hands was my parent’s kid-friendly Brownie camera. In what was termed “Fly Town” in my family’s blue-collar days and has graduated to the current smart moniker of “Harrison West” in Columbus, Ohio’s near Westside, I gave our Brownie camera a workout, as did kids of most every other nearby household. One of my early endeavors, taken in December, 1953, is the photo featured with this posting.

In terms of composition, the photo leaves much to be desired, but its contents are what are so precious to me. Pictured are my father Lee, my mother Roma, and my brother David, who was eight and none too happy to stand still yet again while his big sister snapped another picture. In my mother’s arms is the newest member of our family, my baby sister Sherri. I was ten at the time, and I remember it like it was yesterday. It was our first weekend outing as a family since Sherri’s birth—our destination was the Christmas gathering at my maternal grandparent’s farm in Peebles, Adams County, Ohio. We would also spend part of the weekend with my dad’s family who lived in Adams County, too.

Almost as dear as the people in the image, is the story its background tells. When my parents bought our house at 507 West Second Avenue, all of that gorgeous woodwork was painted over, and not merely in the area pictured, but throughout its first and second stories. My mother, bless her heart, working alone, stripped every inch of paint off the woodwork in that house, including three gas-burning fireplaces. She stripped it, sanded it, and then stained and varnished it. (There were no water-based paints, stains, or varnishes in those days.) It took her years to accomplish, but she did it. And see that wallpaper on the walls? She hung it, all by herself, while at the same time seeing to every other physical and spiritual need of our family.

The Greatest Generation?! You bet! And I have the photos and stories to prove it.

http://booksbylindaleegreene.gallery-llgreene.com/ 

Multi-award winning author Linda Lee Greene’s books are available worldwide in soft cover and eBook formats on Amazon and other online booksellers.