A Favorite Thing Saturday

The year was 1944 and a little girl crawled out of bed and came into the kitchen in her flannel pajamas. The house was cold and she could hear her mother tending the coal furnace, in the basement. These had been hard years for the little girl and her Mother. Her Dad was in Germany, fighting in the 2nd world war. It was so hard on him too...being away from his family and worrying about them. The Mother had oatmeal cooking on the stove and they would have toast. The little girl hoped that it wasn't burnt like the day before. The toaster was hard to deal with...you had to keep opening the sides to look at it so that it wouldn't burn. No pop up toaster in those days. Sugar was rationed, so they had their oatmeal without. After eating breakfast, the little girl dressed, standing over the big grate on the kitchen floor. The heat felt good on her legs as she dressed. In those days little girls didn't wear pants to school...they went "bare legged" to school. She dressed in a corduroy jumper and brown tie shoes. Today, she would have curls...because pictures would be taken at school. Usually she wore pigtails....but not today. Her Mother turned on the stove burner and set a chair next to the stove. She had a gadget called a curling iron that she would place in the flame to heat. Then she would take the iron and some of the little girl's hair and turn it...hold it for a few seconds...and let go. There would be a sausage type curl. She gave the little girl her mirror, so she could watch her Mother curl her hair. Occasionally, her Mom would leave the iron on her hair too long and there would be a burning hair smell. The little girl sat swinging her legs and watching in the mirror. Pretty soon her head was covered in curls. Then her mother would comb it out. Ouch! That hurt! Don't pull it so tight! Ouch! was heard over and over. Looking in the mirror she could see that it was finished. Now she could have her picture taken, and one would be sent to her Dad. This little girl was me. The mirror is one of the things that I have had since my Mother's death. When I saw it in the box...I told my Dad, "I would like to have that...I have so many memories of having my hair curled and watching in this mirror." He listened to the story and then gave it to me. It has a special place on my dresser. I still use it everyday, but not to watch my hair being curled. It's one of my favorite things.



I'm joining with Claudia http://mockingbirdhillcottage.com/ for A Favorite Thing Saturday. Please join us and visit Claudia's blog to read about so many interesting favorites

Balisha.