The Pumpkin Moment
I am painting small pictures of pumpkins and other Autumn classics to add to a show in progress.....and remembered a thing...THANK YOU MOTHER AND FATHER, now passed -
It was Halloween on Greenfield Hill Fairfield Connecticut. The Grange system were early bank and lender/credit clubs and casual local governing body but as American grew , the Grange held dignity and still remains alive as an Archive and Consulting Spot - many Grange HQs are Museums now.
AND THE GRANGE FAIR is still really special because of the Patriotic history!
IN spring the Fair, ruled Fairfield and At Halloween there was the classic Halloween party with bobbing for apples and the wonderful spicy smells and games and COSTUMES! There would be a mini parade and a vote for best!....but NO politics...it was kind, for the sake of the little ones, to encourage contest participation as they grew up.
Still, our parents would , kindly-wise, of course, knock themselves out to do their part to make the costume show "not unfortunate". I was a Little Dutch Girl, to honor our first Settlers, and I can smell and see and feel that costume at this moment - Mother got good at seamstressing and found the blue weave to look homespun, and organdy for cap and apron and sleeve cuffs and it was perfect with my bangs and all.
But the shoes! Wooden shoes in my tiny size could not be found and were too clumsy for a child who was unused to them.....hmmmmmmm. Design was going to get into a pair of Wooden Shoes of Safe and Light materials at our home !
My Dad was innovative DuPont and pioneer Army Air Corps - Smitty the Flight Mechanic; our nearest neighbor was an Aero Engineer on the Sikorsky team and they would spend a Saturday over a beverage and the latest in engineering and tech and design ideas. They got busy....
I think Mother was too kind to say so, when it was time to try them on. To put the shoes in best light, she put me in the costume first, to help Dad with the Overall perception - the Gestaldt -
He put the shoesies on me and stepped back:
- and collapsed in dismay! They LOOKED just like Fairfield's aero genius, Gustav Whitehead's Plane, the passenger box coming to a point, with my feet inside, in cardboard that even a good paint job would not fix.
His grief over such great effort , for love and for my benefit, struck me so, that I reached out like Shirley Temple- "NOoooooo Daddy, you don't have to do that! " it's just fine to wear my normal dressy shoes! It will still look right. And it was just fine and did well at the happy fete!
So odd , the little moments that bring insights!
I remember it as my first experience of a child running to the aid of an adult - I truly did not know I could do that! They called us “Pumkin” , little girls and loved our smallness - we were perfect they said, and it was not so bad being a small child and dependent for a moment.
In "Going to far" for a thing, we ALL learned that time. With love, thank goodness! Family.
