Mom got into "The Hatbox" only one this time, "The Blue Hatbox", this one is tin.
For the young'uns hatboxs are what family pictures are kept in by Mom's.
Okay Females in general of my generation and I surmise the only reason women ever bought hats in the first place - was to get another damn box for photos. Heaven to Betsy - we would not want the o-l-d Black & White ( actually look more brown) mixed in with the other sizes of black & white, ( actually black and white) and ain't no way in hell the "color" pictures get mixed with anything else.
Forget any idea of sizes, and whatever getting mixed either.
Put it this way - getting one's mouth washed out with soap was not all that pleasant I grant you. Then again the bad taste only lasted a little while compared to these hatboxes and all that went on with them.
Tree houses were invented so little boys had a place to hide when Aunts and other Womenfolks showed up and Hatboxes were being unloaded from Studebaker's , Desoto's, Ford Fairlanes, and the cabs of husband's truck. I learned that these husbands chose to let wives take the truck and stay home to caulk bathrooms instead of being drug into this hen party. 'It is better for a man to be without his truck, and do honey do's than attend hen parties".
See? I keep telling folks I had really great Mentors & Elders...
Males, epecially kid sized, run like the dickens when heard resonating thru the house..." I need some help getting this hatbox down".
Only I am 50 now, and was at mom's to assist her with some stuff, and to do my weekly stuff I do for her since she physically cannnot. There is no treehouse in mom's yard, and the only really good tree means I'd have to hop a fence. Her neighborhood is prone for folks firing off guns anyway...so best not to give folks a new something to shoot at.
I got the hatbox out of "its spot". This one has not gotten any lighter over the years and I am a lot bigger now...these hatboxes ...has to be weight to male picking it up ratio - gotta be.
I fired up my laptop after my chores as I do have a legit reason with College. Hey, I was winging it - no treehouse to hide in, I was at her place and I already caulked the bathroom here awhile back, I figure my Mentors & Elders meant it when they shared " Adapt, Improvise and Overcome".
Now I personally do not have any personal photos. I used to , I got rid of them. Not important here. What is important is that "honey do you know what kid this is?" or "honey do remember when this was taken?".
"Mom...I am on the computer logged into to class...".
I got Busted you see and had to leave my laptop...
I suggest you put your coffee down before continuing...
"Honey, where are those pictures of you..."
-With your gun and shooting...(revolver that awaiting my wonderful arrival on this here planet).
- Game you took with your gun...
-You driving that go-cart you drove me and everyone else nuts with ...
-Go-cart on two wheels speeding around a corner....(what helmet, we didn't have helmets...)
-Your slingshot in your backpocket ....[this was the picture of my back-up slingshot, seems primary had been "confiscated" - has to do with feral cats and ball bearings...have a primary, a backup, another backup...
-"Sliding between two trees, from way up high, to a limb lower, seems mom was pregnant and that is why that kid is as goofy as a road tick, I affected the pregnacy driving folks nuts.
-Rifle competition
- and various other "normal stuff" a boy does growing up playing with gasoline, gunpowder, firecrackers, engine powered stuff.
"You always had a gun , slingshot, knife...".
I am a boy, that is what boys do.
Welll....see there was this special gal out of high school I dated for awhile. She got into one these "son's girlfriend meets his mom's hatbox hen parties".
You know the ones.
"Here is Steve in the hall buck naked on a training potty playing with a cap gun"...Kodak Moments.
"This is Steve making a mess in the kitchen with squirrels he shot, cleaning them...I was grinning ear to ear...
'Look way way up in that tree'
'where?'
"there".
Girlfriends say stuff like " honey my brothers were nuts, you were plumb crazy compared to them".
I said "thanks" - It was a compliment- right?
So I had to remind mom she gave that GF them pictures. Same gal I married some 25+ years later, and once again - The wife shares with MIL [ now ] how great a picture I take naked sitting on a wooden training toliet with a cap gun.
I fail to see what is so damn special myself.
I miss the cap gun...
Mom wonders if the now ex wife still has these. I suspect so. We parted on good terms. She had her favorites of me, like me with my First Revolver, singshot sticking out of my back pocket, taking aim on something. I told mom she offered to give these back, she was parital to these of me growing up and to keep them.
One of my ex wifes favorite was all the suction darts I had shot at the TV test pattern....I was a cowboy in needof a indian to shoot...
The ex for some reason always cherished my childhood pictures, when we dated out of high school " you are just what you are" Said the same thing when married, granted the slingshot gave way to a BUG...prinicple the same...
Going back all these years with pictures of me and spoiling dogs...my ex actually showed the damn dog pictures of me , including me spoiling other dogs...Nickle ( the dog) at least liked these and had no interest in how I was potty trained.
Nickel was smart, I miss him...he liked the picture of me shooting my slingshot at a feral cat...Nickel had this grin he did...that was his favorite and the ones of me shooting shotguns.
At least I graduated from a hatbox to a "handsome leather photo and diary book" with that GF/wife/ex.
I had to assist mom with the pictures, kinda makes me feel uncomfortable. Akin to folks getting affairs in order. Just accept it and go on , called life.
"Honey, it is a wonder you ever grew up from being a boy...".
I looked at my childhood, remembered some things , including some I wish I could forget. I guess mom needed something from seeing these. I find out she is having these duplicated. Seems a sib wants copies...kinda ticks me off for other reasons...
'Mom, I gotta buddy of mine named Art, he has a saying that says it best"
"I didnt' grow up - just got bigger".
I found a toy frog and broken water pistol in all this stuff where the hatbox has its spot. Toy frog is in Mom's washer...
...Water pistol on the back of toliet in the hall bathroom...
....I also had brought Chocolate Chip Cookies over ...I hid them ( kinda sorta)....
...and being as I am long legged and mom is short...I pulled her seat back in her car...
...for old times sake you understand.
*wink*
