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ROOTS AND WINGS
Mom and Daddy seem to me to have been "a match made in Heaven". They seemed to have complemented each other in every way. If Mom was serious by nature, Daddy was playful. In fact, one time they were reminiscing about how they started going together and Daddy said he first got her attention by startling her with a paper clip when she was concentrating on her files. In the retelling, they both laughed heartily - and the smile lines were never so close.
I often felt undeservedly privy to tales of "those good ole days". They told how they "got away from it all" by walking down to Compagno's on St. Charles Avenue for a beer and a dozen oysters; we stayed home - the big old home on 480 Audubon - with Gram, Aunt Julia, Lulu and Marie. I also felt privy to the throwing of many paper clips at Mom as she stood by the sink in the kitchen. I could tell she loved i t.
EXTENDED FAMILY
The Trawicks and Nana were essential to our wonderful cniidnood. We still tell and retell the "remember whens" at rarruly gatherings. Aunt Teen and Nana were "pushovers", but u'ncie Andre didn't take much foolishness. We learned so much rrom them ali (.especially, how to love) but we also learned some ''not to do's" from Uncle Andre. One thing we learned was not to hang kleenex out of the window when driving on trips (even though "Uncle Buoy might have allowed a 50-foot poie to oe hung out there"); even Keith, albeit reluctantly, iearned not to hang the kleenex. We also learned not to dress up ironing boards in the Trawicks-' closet, calling Aunt Teen to come ?see" what we heard, because Uncle Andre might come instead. To this day I don't know how Albert nappenea to end up out in the hall instead of under the covers where we had last seen him - and Keith's ears, we worried about him for a long time! Aunt Teen wished she had Deen the one to ?calm our fears". Every Christmas Uncle Andre gave Mom an envelope with a generous sum and specific directions; she was to only use the contents "for Mary"; there were other kindnesses - I would not know where to Degiri, and still others (from Mom and Daddy's sense of loss when Uncie Andre died) that were unbeknown to us. Aunt Teen died before I was missioned back to the Southland. I cherish my childhood years with both of them. I also cherish my years of friendship with Nana, hearing her Italian verbs as a child - so she could understand the operas she loved so mucn, and which I have grown to love (and feel her with me when I listen - as well as Grandma Blanchard; Nana is now nelping Susie become a pianist!). I get amused to think that sne actually thought that Daddy would not allow her into our house if he found out about the cigarettes and the highballs whicn we forced out of Nana. I would have to write a book aDout Nantz. Suffice it to say that she was one of the most precious, alive, zestful , intellectual , and earthy persons
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