821-4621. Life was so much easier then. My house phone number had just the right amount of digits; no prefix, no suffix...just a cord, a dial that rat-tat-rattled when you spun the wheel and probably the most obnoxious ring ever emitted; alarming. Yes, indeed, the world was an easier place then and the memory of it and my family still make me smile. Circa 1965.
On days that I stayed home from school because of some form of elementary school malady, I would get spoiled by my grandparents. They had an amazing and healing bedside routine.
(They were funny; funny, humorous. They argued passionately about groceries and electricity and soup, but they were inseparable and they were a perfect example of how to love completely even if you don't always agree.) In any event, on days that I stayed home, I would stay in one of three air conditioned bedrooms. Back in the day, central air was not the status quo. Typical Florida homes would come equipped with terrazzo floors that would keep the house cool and jallosie windows that let in the fresh Florida breeze and the smell of green, crisp smelling rain, as well as, the tempestuous heat and humidity. Still always in the end, whenever I found myself convalescing, I got the coolest room in the house. This was my Ritz. I was the center of the universe and all the planets aligned and surrounded me like a cozy bubble.
It was predictable. Every illness would begin with a phone call to my grandparents from any family member, asking, ¿Cómo esta la niña ? and would later end with 'le voy a dar un Cafe con leche'; the healing staple of all remedies! Then I would be served, my idea, a ham and cheese not toasted sandwich, a bag of Frito's Corn chips avec a Tylenol or something like it. The last call of the day would be something like, "Todo esta muy bien. Se lo tomo todo." I was never one to turn away comfort food - I still don't.
I would spend the day propped up between countless fuzzy pillows, a variety of dolls for company and a compact 5X7, pink flowered diary with inside pockets that had a pretty matching pen attached to the side; all of these helped me navigate all illnesses.
In addition to all the goodness showered upon me, I watched episodes of 'I Love Lucy', 'Voyage to the bottom of the Sea', 'McHale's Navy' or 'Hogan's Heroes'. No reason to hurry back to school... I loved staying home.
Even better, this time in my life represented a time of grace whereby all my family members were alive and full of verve; we noisily gathered on weekends and holidays; always around giant ( I really mean giant) pots of grandma's Cuban/ Iberian home cooking.
*Grandfather was a Spanish immigrant and Grandma loved to feed him his favorites from his native "Aviles." It never failed, after every meal she would heartily accuse us collectively of not having eaten enough; She always made too much to eat and everyone went home with a doggie bag.
At my place, all the cousins and friends (friends: I still consider to be extended family today, e.g. Betty and Annie) played countless hours under the old mango tree strictly because in those days children were seen and not heard. I didn't care, as an only child the geography of our play date just didn't matter. Best thing they could have done; we loved playing outside. A lack of vitamin D was never an issue and every visit provided us a new adventure; always deciding as to what would serve as our newest protagonist in our backyard worlds like moths, lizards and dirt. There were sleep overs and cook outs; Grandma's croquetta factory was always churning out a batch for everyone; one batch in the grandma conversion table was equivalent to 100 croquettas. She would pack them neatly into over-sized shirt boxes that she would get, for free, from Jackson.Byrons. The house smelled of family and familiar food.
The world was smaller then, but the love felt really really big.
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| Back Row left to right: My Dad Raul; Tio Pepe; Tia Estela; Tio Manolo Bottom left to right: Mom and I; Abuelo; Cousin Jose; Abuela; Tia Nidia; Cousin Ily Cousin Lourdes came into the world the following year |
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