CUTE THINGS REMEMBERED

By Marcella S. Meeks

     My family has always been a blessing to me, and I thank God for them everyday. As we go through life, our children and our grandchildren say and do cute things that we just can’t forget. Believe me, the bigger the family, the more things you’ll remember (and sometimes forget!

     I remember so many things about when my children were growing up and yes, a lot of things I forgot along the way. But here are some cute things that just never disappeared.

     When Brandie, my daughter was five years old in kindergarten, at th end of the year they had a graduation ceremony. The wore their little caps and gowns. Each student got to stand in front of the audience and tell what they wanted to be when they grew up. Of course, Brandie said “I want to be a writer when I grow up!” On the way home later that evening, she asked, “Mama, since I’ve already graduated, do I have to go to school anymore?” I laughed so hard. “You’ve only just started. You have twelve ears to go!” I replied.

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     Years later, when Christopher, my grandson (my oldest daughter Tina’s son) was three, she said he was playing on the patio on his tricycle. She said he was riding around singing a little song he had made up that went something like this: “I got my mamaw! I got my mamaw!”

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     Christopher would sit on his tricycle and push it with his feet because he couldn’t reach the pedals. When someone came out on the porch, he’d say, “Push him! Push him!”

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     When he wanted to be picked up, he’d reach his little arms in the air and wiggle his fingers and say, “Hold him! Hold him!”

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     Sometimes, we’d go places in my little car and Christopher’s car seat next to the door so we’d strap it in the middle of the back seat. When we rounded a corner or turned quickly, it would topple over to the side and he’d start screaming, “Help him! Help him!”

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     When Shelby, Tina’s youngest daughter, was three, we took a trip to Hot Springs, Arkansas that summer. We went out to Magic Springs Theme Park. I got on one of the kiddie rides with Shelby (the dragon mine tour roller coaster). When we started up and then into the dip, she grabbed my hands and covered her eyes with my fingers and screamed “Hide my eyes, Mamaw! Hide my eyes!”

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     Later on, when Tristin (my daughter Theresa’s youngest son) started coming independent when he was only three or four years old. When he had just turned three, he wanted a sippie cup with chocolate milk. I watched him go to the kitchen drawer, take a cup and lid and sit it on a chair. He reached up and got the Nestle’s chocolate syrup off the counter’s edge and poured a bunch in the cup, and some of it drooled over the sides and into the chair. He opened the refrigerator and got the milk and started pouring, sloshing milk all over the cup, chair and floor. He took a spoon out of the drawer and stirred! I was stunned but Theresa said he wouldn’t let no one make it but himself! She was right. He turned the sticky cup up and drank!

     Later on, Theresa cleaned up his mess while he watched cartoons.

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     One year, we went to Galveston, Texas for several days. We stayed at the historic Flagship Hotel (before the hurricane destroyed its foundation and it had to be torn down). This was our favorite hotel and where we stayed at all the time. It was the only hotel in Galveston that was built out on the water.

     My grandson Nicolas, only four at the time (Theresa, my daughter’s oldest son) always loved The Flagship.

     The day we had to go home, Nicolas apparently wasn’t ready to go. When we loaded everything in the cars, and got ready to go, he grabbed the staircase rails and held on for dear life, crying “I don’t want to go home!” Tears streamed down his little face, and he cried for several blocks after we left. That was the last time we got to stay because the next year, the hurricane came and wiped it out. A theme park was built on the remodeled foundation after that.

     I will never forget that look on Nicolas’s face that day a long time ago.

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When my granddaughter Alanna (my son James’s little girl) was not more than seven or eight, I decided to buy her a new wardrobe for Christmas. She always loved new dresses! I went shopping on all the clearance racks and bought her an entire gift bag of new clothes that year for a fraction of the normal cost.

     After everyone opened their gifts, Alanna took her bag and drug it across the floor and set it beside the front door. She made

sure her mother didn’t forget her bag! We all laughed!

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This is only a few of the memories of years gone by but to this mamaw, they will never be forgotten. I consider each one a little blessing in my life. I will always cherish them.