Photo Friday

(click on image to enlarge)
If you took all of my childhood moments and laid them out on a table in a series of black and white photographs, this might be the one I'd choose to sum it all up.
Little expressions of care.

God the memories I have of that house!
It was a small house in Coronado, with green and white exterior awnings.
As I've mentioned before, the clothesline was my gymnasium, the wishing well held my dreams, and the fish pond was magical.
It was Nanny's and Gramps' house.
My mom's mom and dad.
The yard was brimming with Bird of Paradise, fuchsias, gladiolas, and there were more plants in the lath house.

Here, Nanny is braiding my hair, and my mom is watching (wearing the black and aqua button-up sweater that I remember so well).
The couch was orange vinyl. Or red. Funny, I'm not sure anymore.
I loved a clear plastic candy dish, with an orange rose in its square lid, and a chipped foot.
I still have it.
It was on an end table to the right, out of view here.

There was a 'candy drawer' in the kitchen, shoes in her closet with which I played 'dress-up', a cedar chest full of good things, a metal brush and mirror set I loved (and still have), and an attic where I played and imagined.

I wish I could go back in time and just take it all in again--I didn't realize how much I would cherish it, or them.
At the time, it just was what it was, and I knew nothing else.
They (my grandparents and what we shared) are the foundation on which I stand.

But these unscripted moments, frozen in time by the lens of an old camera...this is preciousness, this is simplicity and joy and comfort.