An envisioning. 1942 and another Spam dinner under the harvest moon as the stars come out in Charlotte, Vermont.
Oh to be here.
Another can of pineapple needing to be chopped into little bits. Ambrosia for dessert with what's left of the marshmallows the lady down the street made from her grandmother's recipe card file. Not quite the real thing, but there's not enough sugar in the stores. The old receipt calling for maple syrup, and it not rationed.
One for the war effort and two nephews off fighting Rommel in the sand. Funny. If Father hadn't been offered that professorship at the University of London, they'd be fighting Japan off in the Pacific.
In school in America at the time, with a brother born after, but linked. No way to sacrifice in person with a new tire not bought until the old one is totally in shreds, though. Stuck waiting on something to happen.
The alumnae newsletter coming in the mail, and a memory.
An afternoon or maybe two if you counted how long the flower chain took to make . . . matching dresses with more ruffles than a toddler's party dress . . . Someone's niece leading the thing decked out like a painter's palette with spots in red, green, purple, and yellow for the paint, and an oar from the rowboat in the park done up like a brush . . . off to the church to practice the commencement march and about to be blown out over the world like a dandelion seed in flight, diploma in hand with joy sure to be found wherever you landed, instead of being an old lady waiting it to find you.
Class Day, 1908. Fitchburg State Normal School (now Fitchburg State University) Fitchburg, Massachusetts USA. Photographer not given. Cirio Library, Fitchburg State University General Photograph Collection. via Digital Massachusetts. Fair use license. Photograph itself in the public domain due to age. https://www.digitalcommonwealth.org/search/commonwealth:5x21vr253.