An envisioning. 1971, August, and the beach house on the Connecticut shore with the skies sparkling after a storm.
Oh to be here.
Madison and that a treat. A house with back steps you can sit on to eat watermelon, spitting the seeds into the yard with a watermelon vine starting up over in the corner. Always a treat it is to teach the little ones how to spit seeds properly, doing your best to aim for whichever dog is wandering past. No one else ever finding that a proper thing to teach anyone. No, thinking reading Kate Greenaway stories is correct behavior for an Auntie, but not something fun you can do in shorts, a T-shirt, and an old pair of tennis shoes.
Charred steak for dinner with ash spots from where it fell through the grill and ended up being cooked right on the charcoal. Egg salad bits landing on the last clean t-shirt on the line, and a trip into town for more.
Fun yes but with a bright red ghost for a memory . . . the fun kind not the scary white ones from Halloween . . . ladies sundress at the end of the rack, the kind Auntie liked to wear to flirt in when the boys came around looking for that gorgeous cousin, the one whose main boyfriend competed in those ice yacht regattas up on the Hudson . . . a pretty print and fun even if you only ever wear lady lawyer clothes in navy blue with boring black pumps.
1950s red sundress made from silkscreened fabric designed, printed, and manufactured by Shaheen - Honolulu in the Plumeria Garden design in a red colorway. It was Alfred Shaheen who transformed Hawaiian shirts into a fashion must-have in the 1950s. https://www.instagram.com/xtabayvintage/p/DLTAzDPBRPv/