Friday, February 4, 2011

catalpa

this isn't him .
 he was more handsome
but kinda like this.
when my sisters and i were little girls, we lived next door to an elderly gentleman who's name was  Mr. Blackburn.
he was a very slender man and walked with a cane. he wore a felt stetson and under it his hair was snow white. he wore a white shirt with his sleeves rolled up, suspenders that held up his creased black pants and a bow tie- unless it was hot. then he would take his tie off and unbutton his collar, which exposed the curve of his ribbed sleeveless undershirt.
he had a dark brown shingled house with two catalpa trees in his front yard.
in the shade of the catalpa trees sat two folding lawnchairs. always available for someone to come sit next to him for a visit or a chaw.
he chewed tobbaco. he could spit without you hardly even noticing.
one of my favorite things to do was to go sit in the extra lawn chair. he had white hair on his brown wrinkled arms. his fingernails were clean and flat with creases over the white half moons.
his eyes were light water blue. he'd rub his fingers tips with his thumb while he sat in the shade.
i remember his voice though he didn't talk all that much.
gentle gravely with a quiet cough of a laugh.
he asked little girl questions to strike up a conversation.

he would let us all go in his backyard on summer mornings and pick blackcap berries to put on our cereal or we would climb his apple trees or play tootsie toys around his maple tree roots.

one day he invited us into his house to show us a surprise.
his house was dark and smelled pungent with tobacco and maybe cookies.
he took us in the living room and showed us a wind up doll.
it was a man sitting in a chair.
i probably don't remember this right but i think when he turned the key on the man's back, the man stood up from his chair , put his hand with a cigar to his mouth, the cigar lit up, and as his arm went down again, he blew smoke out his mouth and he sat back down.
is that possible? all i know is that i was little and i was frightened and amazed! gasps and giggles and 'do it again'!s
i loved Mr. Blackburn. i have thought of him many many times in my life. God bless you Mr. Blackburn for being such a sweet memory.

3 comments:

  1. awh.......
    we had Mr. Lutz.
    My sisters & I always talk about him.
    Thank goodness he was in our lives.

    Thank God for old men.

    and, I think that's why I like my husband now!

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  2. I remember the mechanical man smoking a cigar, too. We got to see it on our birthday or when we lost a tooth, I can't remember which. But I do remember him giving us a quarter for such momentous days, and that was a king's ransom for a 6-year old. (25 penny candies!)He was from England, so he spoke quite properly, do you remember that? And he had yellow tea roses that smelled exactly like Earl Gray. God bless Mr. Blackburn! xx, d

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