As I was walking around in triple digit temperatures with humidity hanging around 90%, I was thinking about the soldiers wearing those wool uniforms and how miserable they would have been. Then I started thinking about the "southern belles" sashaying in pantaloons, hoops, coursets, and long dresses. No wonder they swooned all the time.
Anyway, as we were leaving the fort, there was a family getting out of their truck, toting fishing poles, coolers, tackle boxes and all sorts of paraphenalia. The fort was right on the beach, so there were many there just to take advantage of the water. They were hustling around trying to get all their stuff together and we heard them yelling at each other..."hey, John, did you get the tackle box?"...."who got the fishing poles"..."mom, did you get the picnic stuff?" And then we heard one little voice say, "I got the shubble."
She was standing there in the midst of all the urgency and chaos of grown men, fidgety boys, a haggered mom. There were little chubby legs protruding from a tiny pink swimsuit, blonde curls touching her shoulders, and a red shovel gripped in dimpled hands. She was ready.
I kept thinking about that little girl and her "shubble" and thinking how that what is important to some may not be important to others. Some people need all the bells and whistles and some people just need a "shubble".
I look back at my Grandma and Papa. Papa never drove a car. Grandma didn't wear the latest fashions. Almost everything they survived on they either raised, grew, or made themselves. We had to walk outside to use the bathroom, we took a bath in a big tub in the middle of the kitchen, and the kids all slept in one big bed under quilts that grandma made.
Grandma and Papa weren't wealthy people, but they had something they passed down to each of their kids and each of their grandkids...love and kindness and memories.
I've thought about Grandma and Papa alot in the last week. Because of the storms, we had no power or water and I felt very inconvenienced, but this is how Grandma and Papa lived each day. They raised all their children and a few grandchildren this way, but I never, ever heard either one of them grumble or complain.
Yes, they did get plumbing and electricity later on in life, and they even had a phone which was on a party line! Yet, they still lived simply. While everyone was hustling and bustling to get new cars, new houses, new clothes, new things, Papa and Grandma lived in the same house, with the same furniture, the same dishes, the same clothes....and it was wonderful.
