424 Purisima

 

There it is in all its glory...where most of my memories begin...424 Purisima.  The home where, I am discovering, my love of all things vintage started.  This home represents all that I hold dear.

Those two little kids on the porch are Joe and me. Can you even imagine my surprise and good fortune in locating this photo?  This photo has been in my possession since our last road trip.  Joe sent a gargantuan suitcase, I am not kidding, home with me.  As he passed the suitcase off he said, "It's full of things you wanted."  That ominous statement left the suitcase sitting in the kitchen for the past three weeks. It mocked me each morning but I tossed my hair like my mother taught me and walked out the back door only to face it again at the end of each day.

The reality is that going through my mother's things this past year has taken its emotional toll.  There used to be a show called Life Laundry on BBC that reminded me of the whole emotional letting go of things but not people and definitely not memories.   So finally I felt strong enough and unzipped that mocking suitcase.  Who is crying now?  Just like Joe said, "Full of things I wanted."  Real treasures like only a grandmother could gather.  Lord have mercy.  I miss her so much. 

This is Minnie Marsh.  She was our beloved Aunt Minnie.  Her home seen on the right of the photo was directly next door to us and still exists today. Her home is where I ran to after kindergarten.  I realize now that I was seeking the comfort of the grandmothers that were so far away. 

What I can recall about Aunt Minnie is that she taught me how to play card games and that sometimes she would feed us.  It was always a new American treat like Campbell's chicken noodle soup.  She allowed us to drink ice cold milk something we never did at home and made us cold roast beef sandwiches with mayo on bunny bread (Wonder). Aunt Minnie decorated for major holidays and what I really remember was an Easter tree decorated with pastel colored blown out eggs with bobby pins used for hangers.

The lot next to Minnie's house is filled with commercial buildings now.  That big building in the background was my junior high school, Manuel F. Cunha.  I like the sound of junior high school so much better than middle school or intermediate school.

I spent my youth on this one block and it was good.  See the orange calendula that I mentioned in a previous post.  Picket fencing, vintage roses and fuchsias.  A cottage garden was planted in my memory long ago.