"Your mother is coming to the school for "Parents Day", the teacher said. Those words stirred up fear in Carrie Mae. "She ain't my real mama". Carrie Mae said this loud but it still was not as loud as her heart was beating. Carrie Mae loved her grandmother but she was ashamed of her. She was old and she dressed funny. Then she instantly felt her heart drop. School was hard enough for her without her grandmother showing up. This visit would only give the children more ammunition to talk about her. With a heavy heart and tears in her eyes, Carrie Mae, hurried out of the classroom. She had to think of a way to change her grandmother's mind about coming to the school. It was not that she did not love her grandmother, it was that her grandmother did not look like the other children's mothers. Their mothers were young and dressed really nice.
Carrie Mae remembered the first time she felt ashamed of her "Grand-Mama". They were waiting on her Uncle to take them into town to get groceries and go shopping. Carrie Mae loved the 1st of the month. She would run to the mailbox and grab the Social Security checks before the mailman pulled away from the box. Those checks meant that she would be able to go shopping and pick out an outfit. She could barely sit still as she waited on her Grand-Mama to come out the room. She knocked on the bedroom door for the 3rd time asking her Grand-Mama was she ready. Her Grand-Mama opened the door and the perfume cloud made Carrie Mae's eyes water. Was that the mail-order perfume called Charlie she was wearing? It smelled like her Grand-Mama had on Charlie and the 3 angels. Then Carrie Mae noticed she had on her favorite shades. Carrie Mae bit down on her lip and rolled her eyes because she knew she had hid those glasses. She kept wondering how her Grand-Mama kept finding them. She dare not destroy them because her Grand-Mama would punish her. They were round green glasses which reminded you of a frog. Carrie Mae and her siblings called them, "The Froggers". Then that wig...the recycled cotton candy looking wig, was slightly to the side. She could see her Grand-Mama's beady edges showing on the side. Grand-Mama had on cotton stockings that were rolled up around her knees and she had tied hair ribbons around them to hold them up. Carrie Mae was literally horrified.
Oh it gets better, Grand-Mama had tied a shoestring around the waist of her dress for a belt. As Carrie Mae stood there, she heard her Uncle pull up in the yard. She heard his engine shake and knock as he turned off the motor. She had to act fast, there was no way she was going to town with her Grand-Mama looking like this. She heard the creak of the car door and her Uncle shoes on the gravel. "Think fast Carrie Mae", her brain whispered to her. Her Uncle called out and asked if they were ready as he climbed up the wooden steps. Carrie Mae opened her mouth and said, "I am sick, I can't go to town".
Hey my favorite reader, this is your favorite Ruby Girl. I hope you are enjoying the story about my mom. Some facts are true, some are not, a little is my story mixed in with hers. As I write these blogs, I am drawn back into my childhood. Certain things come to remembrance, like how my Granny loved those green glasses. I too used to hide them. As God gives me the "next" blog, I will write. So did you forget about my Grandfather and that question he was about to be asked? Well I didn't, so stay tuned for more-Ruby Girl 📷
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