I realize that February is a month to talk about love, sweethearts and such. At 83, however, I am into more practical things. I’ve been trying since I was 16 to have a ‘sweetheart’, whatever that is. I tried too many times! However, I learned that everyday life, like eating regularly, having no black and blue bruises or broken bones was more sensible. Plus, there is no one around to tell me that I am ugly and/or stupid. No, my life isn’t dull; I am not lonely and I appreciate the gift of every day. So let me share one of my ‘practical’ ideas…
Progress is great and all that, but sometimes it causes a conflict in our thinking. For instance, whatever happened to a bar of soap? When I visit my daughters’ homes, their bathrooms seldom have room for the many bottles of ‘liquid soap’. One seems to have her family’s preference so there is no wild choice to make. Count the granddaughters too; they also have their choices lined up on any available shelf. Of course, these are usually different scents from those Mama prefers. It is not easy to find a simple bar of soap to use in the bath.
Instead, there are dozens (hundreds?) of bottles of liquid soap available in all flavors, including strawberry, citrus, cherry, vanilla, and others too numerous to list. We can smell like any flavor of our choice. Isn’t it possible that these scents might clash with the perfume we use? Just a thought…
We have the same situation at the shampoo counter! We can have clean hair that smells like strawberries, lemons or whatever we prefer. Isn’t it confusing if our hair smells like lemons while our skin smells like strawberries? Throw in a little Red Door (my preference) or Joy (when I can afford it) or Taboo (ugh!) and we will be a walking… well, I’m not sure what that combination could be called!
Shouldn’t we consider the boy friends, husbands or lovers (?) who might really like the scent of our clean, lemony hair. As he moves away, he might kiss our arm or shoulder, which smells like strawberries. Might he wonder, “What happened; did I walk into another garden?” He might even think, for a moment, “Yikes, let me out of here; what happened to the fresh, clean scent of lemons?” He might find it difficult to breathe, with his nose filled with the various scents we chose. We might have believed these would bring him closer but overdoing it might chase him away.
When we walk around in department stores, we can find very expensive perfumed bars of soap available. In my opinion, which isn’t worth a hoot, these soaps are wonderful but to use only on special occasions. Definitely not for everyday use…unless we have a lot of money to spend on ourselves. Though I will admit that I use perfume for ME to enjoy; I might not be out where there are others.
When we have several grandchildren and great-grandchildren, we are fortunate to have the perfume we prefer! Those smiling little faces expect to be, and should be, remembered by Grandma on birthdays, Christmas and during visits.
Speaking of visits, we are also to have their favorite foods and/or teach them how to bake cookies…even homemade biscuits. Forget eggs, bacon or toast, they usually want cereal. Have you stood in front of the cereal section lately? Talk about decisions! What happened to plain old corn flakes? There must be hundreds of kinds of cereal to choose from, at least it seems that way to me. I can’t deal with soap and cereal at the same time. Choosing cereal is a story for another time!
ABOUT LURA ZERICK
83-year-old Lura Zerick is the mother of 5, grandmother of 12 and
great-grandmother of seven. She was born and raised in the Florida Panhandle and now lives on six acres of woods in S.E. Alabama, near Geneva.
She has been writing since 1965. Her articles are published in regional and national magazines. She has authored five books: Who Do You Think You Are? (1989), The Golden Olden Days, (2002) River Villa (2007) The House of Esther (2011) Getting Older and Enjoying It! (2004) (The last book was one of three chosen nationally to be featured in an article written by Donna Childress and published by the National Council on Aging in the Fall/Winter issue of their publication, INNOVATIONS)
Lura has composed lyrics and music of 70 gospel songs and recorded 15 songs on 2 CDs.. She sang show tunes and popular songs in nightclubs, a cruise ship, with several TV guest spots.
She wrote and produced a weekly, then daily, radio program, “Encouragement for Today’s Woman”; edited and published “Living with Hope”, a quarterly newsletter of the writings of women across America; co-hosted a 2-hour weekly radio program, “The Saturday Morning Show”; participated in and co-produced a Sunday afternoon gospel music radio program.
Lura was Executive Editor of a regional magazine, Grassroots South; Editor’s Assistant for an international publication, “Journal of Marital & Family Therapy”; wrote a newspaper column, “Encouragement for Today “ as well as features and news articles for various newspapers. Her articles have been published in Alabama Living, Spirit Led Woman, Just Between Us, Writer’s Digest, Mature Living, Christian Single, Army Flier, Army Times, Looking Back and other publications.
Lura is currently working on three books: Bible Quest, Feeding Our Spiritual Selves and Another Woman; Another Well, the story of her life.
As a survivor of years of domestic violence, Lura had no idea that her best and most rewarding years were in the future!
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