Another look into the archives. I really don’t remember when this was published the first time; but most likely, a good twenty years ago. I hope you enjoy it.
If I could create a person in my imagination to laugh with and enjoy life, she would be a combination of people. Sort of a smorgasbord of the personalities that have touched my life. I would call her “Aunt Milly; the Lady of Laughter”. Nobody I’ve ever known would be quite as unique as Aunt Milly.
I can remember sitting beside her in the cab of my grandpa’s truck on the way home from church. I must have been about eight years old. My grandpa would be driving and my grandmother and I would be scrunched up in the cab with Aunt Milly. (Grandpa drove her home after preaching.) She would clack her false teeth together to rhythm only she understood. I used to wonder if I could have false teeth when I got old, and if I did, could I get Aunt Milly to teach me how to clack MY teeth like some weird-sounding castanets.
She had hair that was always in a tight bun at the back of her head. It was long and gray and pulled so taunt it gave me a headache to look at it sometimes. How many bobby pins did it take to hold that bun together? Someone once said her hair was long enough to use as a mop. I never saw her do that, but it would have been a sight to see.
Sometimes, I wondered if she had both oars in the water. I thought maybe the air was a little thin, but then again, maybe she was wearing her girdle too tight. – Girdles are a throwback from corsets. I saw one in a movie once; a corset, that is. It had to be laced up from the back and tied. That was back when ladies had help getting dressed. It was obvious they needed it. And of course when a lady got married, she spent half the honeymoon untying things.
Aunt Milly was known to say just about anything, to anybody, at anytime. When she wasn’t hiding in a closet, she was a lot of fun to be with. ~ Remind me to tell you sometime about the baptismal service at church. What she said that night, loud enough for everyone to hear, was funny! I mean the kind of funny in church when you KNOW you should not be laughing.
If we had been fortunate enough to own a swimming pool, it would have been Aunt Milly teaching me how to go skinny dipping. Of course, at night would be the only time for such an activity. Broad daylight would be much too brazen for a lady, wouldn’t it? Or would it? I can imagine Aunt Milly with a wicked grin and her eyes dancing with mischief.
She is a strange concoction of many people and places and times. She stands in my mind now, urging and encouraging me to write the best column I can. Let every column that is set in print, or posted on the web, be the best yet. I think she would be happy and maybe even proud of this rambling writer. Until next time…who’s the “Aunt Milly” in your life?
PS: I didn’t have a picture of an old truck but this 1957 Chevy is just gorgeous!
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