AtoZ of Melody McDonald: “L” is for Lightning #AtoZBlogging Challenge#

As everyone knows, it NEVER rains in Southern California, so when Melody and her Grandmother drove across the country in 1960, there was a new adventure. Of course, it’s not so that it never rains in Southern California, and Melody HAD seen lightning, of course, but her experience had been a somewhat watered-down version of what she experienced during her exciting vacation. The story below, though seemingly impossible, actually happened and Melody has never, ever forgotten it. I hope you enjoy the tale.

 



Melody, a few months after
 this story took place.
Around 1960

 

Basin, Wyoming Oug. 14, 1960

Dear Grampa,

I am having so much fun. Nauturly it rains every place we go. It thundered and lightninged all night long. I hope you like your card.

Love Melody

 

“Thunder and lightning” was minimizing the “fireworks display” that had gone on the night before. In fact, it was quite unlike anything that Melody had experienced before, and very exciting. The whole thing had begun while she was in the barn with Joe Sterling, in Wyoming, helping him milk the cow. They had been standing in Bossy’s stall, while Joe was getting the stool ready to sit down and begin when the first loud crash had sounded just outside the door. The frightened Bossy kicked the stool over and just as Joe bent over to put it right a second crash set the barn to ringing; simultaneously, a long flash of light entered through the back door of the building and left it through the front. Old Joe stood up as quickly as his tired, surprised body would permit and stared down at Melody, eyes bulging with wonder.

“Melody,” he said in a somewhat strangled voice, “please tell me that you just saw what I just saw. Please,” he pleaded softly.

“Yeah, I saw it. What was it?” 

“That,” he whispered dramatically, reassured that he wasn’t imagining things and gesturing towards the open doors, “was a bolt of lightning. It’s a good thing,” he continued in a rather more normal voice, “we were here beside Bossy and not standing in the middle of the corridor. We’d’ve been a pile of ashes instead of standing here discussing what just happened.”

“Wow! You mean lightning like the stuff that flashes during a rainstorm? At home we just see it in the sky and it looks like a fork. Gee,” she said, shaking her head in wonder, “I didn’t know it could open doors like that and just walk through a barn. Neat! Do you think it will happen again? Just wait until I tell Gramma Mary; she won’t believe it.”

“You can just bet your boots she won’t believe it; nobody will believe that a bolt of lightning went right through here without burning up everything it touched. Mind you, it didn’t touch much except for the back door. Let’s go see if it left some kind of mark on the door so we can prove it went through here. We’d better not say anything if there’s not, ‘cause no one’s gonna believe anything except that we’ve been seeing things that aren’t really there, and that’s not too good.”

They both walked gingerly towards the door, taking care to not touch anything on the way; even though it seemed that the lightning hadn’t touched anything, there was always a chance that some kind of electrical current had been left behind. The first hint that they found that something odd had happened was that one of the doors to the barn was hanging slightly off-center because of a damaged hinge; this had been caused by the force produced by the lightning as it flung the door inward. There were a number of new dents, but these could have been caused by any number of factors found in and around the Black Angus farm.

“Nope, there’s nothing here except this hinge that will bear out our story. I guess we’d best not say anything to anyone. I won’t say anything if you don’t, and I won’t anyway, even if you do.”¹

 

Have you ever had a strange experience during a thunder and lightning storm? Would you like to share it with us?

 

¹The preceding is an excerpt from Old McDonald Had a Funny Farm 2: New Friends and Old by Mary McDowell Purpari, publication date pending

 

Copyright © April 14, 2016.  Mary Purpari. All Rights reserved.

AtoZ of Melody McDonald: “K” is for Kisses #AtoZBloggingChallenge

There are different kinds of kisses and when Melody was a child, her very favorite kind of kisses was the kind she got from her grandparents and parents on her cheek.

Another kind was the chocolate kind made by Hershey’s and which they got only on very rare occasions, like at the Coca Cola Company Christmas party or once in a while in their Christmas stockings. Honey and Ross were of the opinion that their delightful, ever-active children didn’t need more energy than they already had. That’s okay – when Melody was old enough to make her own decisions regarding chocolate, she made up for all the uneaten chocolate of her childhood. When she made her way to Italy, the Italian kisses, known as Baci Perugina, were her undoing. Oh my… But I digress.

But, Melody outgrew her childhood and when she turned twelve, she had the first kiss of another type. His name was Steve Crayfish. It was just before Christmas and this new Steve had just taken Melody to the junior high school Christmas dance. They’d been accompanied to the dance by Steve’s mom, while Ross brought them home…

Remember, this is Southern California, and at a certain point – the room becoming too warm – Steve accompanied Melody outside the school gym and then, in a completely unexpected move, he kissed her. On the LIPS!!!!!! Needless to say, but I’ll say it anyway, she was shocked and a little embarrassed… at first. But then, she thought it was kind of neat and kissed him back. (Did I ever mention that Melody was a bit, shall we say, precocious?) It was a very chaste kiss and was never repeated. Probably because Steve’s family moved away shortly after the beginning of the new year.

Her next kiss came around a year and a half later, during the summer before she started high school. There was this cute boy named Larry who was visiting his aunt and uncle who lived down the street from the McDonalds, who she liked a lot, but he was going to be a junior when school started again and she would be a mere freshman. She didn’t realize that she had blossomed during the summer… Anyway, she was washing the dishes after dinner one night when Larry came in. He usually came to deliver messages for his aunt and uncle, but that particular evening he headed straight for Melody, just while she was washing a big, sharp knife. He called out to her and she turned to look at him; she was so startled when he kissed her, that she involuntarily tightened her grip on the knife. Unfortunately for her, it turned out that the part of the knife she was holding was the blade…

As Honey disinfected and bandaged Melody’s hand, Larry quietly finished washing the dishes and left. That was the last time he came over and she never saw him again.

Her next kiss was again an unusual awakening. It also turned her completely off French kissing. She got a birthday card on her sixteenth birthday that said “Happy Sweet Sixteenth: If you swear you’ve never been kissed…” open card “…You have a perfect right to swear!” Well, at least she couldn’t swear about that.

Those random kisses were the only ones she got until she hit college. But, that is a different story and different times…

 

 

Copyright © April 14, 2016. Mary Purpari. All Rights Reserved.

A-Z of Melody McDonald J is for Jump Ropes and Jacks

Although Melody spent a great deal of time with Steve Evens, she also spent an even greater deal with her girlfriends during breaks at school. And one of the things she liked to do, other than play tetherball, was play jump rope. She was pretty good at jumping rope all by herself – probably because it was one of things that people said she couldn’t do (aka the magic words).

But, it was more fun, indeed, to play up rope with her friends, especially as they graduated from a simple back and forth with the rope, as we sang “Bluebells, cockle shells, easy ivy overs” and then they began swinging the rope over the jumper’s head. The rope turners would then star going faster and faster, counting. If one of the jumpers made it to 50 without tripping, she would then exit without having to turn the rope.

Melody’s favorite, though, was double Dutch. That was tricky, and it took her a little while to gain enough speed and confidence to give it a try. Melody’s biggest problem was that she had way too much energy, and she could actually go an entire break without stopping.

And then, Chinese jump rope made it to Bay View Elementary School. Melody and her friends took advantage of her father’s newspaper delivery job and used the rubber bands to make huge chains that they could do all the intricate footwork involved in Chinese jump rope. It was easy to get tangled up in those double rows.

Another game that she enjoyed was playing jacks. She was very good at jacks and rarely had to start over from the beginning. Even when they got to the last stage, when they had to gather up all ten jacks AND the ball BEFORE the ball could hit the ground. This was one game where being a tomboy stood her in good stead, because she used the same skills she used for playing marbles (she won all the puries in the neighborhood games.)

Did you have any favorite games that you played as a child?

 Copyright © April 12, 2016 by Mary Purpari. All Rights Reserved.

 

The A-Z of Melody McDonald “I” is for Imagination

Melody had a very vivid imagination, which often got her into a lot of trouble. It was also the reason that her parents rarely left her without reading material for long periods of time. They valued the integrity of the house and remembered often the moment that Melody’s chemistry set almost left a very large hole in the roof. It was, of course, her last chemistry set. Oh well; it had been fun while it lasted.

However, her imagination was also one of the reasons that people who knew her well tended to question the veracity of the stories she told. Not that she was lying; in her mind, these things really happened. (Saturday’s story of the haunted house trailer was true, though). It was this imagination that allowed her to write stories, too.

When she was in the fifth grade, she wrote a series of stories about a little fire-breathing dragon that she and her brother Mark named Hotstuff. The reason Mark had the right to help name him was because Mark was the illustrator of the collection (even Melody had to admit that Mark drew much better than she did).

This little dragon slightly resembles our Hotstuff 

The series was actually so well-liked that one of the school teachers, Mrs. Dietrich, who taught the hearing-impaired children, asked if she could borrow it to share with the children in her class. Melody and Mark entrusted it to her care; it was the last time they saw it again. At that time, the only copying machines were mimeographs and the process was long and unavailable to young children. Mrs. Dietrich had been transferred to another school and so the little book went with her.

It may only have been a coincidence, but many years later, when Melody was a mother, she was watching cartoons with her little daughter. She looked closer at the TV and almost fell off her chair; there, on the screen, was a little dragon that looked exactly like another little dragon she had seen almost thirty years earlier, whose name was Hotstuff. The story-line was also a more than a little familiar, too. But, without a personal copy, there wasn’t much she could do about it. At least a lot of people could enjoy the fruits of Melody’s and Mark’s vivid imagination.

Another example of what some say was Melody’s imagination was Fluffy. Melody insists to this day that Fluffy truly existed; she carried that little ball of feathers all over creation with her. And, she wasn’t the only one who saw him. Her Grammy saw him, too.  

She found Fluffy one day as she was lying out in the backyard counting ants. It was another of those boring summer days when she had nothing to do and that usually tended to get her into trouble. She had awoken from her five minute nap perfectly refreshed (or at least as much as was possible on a hot summer’s day in Southern California) and raring to go. Unfortunately for her, her brothers and sister were still sleeping and Honey had told her to be quiet. She had already counted two hundred forty-nine ants…

And then she saw the little ball. It was weird the way it kept popping up, and some might have called it an imaginary friend. Indeed, no one else saw it except Grammy. In fact, even Melody didn’t remember putting it in her suitcase when she went for a week to Grammy and Grampa’s house, but Grammy found it there in the suitcase as she was helping Melody put her clothes in the chest-of-drawers. But then again, she and Grammy had a lot in common…

She imagined being a wild horse running on the plains; an eagle, flying high above in the sky; sitting on clouds.  She dreamed of singing like an angel and of becoming a writer.

Maybe it was because of her imagination that people imagined that she lived in a world all her own… It could be, but there is one thing you could say about her: when you were with Melody, you could count on not being bored.

Did you have a wonderful imagination when you were a child. Did you have an imaginary (according to others) friend?

Copyright © April 11, 2016. Mary Purpari. All Rights Reserved.

A to Z of Melody McDonald: “H” is for Haunted House #AtoZBloggingChallenge

In reference to Melody and her explorations, perhaps one of the most compelling was the one where she and her friend Steve went to explore the Acacia Street haunted house.

One day, walking home from school, Steve said to Melody, “I found a haunted house; wanna come see it?” Did she want to go see it? What a question! Of course she wanted to see it! She tore into the house, put on her play clothes, tore back out the door and caught up with Steve before he reached the corner: it was a two house walk. She did shout out to Honey that she was going to Steve’s house, so at least Honey knew what to name the cyclone that whipped through her living room.

Steve was already wearing jeans, but he also had his books with him, so they dropped them off on the way to the haunted house on Acacia St. And then, they were off. Acacia St. was just around the next corner after Steve’s house.

When they arrived at the haunted “house” (it was really a trailer) Melody knew as soon as she got there that it really was haunted, even if it wasn’t really a house. The door was hanging on one hinge and it was screeching as the wind blew it back and forth. It looked like a house from a typical cowboy movie ghost town.  With a miniscule bit of trepidation – the atmosphere really was eerie, even in the bright sun – but, tiptoeing quietly, they edged their way to the creaking door. Steve, ever the gentleman, let Melody go in first. She carefully turned her head around the corner and shrieked. Steve bumped into a paralyzed Melody in his hurry to see what their exploration adventure had brought them to. The drops on the blood on the floor stopped him for a moment, too, but then their intrepidity returned and they entered the house and started following the trail of blood. The fabric on the furniture in the house was torn and tufts of filling were strewn across the creaky, rain-sodden floor of the trailer. Melody jumped back when she saw something moving ghostlike from the corner of her eye; she landed on Steve’s foot, causing him to shout in pain. Melody turned and glared at him and he shrugged his shoulders. They avoided the ants and flies crawling around on the floor, but Steve just couldn’t resist picking up the shed snake sin lying on the floor.

And then, Melody froze as they reached the door into the kitchen. Steve also looked into the room; the look of was horror that appeared on his face mirrored the one on Melody’s. The blood on the kitchen floor, almost black from the presence of flies and ants, seemed much fresher than the tiny drops dotting the other floors, but it was the giant blood-stained knife lying in the center of the floor that inspired their terror. The slamming door was too much for them: they turned around and skedaddled out of the trailer as fast as their legs would carry them. They didn’t stop running until just before they reached Steve’s house.

Right then and then, even before they could properly breathe, they vowed to each other that they would never, ever tell another soul about what they had seen. Who could they tell, anyway? Melody’s parents would shoot her if they knew she had been on Acacia Street; she was only supposed to go as far as Steve’s house. And, who would believe them? Melody’s imagination was well-known, and Steve was just as imaginative as Melody. Or almost, anyway. Nah, it was better to just leave things the way they were; now, if they could just convince their imagination to leave it alone…

The above story is true. I thought I had told Honey, but I guess I kept my word. When I was talking to her last night, I said, “Who could we have told?” She suggested, “Your parents, maybe?” And I said, “Right, and risk being grounded? Are you nuts?”

There you have it folks. Have you ever explored a haunted house in your lifetime? I mean, other than the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland/ Disney World. I’d love to hear about it.

 

Copyright© Mary Purpari. April 4, 2016. All Rights Reserved.

 

A to Z of Melody McDonald: “E” is for Exploring #AtoZBlogging Challenge

Another thing that Melody liked doing was exploring. There was never a single spot ANYWHERE that did not come under Melody’s careful scrutiny; no tree was left unclimbed (did I ever mention that you would be safe in calling Melody a tomboy?); no alleyway uncombed (unless she was bodily dragged away) and no cinder-block left un-poked or unturned (you never knew if there might be a blue-belly lizard hiding in some chink there…).

When she wasn’t busy hunting for lizards under rocks or blocks, she was busy exploring with her friend Steve Even. And, when the two of them started exploring, watch out! That’s when her exploring sometimes got her into some kind of trouble.

Steve moved into the neighborhood just before school started in the third grade, but Melody

Blue Belly Fence Lizard

didn’t meet him until school started. He was in her class, and she really disliked him at first, because all you had to do was look at him to know he was Trouble with a capital “T”, but then, when she found out they had a really neat tree in his yard with a Tarzan vine hanging from it (it was really a rope, but hey! Melody had no compunctions about using her imagination to create memorable moments), she was ready to join forces. And whatever other misgivings she might have about him, he liked animals almost as much as she did.

Together, they explored places that alone they might have had some qualms about. One of the places they explored was a haunted house (see “H” is for Haunted House, to be posted in the future). Another was what they called the peacock farm, which indirectly caused a great many nightmares for our girl.

They also explored down at the Back Bay, which was really fun and just across the street from their school. There were a lot of small canyons running through the whole area surrounding the bay itself. The Back Bay has now been named a Natural Reserve, which should give a pretty good idea just how interesting it was.

They found gourds and lizards and snakes (no rattlesnakes). They found salamanders and jack rabbits and lots of holes that were, fortunately, too small for them to get into. They saw lots of birds and flowers. And gophers and lots of junk. And mud; lots of mud, along with salt. It was a paradise for two young explorers.

They also explored around Steve’s house and discovered Steve’s dad feeding their kittens brandy “because, he said, “it stunts their growth.” His intent was to create a breed of “teacup kittens”.  Both Melody and Steve were highly incensed over that particular discovery, because it went against everything they loved and believed in.

Everywhere they went there was something to be explored, and explore they did.

When you were a child did you like to explore new things (or old) or did you just like to read about explorations? Share with us, if you’d like.

By Basar - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8879663

The A-Z of Melody McDonald: “D” if for Drawing #AtoZBloggingChallenge

One of the things that Melody enjoyed doing more than anything else was drawing. She wasn’t too bad at it, either. Okay, so she would never win a prize competing against the Italian or Flemish artists. She might have had a chance against Picasso, because at least her results were understandable to someone with a normal mind-set. A frog looked like a frog and a horse looked like a horse… sort-of… With a little training she might have had hope.

Anyway, her Gramma Mary abetted her in her endeavors. Actually, all of the McDonald kids were aided and abetted by Gramma Mary, because she provided endless amounts of paper, and pencils were always there. Gramma Mary worked as a draftswoman for the U.S. Navy at San Pedro, California. And there, she was able to get her hands on pads of paper of two sizes, nicely stapled and ready to go.

She wasn’t stealing; this was recycled paper of a sort. When a project in her office was finished, the paper, instead of being shredded (this was before those times began) the papers were lined up, cut to size and stapled. They were the put out for the disposition of everyone in the office. And she would gather up a goodly amount and give them to the kids the next time she saw them.

And they made good (or bad) use of them. Melody had so much fun drawing seasonal scenes. At Halloween, she would draw haunted houses with rickety fences around them and ghosts stretching out of windows. There would be bats flying in the sky, jack-o-lanterns sitting on fence posts, and witches flying across full moons. Sometimes she would even draw clouds across the moon so all you could see would be their hats or shoes. So much fun!

And they had never-ending amounts of crayons, so those pictures were always colored after being drawn.

Christmas was time for Santa Claus, winter scenes, Christmas trees, snowmen, snowy skies, sleds plum full of presents and of course, the reindeer. I especially liked drawing Rudolph. I also liked drawing winter scenes and hanging them all over the house. I guess they just reminded her that it was winter, since there wasn’t that much snow falling on the ground there in Southern California.

There were horses in fields eating, running, rearing on two legs. Bugs, butterflies, giraffes, rabbits. The two animals she wasn’t very good at were cats and dogs, strangely enough.

She still likes to draw, especially for the enjoyment of little children. She still can’t draw cats or dogs, though.