February

A month of birthdays, billets-doux and candy hearts. Today, February 9, 2010, my sister Esther and I will meet in cyber space for our regular cyber chat. While sipping our mugs of coffee, we each will enjoy a cupcake in remembrance of our sister, Adeline’s birthday. She would have been 86.

If she were here with me in Houston, I think she would believe the silver cloud streaks, forcing their way around and thru the dark rain clouds, as a happy omen for the year ahead. We always pretended the way you spent your birthday was a harbinger of the year to come.

Adeline’s month was always filled with excitement. For Valentines Day, as students, we spent hours cutting hearts out of colored construction paper, pasting them on paper doilies and writing messages in crayon to give our classmates.

In those days, President Washington’s and President Lincoln’s birthdays were emphasized in all the grades creating an atmosphere of celebration.
I have so many wonderful memories of Adeline. Some of my favorites are when her four children were well past the baby stage and involved in school grade activities. I always enjoyed visiting in the afternoons when they came home from school. Mike was always in need of a new pair of track shoes. Ginny would head for the kitchen and make French fries for her after school snack. David made mustard sandwiches and Mark’s expertise was fudge, the best I ever ate!

Once, when Adeline and I were well into our senior years, and she was recuperating from a serious illness, I casually mentioned in our phone conversation, that she had to get well so we could ride our Harleys cross country.

Of course we had no Harleys, had never been on a Harley, didn’t know anyone with a Harley and knew that we would NEVER even sit a Harley. We both had a good belly laugh at the ridiculous idea of rolling down the highway with King of the Road models, wearing Harley helmets and Harley gloves. From that moment on we played the Harley game.

On one of Adeline’s visits we went to the local library and checked out a beautiful coffee table book on the history of Harleys with photos of all the models. We learned to recognize which model went with what year, and the details of each.

One day while shopping at Wal-Mart we discovered the tiny Harley models in the toy department. That’s when we started collecting them. Adeline even had the Harley police models.

A week later, after Adeline had gone back to California, Esther and Cindy came to visit and brought me a present from Adeline. It was in a brown bag. When I opened it, there was a beautiful pair of black leather Harley gloves! Even the brown paper bag was an official Harley item. They told me that when they had driven Adeline to New Orleans for her flight home to California, they went to the Harley store and bought the gloves before going to the airport. They are among my most prized possessions!