"Cash for the merchandise, cash for the button ho..."

Monday, March 28, 2005

Another month was nearly to a close and Collette had rather decided that Easter had not quite felt like Easter. Perhaps it was because it had come so early in the bitter cold and gray of an early March spring. She was undecided on the cause, but it left her feeling somewhat empty.

Church had mostly gone well. Judah seemed especially pleased as he conducted the choir on the “Hallelujah Chorus”. And Linnea was quite happy with her new dress and slippers. Carrie had even pinned up her curls into a lovely pile on the top of her head.

“Look at me spin, Collette,” Linnea called to her, as she twirled in a dizzy circle.

“Well, look at that,” Collette smiled.

Her lavender skirts spun out in a large violet puff.

The family get-together had been fun and amusing as usual, however. Lucia was her usual goofy self and Linus had suddenly grown many inches since Christmas. They were all quite stunned at the height gain he had taken since then. It was most unusual. Suddenly, Linus was no longer that little boy. He, too, had suddenly transformed overnight it seemed. Now only Francis and Linnea seemed to be in the little crowd.

It was comforting, however, to see everyone laughing heartily again together. Uncle Bob and Uncle Larry, Aunt Petunia’s brothers, were obnoxious and crazy as normal. And there were some games and ideas thrown around. Lucia and Carrie-Bri planned their trip to the Caribbean, potentially with the moms. Uncle Mo and Lucia and Dad and Carrie somehow always ended up in bantering fist fights and Tae Kwon Do kicking episodes. And by the end, the dads were giggling even more so than the girls, like little school boys.

For supper there was an abundance of good ham, pork, salads, creamy potatoes, and rolls. And for dessert, pies. Afterward, they gathered in the kitchen to hear Uncle Mo give an outstanding performance of a piece from the “Music Man”.

“Cash for the merchandise, cash for the button ho,

Cash for the cotton goods, cash for the hard goods,

Cash for the fancy goods.”

“Cool!”

“Cash for the noggins and the piggins…”

“Whoo-hoo!”

“…pickles and the flypaper…

Look whatayatalk, whatayatalk, whatayatalk, whatayatalk…

Ya can talk, ya can talk, ya can bicker ya can talk, ya can bicker ya can talk all ya want…

Seven, eight, nine, ten, twelve, fourteen, twenty-two, twenty-three…”

“Yes sir, yes sir.”

“…Now he doesn’t know the territory

Doesn’t know the territory?

…He’s a music man.”

“He’s a what?”

“He’s a what?

He’s a music man.”

“Yesssir, Yesssir.”

“But he doesn’t know the territory!”

“Yay!”

There was much hooting and hollering and clapping as he rambled through the entire thing with hardly a mistake.

Before departure, OLeif was obliged to show his tattoos around to the assembly.

“Now, what do they mean?” Grandma asked, upon inspection.

Lucia piped up from the blue, “It means – Grandmas rock!”