This old photograph makes me smile, and sometimes makes me laugh right out loud!
I remember the day so vividly, when my grandmother and I took a trip to Silver Dollar City, an amusement park of sorts in Branson, Missouri.
I don’t recall the year, but it was in the fall, and Granddad had died a few years earlier. Grandmother had been fighting cancer, and had lost a lot of her hair, so she was wearing a turban. She just wanted to get away for a long weekend, and I was so thrilled that she asked me to go with her.
She wanted me to drive her car, and I’ve always been a two-footed driver, using my right foot for the gas and my left foot for the brake. I never had the need to drivec standard transmission cars, so with my Virgo linear brain, it just makes sense to use one foot per pedal.
As we drove along, I felt Grandmother’s eyes on my feet, as I rested my left foot on my heel, near the brake. She kept asking me not to press on the brake while I was driving, and I kept telling her that my foot was near, but not touching, the brake, until it was necessary. I knew it made her nervous, but that’s just the way I’ve always driven, and it’s prevented several accidents through the years. She was a bit stressed, not convinced that I wasn’t wearing out her brakes. But once we’d been on the road for a while, she did her best to ignore my feet…
We arrived at Silver Dollar City early in the day, and for a while we just strolled through the walkways, taking in the crisp, cool air, and all the sights and sounds. With every step we both felt the stress falling away, and we were excited to have this time together.
According to their website, SDC is “an internationally awarded 1880s-style theme park that features over 40 thrilling rides & attractions, live shows & concerts, 100 resident craftsmen demonstrating America’s heritage crafts…” There were antiques, which I’ve always loved, (I’ve always felt like I was born 100 years too late), and there were craftsmen and women working as their ancestors did in days gone by. There were blacksmiths, wood workers, people making things from sheep‘s wool, and some were churning butter. It really was like stepping back in time…
It was all quite fascinating, and we enjoyed taking our time, strolling through the park and soaking everything up. Several hours into our adventure, we both were wanting a snack. Grandmother has always loved sweets, and the smell of funnel cakes hung thick in the air, like a warm blanket.
We got our funnel cakes, then found a bench to sit on, so we could watch the people passing by. You can probably imagine what happened, with Grandmother in her navy blue overcoat…
Yes, a lot of that white powdered sugar ended up in her lap, and on the front of her coat. When she finished eating and stood up, she looked down at her coat and laughed right out loud! Her laughter was contagious, so then I couldn’t control myself. We laughed ourselves silly for a minute or two, then pulled ourselves together. We found a restroom and got her all cleaned up, then we carried on with our day. We had the best time, and the look on her face when she saw all that sugar, and her laughter, are several of my favorite memories.
This photograph still makes me laugh out loud sometimes.
And it reminds me that it’s okay to make a mess sometimes, and to laugh about it.
Life is messy. And life is short. We should laugh when we can, and cry when we need to…
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solitarylogic 
I’m just now finding this blog entry and so glad I did. It also triggered some memories for me.
My mom was a two-footed driver.
I have wonderful memories of my paternal grandmother; one was when she and my gramps took my sisters and me and two cousins on a car trip. We all sang an obnoxious song (think “100 bottles of beer on the wall” but different) that went on way too long for my grandparents who had to finally shut us down.
Thanks for the “trigger.”