The Parlor, 1952

     I hurry home to watch “Howdy Doody” every afternoon in the blue-carpeted parlor of Mammaw’s house.  My first stop is in the back bedroom to scoop up my two-month-old cousin Jarrell and carry him through the series of French doors that connect the rooms in the hall-less house. I carry Jarrell to the parlor and place him on the gold satin camel back sofa while I arrange our child-sized rocking chair in the middle of the rectangular room, facing the small black and white RCA TV.  Light filters in through white lace curtains and ivory colored paper shades that dress the three east-facing windows behind the sofa.  Behind us, as I laugh at ClaraBell and cuddle Jarrell, sits one of the two front doors to the house, accompanied by a tall window also dressed in lace and ivory. At Christmas, a seven-foot blue spruce tree stands in front of this window, casting its magic and waiting for Santa.  Before us, behind the TV that now shows Princess Summer-Fall-Winter-Spring’s face, rises the unused fireplace, flanked by two deep window seats.  Sometimes I look in the window seats to see what Mammaw has.  They smell of very old paper and dust and I sneeze.  I sometimes sit in these window seats and read or listen to the tall phonograph that stands near the French doors leading into the family room.  Sometimes my Aunt Helen, Jarrell’s mom, will play Frank Sinatra  or Nat King Cole records on it.  A gilt oval mirror, baroque in manner, hangs above the fireplace, so high no one can see into it.  It reflects the wall above the front door opposite it, and only the tallest people can glimpse the top of their heads as they walk by.  Jarrell and I have the room to ourselves these afternoons. Holding Jarrell in my lap so he faces forward, I rock as we watch Buffalo Bob and Howdy interact with the Peanut Gallery.  No one comes into the room to trouble us, and all too soon the show ends. I take Jarrell back to his crib in the back of the house and give him a hug and a kiss.  Tomorrow will soon be here, along with Howdy and all his friends.