It Takes All Kinds

   

     In the midst of the safe-distancing due to coronavirus, I've been taking the opportunity to use up my stray note-cards, postcards, stationery to write to folks and hopefully brighten their physical mailboxes with a bit of color. I sent out more Happy Easter messages this April than ever before, and am now beginning to do Mothers Day greetings – hopefully, I will have thought of everyone in the next two weeks!

     One Mothers Day I especially remember was back in 1987. We were living in Oklahoma, and the girls and I were attending the First Presbyterian Church in Bartlesville on a somewhat regular basis. I had made friends with different women there, especially those with children close in age to my girls – I guess we just gravitated to one another. One woman in particular was in charge of the clown ministry at the church, and of course, I got involved with it too – although, it turns out I only dressed up in full clown-white a couple of times – but it was fun. Come to think of it, the girls and I were clowns at a nursing home one day, and I wrote up the story calling it Amanda Does a Party – Amanda was an infant in my arms, but dressed as a clown – a total hit of the afternoon!

     Anyway, my friend in charge of clown ministry was Sue. On Mothers Day I happened to ask if her family was doing anything special for her? She said her husband asked what celebratory meal he could fix for her – they always had their Sunday dinner at noon right after church. She told me she requested “lima beans and popcorn.”

     You know how a lot of thoughts can run through your head in an instant? Some of my immediate reactions were “is she mad at him and giving a smart-ass response?” and “is this a joke that I'm not getting – like maybe these are two things she hates?” or “are these the two things she likes best in the whole world?” and “who puts random lima beans and popcorn together in the same sentence?”

     It turns out Sue was serious! That was the meal she wanted. To her husband, it was not in the least an unusual request. Sue was content anticipating lima beans and popcorn when she got home!

     Over the many years since then I've come to realize popcorn and lima beans make a delightful request for a meal!

     There is a puzzle the girls had growing up that was my favorite – so much so that it still resides in our hall closet while the rest of their puzzles have found other homes. I have more fun putting it together with my grandchildren nowadays than the grandkids do. The puzzle has four separate scenes like in a comic strip. And indeed, the characters in the scenes are Snoopy and his trusty friend Woodstock. At the end Snoopy is saying, “It takes all kinds to make the world!”

     Old dog, new tricks!

20200422 53 it takes all kinds