Spring-cleaning, in preparation for a visit from human rays of sunshine, happened a few weeks early of the season’s official arrival at the Woodburn household.
Masterpiece Maya, our four-year-old granddaughter, and her two-month-old sister, Awesome Auden, along with their parents, were coming to stay with us thanks to my daughter being a bridesmaid in a local wedding.
Additionally, my newlywed son and daughter-in-law were traveling in to help make it Thanksgiving in March.
And so the carpets were vacuumed, the hardwood floors mopped and windows washed; fresh sheets were put on beds and clean towels laid out in the Jack-and-Jill bathroom between our adult kids’ old bedrooms. By and by, the house looked ready for a photographer from “Better Homes & Gardens.” Even the “Welcome” mat was tidied up.
Then a tornado blew in through the front door. In a blink, our family room looked like an aisle in Toy Barn after an earthquake. The coffee table became an art studio and a couch was turned into a schoolroom filled with stuffed-animal students. A second couch was overtaken by a portable bassinet while a tsunami of other infant paraphernalia, including a baby swing and diaper changing station, flooded across the floor.
I was instantly reminded of “The Family Circus” comic. Specifically, a Sunday offering in color that ran on March 2, 1990, when my daughter was nearly 3 and my son a newborn. I know the exact date because it graced our refrigerator door for many years before eventually being moved into a keepsake shoebox when we moved to a new house with a new fridge. Even out of sight, its sentiment has remained affixed to my heart as if with invisible magnets.
It is said a picture is worth a thousand words, but this single panel – divided into five scenes – equals a novella, at the least…
In the opening image, Thelma has her hands on hips, as moms are universally wont to do when upset, and wears a matching annoyed countenance as she surveys the kitchen table that is covered with a coloring book and splayed crayons; a drawstring pouch of spilled marbles; a small tripod telescope, medium-sized toy dinosaur and, standing atop the back of an armchair in the background, large teddy bear.
In the next drawing, in another room, again with none of her four children in sight, Mother’s face remains stern as she looks at the floor that is cluttered with a football, Ping-Pong paddle and ball, a book left open, a couple of wooden alphabet blocks, a doll, a toy truck, and a small guitar.
Moving to the third image, Thelma peers out a window into the backyard at an abandoned jumble of a beach pail and shovel, a soccer ball and baseball bat, a skateboard and red wagon.
In image number four, Billy, Dolly, Jeffy and P.J. finally appear, all displaying looks of innocence as their mom, with eyebrows knitted in exasperation, scolds them: “When will all these toys ever be put away properly?”
Next comes the payoff pitch with Thelma holding her fingers to her mouth and wearing an expression of wistfulness. Inside a thought bubble she sees herself, her raven-black hair now white as a cotton ball, poking her head into the attic. Before her eyes in storage are all the toys from the previous scenes, some with gathered cobwebs, plus a stack of nursery rhyme books and various other childhood playtime treasures.
I wish you could have seen our house last weekend and how Billy-Dolly-Jeffy-P.J.-like wonderfully messy it was.
I can’t wait until it is again.
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Essay copyrights Woody Woodburn
Woody writes a weekly column for The Ventura County Star and can be contacted at WoodyWriter@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram at @woodywoodburn. His SIGNED books are available at www.WoodyWoodburn.com.
Personalized Signed copies of WOODEN & ME: Life Lessons from My Two-Decade Friendship with the Legendary Coach and Humanitarian to Help “Make Each Day Your Masterpiece” and “Strawberries in Wintertime: Essays on Life, Love, and Laughter” are available at WoodyWoodburn.com