"Aunt Louise"

When I was a child we lived in the 1200 block of east 35th Street in Savannah. She lived in the big white house on the hill and we lived down on the corner. About five houses separated us.

She was tall and stately and very attractive. She was my friend Loucinda's mom so I saw a lot of her while growing up. Her house was unique to me and I loved spending time there. Lou and I would play with our dolls in her walk-in closet and parade in our "fancy" dresses up and down the stairway leading to the front door.

As we got older Lou and I became very industriuous with our style creations. We used our hula hoops as a means to make our skirts stand out all around us. The cloth was sewn onto the hula hoops (with some help from our moms) and we became the "bells of the ball."

After we got the dress thing down, we decided to plan our "weddings" to be held in front of Aunt Louise's house. It was truly a grand affair. On the day of our "weddings" we ascended those steps and married our imaginary husbands with only our proud moms in attendance. Even today I recall how real all of our play was.

One note on those hula hoop skirts.......sometimes we played "dress up"on the front porch of my house. My Aunt Althea had brought my mom two beautiful planters that were made in Italy. Loucinda managed to get her hoop skirt tangled in one of the planters. With one swift movement she, the hoop skirt, and the planter all fell off the porch. The planter lay in shards. Moma was not happy to say the least.

Aunt Louise was at my mom's funeral last week. She is still tall, stately and beautiful. It was so good to see her again. So many memories came flooding back.

She was so much a part of my childhood.....and did I mention her cooking, the best in the world. Thank you Lord for my friend and her mom.