pLEASE SEND ME AN EMAIL....Sentimentality

I DO NOT KNOW HOW TO PUT A COUNTER ON THIS BLOG.. so I have no idea when someone reads it....

iTS EARLY IN THE MORNING NOW...WILL TYPE QUICKLY AND RETURN TO SLUMBER LAND....

LAST NIGHT, I WENT ON A HOUSECALL.. A family in Maywood is moving to North Carolina...and called me to buy things...I wntered the house, and something was compforting.. It wasnt the incredible organized clutter...I thought maybe it was the man and womans warm smiles, but this instant feeling, made way for browsing.
The first thing I noticed, when I was able to focus my eye...one one thing....(as the rooms visible was filled..every available inch of tables top,shelf, wall space, floor space with STUFF. Lots of things that were RED...Red lamps, flowers, vases, glasses, .....everything...pillows on white sofas....I felt that I had entered a living Valentines day cards...and said to her, I see you hate the color red and she laughed..."HOney" she said, you aint see nuthing yet"
Back to the statement the first thing I focus on was a Victorian loveseat..with some kind of lion...stylized with a ball in its mouth.. I asked how much she wasnted..and she replied..."I bought that 25 or 30 years ago in CLIFTON.....its great" and I said I know, MARY....you bought that from me!!! Was in in a corner chair..and the man had a loving black dog named Snoopy/" HMM it was in Clifton on the corner...then she looked at me...stared for a few seconds,, laughed and said..YEP...that is you....you got older>>> "YEs, we all did!"
I got a tour of the entire house...There were collections of everything everywhere,, cups and saucers and tea pots, Red and blue depression glass, and a few more RED ROOMS... The red was a symbol of love, and passion and warmth...and this is so this woman....
I made a second trip thru the house and ended up in the kitchen.. Somethere was holding me , and it wasnt antiques...It was a pleasant haunting... THEN I GOT IT. and my eyes started to water., It was the aroma! SOmething was cooking and I asked her if it was beans with bacon or smoked neck bones, "How'd you know that? she asked with A southern intonation. Well Mary, this kitchen has the smell of one of my most favorite people in the entiure world, who is now in HEAVEN... ANd I told her about my first black friend that I met when I was in COllege... James Richard Campbell...We met at a fast food restaurant in LExington KY, I was about 18 or 19, Jim was alread 42.... a warm, charming and hysterical and brilliant man. We became instant friends....until only a few years ago, when I called....his phone was disconnected..and the story of decades of friendship disappeared... I learned so much from this man I learned about human nature. I learned how to be SILLY, and there is an art to it....I learned how to make people laugh, I tried to learn how to drink Bourbon but really failed on that one.... I learned how to prepare SOUL food..and I learned how to trust people and really get burned. I learned as much from JIM about human nature...and life....than I learned about Book "learning" in school. Mylife wold have been so much emptier..had I not gone out for a burger that cold nite....in 1962....
When I woke up one night from a terrible dream....I called Jim up and told him that something terrible was going to happen to our country...and it has to do with Washington DC.... I was in a panic....almost an anxiety attact....He said.."Do you know what time it is..its in the middle of the night??" GO BACk to sleep!!!!!! By the way, the date was Nove 21, 1963!!!!
BAck to MARY's Kitchen...The aroma was the same in that room as in Jims. His kitchen alwasy smelled like that. The bacon fat and smoked neck bones...must have impreganted the walls..maybe of the entire home.....and that subconsciously affected my emotions.....I told her that story...and more...She saw tears trickle down my eyes over my cheeks....: She just said, "look at you?" almost in a Whoopie Goldberg voice" I think the term" bitter sweet " came into play here.