6/12/2010 The Daisy Chain Queen of Holly Park Housing Project 1960

*Skips in merrily and flops on couch*
Good Morning Mr. Blog!
Gosh it is so sunny and I feel like a million bucks!
So two days ago I was leaving Brookside
and walking across the grass to my mini-van
and I had a flashback
when I saw the tiny white English daisies
poking out of the lawn.
It was 1960
and I was following my mom.
Pam and Strawberry were clutching my grubby
little four year-old hands
and swinging me between them!
We were all laughing!
Even my mom was laughing which was rare after
her divorce and having to move from her darling house
in Alderwood Manor to Holly Park Housing Project.
It was mostly black families there
and they were not all that thrilled to see us.
So, anyway, My sisters were swinging me,
which I begged them to do at all times
and we were all laughing
and the grass was that soft,
early Seattle rich green of June.
Before July and August turned it brown and scratchy.
We were walking from our house up the gentle hill
that ran from Othello up to the Community Center and library.
Out of the blue,
mom plopped down on the grass.
We gathered around her with interest.
Strawberry was eight and Pam was six.
Strawberry had red hair and Pam had brunette hair like mom
and I had my bright blond hair cut in a Pixie cut
like every other unlucky girl in 1960.
We sat in a circle and my mom picked a tiny
wild English daisy.
Then she picked a handful and told us to watch.
Well, I stared holes into my mom
and was convinced she could do magic
when I saw what she did.
She carefully sliced a hole,
with her fingernail,
into that tiny stem
and then slid another daisy stem
through the hole!
I could NOT believe my eyes!
I thought my mom was about the
best thing in the world!
Who else could make macaroni and cheese
from the welfare office loading dock
on Rainier Avenue taste so good?!
So we watched our mom as she connected
the daisies together.
We sat huddled in that soft grass
on that warm sunny day
under the buzzing power lines,
and it was blissful.
Of course when I was four
I didn't know that it was blissful.
*Blinks tears that form*
But I know now Mr. Blog!
So, anyway, mom finished the first chain
and put it on top of Strawberry's
thick, wavy red hair.
She looked like a beautiful princess!
Then mom said,
"Try it girls."
We sat there and made daisy chains
for I don't know how long, Mr. Blog.
Until we each had a crown and necklace
and bracelet.
Then we all got up and continued
up the hill to the library.
The Daisy Queen
and Princesses
of Holly Park.