I AM FROM by Pam Wilkie

I am from big rollers in my hair, from Ivory Liquid and Wonder Bread.

I am from ever changing places, foreign, different, and frightening.

I am from the ocean and sand, the wind and snow, the cactus garden at my grandmother’s house.

I am from holiday gatherings with laughs, cocktails, food and always high drama from someone or another.

I am from the strength to cope and thriftiness. From “you kids better straighten up and fly right” and from “get on your horse and get out of town”.

I am from Vacation Bible School and from sitting in the pew of a centuries old church in a centuries old country.

I am from California and Germany and Ireland, from the Amish and Ancient Romans, from my mom’s enchiladas which were really Granny’s and her mother’s before her, and my father’s pea bean pop that morphed into “Moat Soup”.

From the loss of a beautiful brother gone far too soon, a mother who slept till noon, and from husbands who flew the coop.

I am from the slides my father took and kept in a metal box (where are they now?), a scrapbook from my teen years that protects every secret note and Christmas gift tag and the oath of three blood sisters sworn to nearly fifty years ago. I am from airplanes, bowling, baseball and a dog named Gunner.

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