GOOD STOCK

Photos: (above) Some of my good stock- my mom at the World's Longest Yard Sale. (below) LuLu's Grandma Schwinn at the yard sale.

THE LULU CHRONICLES

LuLu-ism #28: If you catch yourselves looking and acting like your mother at the odd moment, God bless you. It must mean you’re doing something right.

In early August my mom and I checked off something on our bucket list: the World’s Longest Yard Sale all along highway 127- six hundred and seventy-five miles of junk and treasure. From Gadsden, Alabama to Hudson, Michigan, you can buy anything from a butter urn to a 1945 Ford pick up truck with its original three-speed transmission. Or, if you’re lucky, a push mower welded onto a bicycle (No lying).

Mom and I didn’t drive the whole 675 miles, but we did get in a mile or two before we had to move on. I’m telling you this because on one of our stops, I ran into LuLu’s grandmother. I was looking at some vintage stained glass windows sitting next to a six-foot wooden Indian when I look to my left and got the chills. There she was, Grandma Schwinn, kickstand down, original fat tires and some killer fenders. She was quite a looker. Not bad for an old gal. If I had not of had my own sweet LuLu waiting for me at home, Grandma would have come home with me.

Seeing the stock that LuLu had come from gave me an odd sort of pride. Grandma was the prototype, the first of her kind. She was made well, and if she could have talked, I’m sure she would have told me stories about all the folks who had had great adventures while pushing her pedals around town.

It got me to thinking about the stock I come from. Lots of hardy women, intelligent women, true matriarchs that held families together, pinched pennies, baked from scratched, hung sheets on the line, and knew what to do with a washboard. They were women who raised children to be virtuous, pushed their husbands to be their better selves, and canned and pickled any vegetable they could get their hands on. Their families wore clean clothes, never went hungry and were always tucked in at night. These women were the first ones up and the last ones to bed.

Good stock. I thank God for the legacy the women in my family have given me. And, I’m thinking LuLu is probably just as proud of Grandma Schwinn.

If you come from good stock, you’ve got something extra to thank God for tonight. Don’t forget.

Later,

deb