Stories from the Stringam Family Ranches of Southern Alberta

From the 50s and 60s to today . . .



Sunday, November 19, 2017

A World of Creation

You see food. I see . . . possibilities.
The headquarters/chief residence of the Stringam ranch, like most ranch houses then and now, was centred around a large, family kitchen.
Everything important happened in that room.
Eating, visiting, business, playing. More eating.
It was, quite literally, the soul of the house.
Mom reigned supreme over its scrubbed surfaces and gleaming appliances.
All traffic came through it, stopping either briefly, or of longer duration.
I lived there.
Whenever Mom was in residence (and Mom was always in residence), I could be found.
Underfoot.
Dragging out stacks of plastic ware or pots and pans.
Or, even more exciting, the dozens of Jello packages that Mom kept in a corner cupboard.
Just for me.
It was amazing what one could construct out of those small, cardboard boxes.
Castles. Forts. Corrals. Houses. Barns. Apartment buildings. Stores.
Even schools.
Infinite hours of fun and creativity. Infinite possibilities.
I should mention, here, that Lego hadn't reached my little world.
Yet.
But it would.
Moving on . . .
And my Mom, moving about the kitchen, had to step carefully to avoid disaster.
To both of us.
How lightly she moved, dancing and weaving around the complicated constructs that, to me, were edifices of genius and creativity.
Occasionally, we came to grief. Something I had made would have meandered a little too far across the floor and Mom would trip over . . . it.
But not often.
Mom should have been a professional terpsichorean (real word – I looked it up).
Or Superman. She could certainly leap any building I made with a single bound.
Looking back, though, I have to wonder why Mom kept so many Jello packages in that cupboard.
Certainly, we ate a lot of it.
But that still didn't justify the number of boxes stored there.
Maybe, like Moms everywhere, she knew . . .
Just how much fun assembling castles out of sweet-smelling boxes could be.

There is a codicil . . .
My grandchildren were playing on the floor of the kitchen as their mother and I were preparing supper. They had a complicated construction of Tupperware, old yogurt containers, pots . . . and Jello packages.
I stepped over it.
“Careful, Gramma! You'll knock down the princess' castle!”
And suddenly, I was four years old again.
Creating worlds on the kitchen floor.

12 comments:

  1. Makes you want to get down on the floor and play doesn't it?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If only I could! It would take two strong men to get me back up again!

      Delete
    2. I know what you mean. I can get back up again but it aint pretty.

      Delete
  2. Most definitely kitchens are the heart of a home. The world creation you and the your children and grandbabies did evoke sooooo many memories.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I didn't play with Jello boxes, but my Mom had a wonderful box full of hair clips of all sizes and colors. Believe it or not, I constructed stories, and "movies", using those hairclips. I loved your memory!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Beautiful imagination, Alana! You're my kind of folks!

      Delete
  4. I remember our childhood kitchen was a huge room with kitchen at one end and sitting/playing area at the other end. Once we got past the fireplace in the middle of the long wall, it was kitchen area and no playing was allowed in there. I made my houses and towns out of different sized books and my sister's alphabet blocks.

    ReplyDelete
  5. “Everything important happened in that room”. How true that was and still is. Sit down and have a cup of tea and all problems will be solved. The children will entertain themselves. Good memories.

    ReplyDelete
  6. A lovely memory, and to have it come alive again before your eyes is wonderful. I didn't play with Jello packages but my mom's button jar got a workout. Maybe that's where my love of buttons came from. You can make roads, pictures, outlines of doll houses . . .

    ReplyDelete

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