Friday, February 09, 2007

If the walls could talk....

It was the dawning of 1992. We sat barefooted at the kitchen table, smoking cigarettes, twirling little locks of straight blonde hair in our fingertrips. Babies laughed just out of our reach, tumbled on the empty carpeted floor.

Love beads, our millioneth set, baked slowly in the oven. We believed. The ugly years behind us, it was time to rock and roll. To love. To pray for peace. Again.

We celebrated slowly....the coming of hope....the deliverance of 1992 into our welcome arms. "It will be a good one" we clanked, bottles bottom up in cheers. We smiled at the promise and even, laughed at the past. "Hell, it's what got us here, isn't it?"

In the wee hours before dawn, I peeked at my sleeping little ones, chubby fingers and toes, protected, for now, from the chaos of the outside world, by the quiet hum of Led Zepplin .

Paigey and I started then. Took the last of the beads from the slow-cooking oven and covered the beerstained kitchen table with cardboard. Out came the cigar boxes filled with trinkets, shoestrings, old crayons. The water colors, the markers, pencils, pens, and india inks.

We blobbed and dripped and dribbled, shot acrylic paint through straws, drug dirty shoelaces through puddles of color until it happened..... Peace on the kitchen table.

The words just happened. A quiet after thought. A signing-off actually. Tiny little words lacing the circle.

"May the wizards work their wonder...
May the children laugh and dance with each other in a world with no man-made storms.
May we wish on stars and believe enough in ourselves to reach out to them.
May we always believe in magic and be brave enough to enjoy it.
May the guardian angels spread their wings and keep us near
and may we never forget God is watching us.

To peace and love and laughter in 1992
and
as always,
to dreams and the promise of tomorrow"

justgivemepeace.com

11 comments:

skinnylittleblonde said...

LOL...it is no secret sister...I do love you! If I squint my eyes just right I think I can see spidles of spit, or was it beer, mixed in with that paint...

We were, we ARE, midnight executioners... executing our hopes & dreams in the wee hours of the night ... turning homemade hippie beads into Levi's and a lack of resources into novel inventions.

ILYSVM~ JustGiveMePeace

singleton said...

It was drool, Paigey. Early morning, I'm so sleepy...I've got one eye shut and the other's fading,drool. And yeah, beer. And I looked really closely, and yup, there it is, Papa John's pizza sauce.....

ILYSVM2

Me said...

This reminds me of a lyric from Rage Against the Machin song: we move through '92, still in a room without a view.

What I don't understand is, wtf are lovebeads doing in the oven?

Bardouble29 said...

Thanks for stopping by my blog. I enjoyed reading your, will definately be back to read some more. Peace

Spadoman said...

Sounds like a great litchen table session. I longed for one and had it Saturday at a friends place, sans the beer. (not a prude, just wasn't being done there)

Is the picture of the peace sign that is with this post the artwork from that night? Is it your art? I love it. It is easy to look at.

ILYFSSVM ?!

JustRun said...

Unplanned art! How wonderful!

vicci said...

I just love this wonderful memory! Sisters..Love...ART...magpie girls!!! How perfect it all is! Love you!

Anonymous said...

I love this post- I can envision it all so plainly!
In 1992, I was still in high school. A friend of mine was homeschooled, and I used to go to her house to make beads (a homeschool project).
It seemed to be such an innocent time- pre 9-11, pre Iraq war, etc. Of course, those who had lived before me had experienced other national trageties, but 1992 was still riding on the idyllic prosperity of the 80's .
You brought back some cool memories- thanks!

singleton said...

Orhan....Bakin', of course! Silly guy!

bardouble...and I yours!

spadoman....recieved the prayer, the words, the thoughts, really needed the spirit so I thank you!
ILYSVVM? The secret language of siblings, but one that should be shared...."I love you so very very much"
May the circle be unbroken.....

Justrun....like an unplanned trip around the block, you never know where you'll end up!

Vicci....you perfect little magpie!

lizardprincess..It was an innocent time....we still believed. In each other, peace, and ourselves! And you are right, we were riding on the coatails of some awesome years....thank you!

Spadoman said...

Yes, I knew it, and the one I listed in my comment:
ILYFSSVM

I love your "F"riend "S"hip, so very much

Broke the code, HeeHee. :-)

Angela Marie said...

What a beautiful memory...
I love this...

Picture is gorgeous!!