Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Let Me Tell You A Story


ABC WEDNESDAY...L IS FOR...Lucy The Lavendar Dragon
I can think of a laundry list of words that start with "L".

Lovable, Loyal, Listener, Lovely, Lively, Likable, Loving, Learned, Liberal, Light-Hearted, Lip-Locked, Loved, Lusty, Lyrical, Lucky, Luxurious, Laughable, Lavish, Logical, Luminous, Lively,Lavender, Lacy, Little, Lotus, Life, Lock-Jaw, Laughed, Liberation

I thought it would be fun to write a story about my childhood using all of the words in the list. If you want to know how Lucy The Lavendar Dragon relates to my childhood then you'll have to read on:


Life began for her on the last day of April when there was snow on her mother's tulips. She was born flawed but lovable. Her feet were crooked, her head was misshapen, and she had red forcept marks all over her body. The hospital nurses were loyal to their oaths and rubbed their hands in a circular motion around her scalp in an attempt to reshape the head from elongated to spherical. The nurses put a bow in her hair and took the baby to her mother but the mother cried and said she was ugly. The nurses told her she was wrong and that the little girl was lovely and dressed her in a lacy lavender dress. Soon the red blotches went away and the head began to look like a normal head. The mother began to feel loving feelings for the little one for the first time since her birth.

The mother named her Susan, which means lotus, and she remains true to her name to this day. Like a lotus she continues to rise up from the muck that was her life. She had many physical obstacles to overcome including lock-jaw which made her look lip-locked and pouty all the time. Later she would have surgery to repair the anomaly but the poutiness could not be corrected surgically. It was laughable to watch her walk, because she looked like a pigeon-toed penguin. She had to wear shoes nailed to a board to bed at night to straighten them. She wore ugly saddle shoes with orthopedic insoles her entire childhood. She was lucky though because the feet straightened out after years of nonsurgical treatments and lively dance therapy.


Her parents were likable liberals and she was raised Catholic. They didn't have very much money so she didn't live in a luxurious home with lots of toys or lavish clothing. There was a strong beautiful maple tree growing in her front yard that she used to love to climb. There she would blend in with nature and listen to the lyrical sounds of the robins, sparrows, and blue jays. She had an affinity for birds from a very young age. She also loved to gaze at the luminous stars. She found out young that if she stared at the night sky for 30 minutes a new universe would open up to her.

The world was full of turmoil during her childhood. President Kennedy was shot when she was six years old. She remembers her mother crying when Martin Luther King was shot. She watched the tanks go down the streets of Detroit during the riots of 1967. The Vietnam War came to a dishonorable end while she was a lusty teenager. She buried herself in an alternate world through literature. Through it all she learned to be logical instead of idealistic. She was compassionate and a good listener and wanted to become a doctor. When she told her father she wanted to be a doctor, he laughed. That was during the time when women's liberation was just starting to catch on. Her father had to save all the money he could to send her brother to college. That was understandable. After all, he told her, "You'll just get married and have babies."

 Such was life in 1975.


Denise facilitates this meme where we all go through the alphabet from A-Z and construct a post with the designated weekly letter.















10 comments :

Shadow said...

loved your story, thank you!

Jazz said...

Lovely, luscious literary ... damn, is there a word for story that begins with L?

Roger Owen Green said...

I was very taken by your story. I was 10 when JFK died, so I can relate to much of what you said, though I didn't have the difficulties at birth, and I'm not Catholic.

Reader Wil said...

Now that was a great story! Thanks for sharing it with us. Thanks also for the visit!

Mental P Mama said...

I was three when JFK was shot. And I can tell you what my mother was wearing. Wonderful story....

Riot Kitty said...

I think you turned out just great, Suzy Q.

imac said...

Look at you now BABY.lol.
Great story of you.

Pics all sorted, Now to start Posting.lol.

jams o donnell said...

Thanks for putting your story down. I was just a baby when Kennedy was shot

Jinksy said...

As lovely and likeable a story as ever lit the screen, Blogpal! x

Suldog said...

We're the same age, so much of this resonates. Very nicely done.