Literally Letty: June 2021

Sunday, June 27, 2021

Reflections on a Rainy Summer Sunday

Dahlia or a Covid model ?

Something happened to my brain last year during the COVID Restrictions, but I cannot pinpoint the problem. It seems that I have no distinguishing markers as to what happened, when it happened, or did it happen last year. It honestly take a village to recall if we participated in an event, when, where or why. We draw blanks. *

White iris at night, inspire by Linda Hoye's photography.

I follow blogger, Linda Hoye from Western Canada who writes daily. Once a week she reflects with her Friday's Fave Five . Each week I read that thinking, I need to do that, "but then" I don't.

This week friends, Manon Bradbury and Victor Kubbeh, from La Quinta, California visited us. On Monday we were rained out of our golfing tee time, and much to my delight we chose to visit the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City. My desire to walk through museums and feel the artwork far outweighs my desire to play golf on rainy or cold days. Today, I realized that I didn't want to forget that day with my friends. I didn't want a year to pass and look back on my memories from 2021 and draw a blank.

That was one classy stagecoach.

The Cowboys drew my attention as Victor, Manon, Jack and I roamed our separate directions seeing perspectives, colors, fifty shades of white, shapes, textures, and forms coming to life differently for each of us.

As I roamed and wandered I noticed a man standing in the hallway, dressed like a cowboy but not joining the people. I turned to look down the hallway toward the man and his dog when I realized it was a painting. The painting had come to life and the man looked real enough to take the step out of the door. The dog more hesitant,smart dog.

TWO'S COMPANY, oil on canvas by Duane Bryers

I like colorful moments, and mesmerizing memories, the sounds of laughter and birds, the feel of cool spring rains and hot summer days.

My garden is coming back to life, and I am rearranging as it grows. The purple and blue irises planted seven years ago have outgrown their space. This week I dug them up, weeds and all, and gave them away. The tree lost to the ice storm took out my shade plants, but new ideas grow there now. My weekly hours in the garden are paying off.

The older I feel, the more I plant Never-dies and other perennials in my garden.

The M T place behind the stone is for my Surprise Lilies to return.

Last year's canvas (from March 17, 2020--May 15, 2021) is nearly blank, but for the vivid memory of leaving Manon's home and driving to the Palm Springs airport. In downtown Palm Springs we finally found an open restaurant on March 17, 2020. There I also discovered a statue of a friendly mayor, Sonny Bono, sitting by himself. No tourists except three of us. Where had all the people gone? What hijacked our lives?

Good-bye Sonny Bono, good-bye Covid's blank.
March 17, 2020, Palm Springs, Ca.

I am looking forward to weekly reflections and the stories in between.

* Footnote: To Libby, my friend who does not cuss on the golf course, but instead says "blank" with frustration when she hits a bad shot. "Please use rats or frats instead of blank" because each time I say that my mind is a blank, I think I hear you cuss "blank." Take pity on the brain that does not travel like a driver on the Interstate, but instead loops around the long way....

Tuesday, June 15, 2021

The Happy Story of Murphy Doodle

As all great stories begin, "Once upon a time there was a great woman...Her name was Murphy Doodle." Two little girls met this colorful red-headed woman when they were only youngsters. She laughed louder than the other women, she smoked longer cigarettes than the other women, she wore higher heels and carried a large leather purse. In her heels she stood above the crowd, or so the two little perceived. People noticed this woman. When her friends wore hats to lunch at Inness's Department Store in downtown Wichita, Kansas, Murph, as her friends called her, wore a daring or unique hat.

Irene B, Mother, and Murphy Doodle playing pool after working all week at Boeing. c1942

Our father said that Murph had more freckles than any woman he'd ever seen, and with a pool stick could find a sucker to beat in a game of 8 Ball. We thought she was the finest example of who we wanted to be someday. She gave her nickname, Murphy Doodle, to us, and we felt special. Where did she get the nickname, I'll never known, but I think perhaps her father teased her with that name.

The obituary called her Marie Murphy, and stated that she was a secretary at Boeing, and then for a law office. She and her sister, Inez, lived their lives together as old maids. How sad the two grown girls, my sister and I, felt, that she hadn't been given credit for being the life in a crowd, for saving enough money to buy and restore an old home on Riverside Dr. in Wichita, for caring for her sister, and for dearly loving those two little girls.

Mother, Murphy Doodle, and a friend

After fifty years of storing this wonderful character in our hearts, we have given life to her name once again.

Before we met our dog that Saturday in May, I named him Happy, because he made us happy just thinking about the joy and excitement that would be living with us.

His playful moves in between our legs, the circles he raced chasing his tail, and the moment he discovered he could bark kept us in constant laughter the first week.

During that time we began to experiment with other names like;

Tippy, because he would run fast in the yard, stop and then tip over his head because he couldn't figure out how to stop his movement. The tip on the tail added more reason to this name.

Sleepy from Disney's Seven Dwarfs because puppies can fall fast asleep anywhere in any position. Of course, we name ourselves Sneezy, Grumpy, Happy, and sometimes Dopey, so Happy or Sleepy would fit right in.

Caddy and Calloway were options, but I already knew friends who named their dogs after golf.

Now Wattson had possibility. I thought it was unique, but Jack didn't agree, even though he grinned at the name.

A week into the name game, my sister said, "Letty you have to name him Murphy Doodle because he is part Doodle, or Poodle, which is it?"

Immediately, my heart when back to a time when I played on the ground with dogs, cats, baby rabbits, injured birds, toys, trains, dolls, lady bugs and four leaf clovers. Just then I laughed as loud as I could at this silly Happy puppy who tried to jump into the bird bath only to have it tip over and spray the water all over his face. He shook but his body didn't quite know how to shake from front to back. His shook so much he fell over.

Instantly, I knew my sister had chosen the perfect name. Murphy Doodle may not laugh or act like the real Marie Murphy Doodle, but he makes everyone around him laugh and giggle like we are children, like a lady who laughed her way into my heart seventy years ago.