maybe my foot, maybe not

Maybe this is my foot, but maybe it is Bucky’s. It does not have a name or an age written on it, as did most of the hands and feet in our grandparents’ silver drawer.

Bet I have your attention now.

About once a year, Mar Mar and Granddaddy would bring home the stuff with which he made dental molds. In her kitchen, Mar Mar would whip up a batch of  squishy goop and we’d have to stick a hand or a foot in it and hold very still for it to set. (That was asking a lot.) When it was set, you worked your little hand or tootsie out of the goop with a schloop! Then Mar Mar would pour the plaster into the mold. It didn’t take long until she could peel away the rubbery goop and — voila! — there’d be a lil piece of yourself. And because she kept all of them, even the “outtakes,” she had a big dining-room drawer full of little hands and feet. When friends came over, they almost always asked to look in the drawer, which was so normal to us, but so not-normal to them. I felt totally special. “What, you don’t have your feet in a drawer?”

When we were all grown up, and it came time to sort through the drawer and claim our pieces, Bucky and I had to compare our little toes. We think this is my little toe.

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About Ginny O'Donnell

After reading a really nice obituary a few years ago, I considered what they'll write about me. "She worked all day, then went home and made supper." Except now, my husband has retired, so he makes the supper. Hm. I sound kinda lazy, but I'm always busy. You'll see. Part 2: I like my original About Me, so I'm keeping it intact. But now I, too, am footloose. Let's see what happens next, shall we? Part 3: Just to keep everything in perspective, I'm keeping parts 1 and 2 intact. Now, I am actively and happily NOT so footloose, doing my thing over at Cottage Door Press. And with it being off its training wheels, I will pick up my ginnygram pen again. Love!

2 responses »

  1. Ginny, this has to be the weirdest thing I have ever heard of, I can honestly say you are the first person I have known to have molds of their feet and hands stored in the dining room cabinet

    Reply
  2. Gin, This pales in comparison, but I have my grandfather’s leg….with the bottle of whiskey he stashed in it back in 1973.

    Reply

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