Remembering the Summer of 1957...

The year was 1957, my primary goal in life was to play and have a good time, in that order.  My life consisted of books, bugs, imaginary friends, dirt and sand. It also had an abundance of dolls, dishes, dogs and wanted posters. A scoopful of criminals accompanied by cats, catalogs, cousins and paper...lots and lots of paper rounded out any given day.

My part of the world was decorated in all the colors found in a crayon box, especially red.  Life had a million shades of red accompanied by fireflies and fairies,  a spark of freedom and a dose of imagination found in a friend up the hill or across the street.  The fires of childhood imagination burned bright in us when we were 8 or 9 years old.

An unoccupied jail cell made a great playhouse when the summer heat beat down on the roofs of a small southern town in western Kentucky.  A town waiting for air conditioning to become the norm instead of the unusual. When the jail had 'visitors' the chicken coup behind the brick home was almost as much fun as a jail cell. I couldn't wait for the Henley kids to visit their grandparents.

A pile of sand became the local 'fairy garden'. Bricks painted gold glistened in the sun. They were the adobe homes of imaginary friends who flew instead of walked. Tin foil lakes allowed the fairies to swim in the moonlight. A curly haired little girl slept with her face in the window hoping to see the fairies dance in a circle, once before dawn.

The neighborhood trees and bushes donated flower blossoms from the pink and blue hydrangeas. I 'borrowed'  these from Mamamae's bush. Their blossoms became shrubs surrounding the golden homes.   Mrs. Klapp's lavender bush provided color and shade as the light purple flowers were turned into trees.  The subtle shade of orchid trees planted around the blue 'fairy lakes' gave the mound of sand a hint of magic. The scent of the trees mixed with the night air. Special rocks dug from the driveway of the post office were turned into gold and silver spray painted roads in my fairy kingdom. I believed that fairies would find my place of magic, if they had a shiny, glittering  road to follow.  I longed for this to be true

Although I never saw a 'real fairy' when I was young,  I believed they came each night and danced.  After I grew up and married, Tommy and I moved around the country. At each house or apartment I created some sort of fairy garden. When we finally settled down and bought a home, one of the first things I did in Spring was create a flower bed for fairies to enjoy. It is still alive with colors and few gold bricks. Birdbaths replaced the aluminum foil lakes. Wind chimes create music late into the night in hope that a wandering fairy will hear the music and feel the urge to dance. 

I will never know ...but I can wish.

                                                          

                                              one of many fairy gardens I have made. 2009