I've added a few charms to the heel motif. The one in the upper left corner of the photo insists on lying upside down. It's a pink elephant. There are two of them peeking out of bits of trim like this. They may seem like just a pink girly thing, but they have a special story. I don't know why pink elephants are as easy to find as they are, but I'm happy about it.When I was a young girl, my mother collected pink elephants as gifts for my Granddad. She considered it a special thing between the two of them. I should get the full story from her for the sake of posterity, but I think it had something to do with seeing Dumbo together when it was new. Pink elephants always remind me of my Granddad. He passed away several months after my older daughter was born. She's only a few short weeks from 16, just after the new year. Babies were a yearly event for a while there, between nieces & nephews, cousins, a brother, a sister, and my own two. My Haley was the last while Granddad was still with us. Miranda, who this stocking is for, never met him. She likes to look at her stocking and touch all the little bits. At only just two, she nods her head sagely and states, "This is my stockin'. It's a very special stockin'." She's a precocious child and wise beyond her years. Someday, I'll show her pictures of her Great Granddad and tell her about the pink elephants and why they are special.
As I'm about to post this, I see the date is my mother's birthday. It seems somehow appropriate.
2 comments:
Well, okay, you made me tear up. Great story.
Pink Elephant Story...
I was a 'Daddy's Girl' until my youngest sister came along nine years later. After that, moments of Dad and me were few and far between. When I was in high school, Dad was the Electrical Engineer at the local radio station, which played Country & Western music. Every morning at 5:00 AM he would go down to the transmitter and 'turn on' the station as it was not on 24 hours back then.
Because he was the first in every morning, he also had his own show. He was known as Gentleman Jim and he had quite a following for 5:30 in the morning. Oftentimes, the station would air from a remote location. Every Sunday evening they aired from a local motel's lounge. My Dad was always there doing the technical stuff.
One Sunday my Dad announced that the following Sunday he would sing. Well that got many of his morning fans to be there the next week. He invited me to come. The song he sang was 'Here Come the Elephants' by Johnny Bond.
The song is about a man who goes out drinking, drinks too much, and on his way home he see pink elephants. The special thing about my Dad singing this particular song was that he did not drink.
After that I began giving him pink elephants as a way of commemorating our time together.
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