Four
____________
Picture
Day
One spring, while we
were in Weatherford after visiting some of my Ma’s family, we went to a
photographer’s studio and had professional pictures taken with all of us kids
and both of our parents. I treasure this family photograph more than almost any
other keepsake I have from my childhood.
Pa was far from feckless when it came to
labor and monetary matters; quite the contrary, he viewed every waking moment
of life as an obligatory opportunity to achieve greatness, and his view of
greatness was the bottom line requirement, that foundational point where all
people needed to be just to start anything in life they wished to achieve.
Being the best and hardest worker, puttin’ in extra effort every day of one’s
life, and never makin’ a mistake… these were the attributes Pa expected from
everyone, not just us youngins, but everyone.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
“Ok, youngins,” Hilda instructed her children,
“you can window shop, walk on the main street, and try not to get into trouble.
Now, that’s for just one hour, ya hear, meet me and your father back here in
front of the photographer’s studio in one hour.”
The children all affirmed that they would,
especially after seeing their father’s stern look offered in support of their
mother’s instructions.
“They didn’t say we had to stay in one group,”
commented Rae Ann.
Richard smiled and said, “No, they didn’t. You
girls can do girly stuff and Teddy and I can do manly things.”
Teddy looked pleased at this suggestion.
Sometimes it made Teddy feel overwhelmed to have his three sisters tagging
along all of the time.
Rae Ann snapped back, “Why are our interests
‘girly’ things and yours are ‘manly’ things?”
“That’s just the way it is,” Richard shouted, as
he and Teddy ran off.
Rae Ann looked at her sisters and inquired,
“Where do you two want to go?”
Little Sarah Jane replied happily, “Some place
where they sell them pretty dolls, the ones with the beautiful painted faces
and fluffy dresses, please.”
If there was a lesson learned by all of the
Charlton children before they could almost walk, it was to put their younger
sibling’s desires and needs above their own.
Mary interjected, “That’s fine by me. I suppose
I’d like to see some of them fancy dolls too.”
“Ok, it’s settled then, dolls,” Rae Ann confirmed.
“But it won’t hurt none to look in windows along the way. We might see
somethin’ of interest.”
The trio of young girls made their way slowly
along the walkway while gazing into the shop windows with the eyes of hungry
desire. Chocolates and hard candies lined the shelf of one shop and adult
dresses another. Finally the trio found a store with some dolls in the front
window.
“Here’s a store!” shouted Sarah Jane.
Rae Ann could see the excitement in her littlest
sister’s face and swiftly opened the shop’s door. Sarah Jane and Mary entered
like hungry farm animals running into a barn full of fresh cut hay.
“Wow!” exclaimed Mary.
Sarah Jane looked around and quickly made a
beeline toward the front window’s doll display and to one doll in particular.
Rae Ann and Mary quickly followed.
“Ain’t she beautiful,” commented Sarah Jane. “I
ain’t never seen a doll so pretty before.”
“Can I help you girls?” inquired the store’s
owner, Colm Bushmiller.
“Oh, sir, we just be lookin’,” Rae Ann informed
the rotund man. “But, just in case… what does a doll like this one here cost a
soul?”
“I’ll look it up, hold on,” the man said, as he
turned and walked back to retrieve a book from behind his counter.
“I’ll be back in a minute,” Rae Ann said to her
sisters.
Rae Ann scampered to the counter to see what the
storeowner had to say.
The owner informed her that it was an expensive
doll.
Rae Ann appeared deep in thought. She had saved
her money, what little she had, for over a year in hopes of buying something
very special during a trip like this one day. What she would buy she did not
know.
Pulling out all of her money and placing it on
the counter, she asked, “Is this enough, sir? I been savin’ for a long, long
time.”
The man smiled as he gazed at the coins on his
counter.
“Here,” Rae Ann continued, “My aunt gave me this
scarf and it’s supposed to be worth a lot of money. Made of the finest silk is
what the package said that it came in, sir.”
The storekeeper thought for a long while before
replying. There was, in fact, almost enough money on the counter to buy the
doll, almost sixty percent of the retail price.
“Is it enough, sir? And enough to sort of wrap
it up in a box... nothin’ fancy though, just wrapped up a bit.”
Storeowner, storekeeper, and a man known for his
heart of gold and generous disposition answered the anxious girl who stood in
front of his counter, “You know, it seems you have just enough without even
needing to use your precious scarf at all.”
Rae Ann could hardly contain her joy. She
glanced back to ensure that her sisters were not aware of her dealings with the
store’s owner.
“I’ll wrap it up fine for you. Will you take it
with you right away?”
“Oh, it’s a surprise for my littlest sister over
there,” she pointed toward Sarah Jane.
“Maybe I can have my Ma come by in around an
hour to pick it up. Her name is Hilda Charlton, sir.”
The man wrote the information down.
Rae Ann interjected, “And my Pa’s name is John.
In case you be needin’ that too.”
“Well, young lady, thank you very much.”
“It’s me that should be thankin’ you, sir. Oh,”
Rae Ann gazed back at her sisters again, “this is a secret gift, so I’d be a
might obliged to ya if nothin’ was said to my sisters.”
“I understand, little lady.”
Meanwhile… in another shop…
“Hey, boy, what’s your name?”
Teddy was taken by surprise by the shopkeeper’s
question, but answered quickly, “Theodore Charlton, sir, but most folks just
call me Teddy.”
“That’s my brother,” Richard jumped into the
conversation like a mother bear does protecting her cubs from a predator.
Looking intensely at the boys the man humbly
stated, “Sorry, boys, but at first you, Theodore, looked like a kid who came in
here last week and broke an antique porcelain lamp. But that kid didn’t have
coal black hair like you two do.”
“We don’t live nowhere around here, sir, not in
town anyway, so I can assure you it wasn’t us,” Richard affirmed.
The man smiled at the boys and replied, “I guess
a kid wouldn’t think of comin’ back to a store after runnin’ out the door after
breakin’ somethin’, now, would he?”
“I guess not,” Teddy answered.
“Here,” the storekeeper said, as he pulled a jar
out from behind the counter filled with gumballs, “have a few… it’s on me.”
“Wow, thanks, sir,” Richard’s eyes rounded and
glistened with excitement.
The two boys conservatively took two gumballs
each, but the man insisted on six each. There were no complaints on the part of
the two brothers at this gesture of kindness.
“Sir, you don’t happen to be knowin’ what time
the clock says, would ya?” Richard inquired.
When Richard and Teddy heard the time announced,
they bid their kind farewells to the storekeeper and hurried back to the
walkway in front of the photographer’s studio to join their siblings and
parents who were already waiting.
Richard thought quickly, “We was gettin’ some
gumballs, here…” Richard handed one each of his treasures to each of his three
sisters.
“Mighty thoughtful of you, son,” John Charlton
said proudly.
“I guess we’ll be headin’ to the wagon and start
makin’ our way home,” Mrs. Charlton announced.
“Can I talk to you in private, Ma?” Rae Ann
whispered.
“Sure, honey, what is it?”
Rae Ann explained what had transpired at the
doll shop, where the shop was, and the store owner’s name.
“You all get to the wagon,” Mrs. Charlton
instructed, “I’ll be right there. I have somethin’ quick to do.”
While the rest of the family made their way to
the livery to retrieve their wagon and horses, Hilda Charlton picked up the
package containing the special gift for Sarah Jane from the doll store. Soon
the family was on its way home.
Sometime later Rae Ann said, "Pa, there's
too much wagon wheel dust."
“Hush up, youngin'. Ain’t nothin’ can be done
about it right now.”
The trip home took quite some time and the
questioning concerning the contents of the beautifully wrapped package seemed
to never end. Upon arrival home, and once the animals were fed, horses brushed,
wagon put away, and a host of other chores completed, everyone gathered in the
family kitchen to learn what the package from Weatherford was all about.
Rae Ann proudly announced, “It’s for Sarah Jane.
Open it!”
The look on little Sarah Jane’s face was worth
more than a hundred bushels of fresh cut wheat. She danced and jumped all
around the kitchen all the while Rae Ann received hugs from her mother and
father. Rae Ann looked almost as happy as Sarah Jane.
This was one of those special days the Charlton
family treasured in their chest full of memories for the rest of their lives.
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