At age seven Rea held a birthday party for me at the ranch.
She invited all of my second grade classmates. This was a special day because I was to learn to tie and untie my shoelaces before the party. I did not learn well, and I ended up with the laces tied in a mess of knots.
The party proceeded without me and with me looking out the window at the festivities and finally seeing the gifts opened.
I found a pair of scissors and cut the shoelaces open, then crawled out of a window to join in the fun. Hung in a hackberry tree were seven plastic parachute men that had been sent into the sky with popguns. The parachutes were as entangled as the shoelaces and they hung in the tree for several years as a long time reminder.
That evening I was told that I could not have new shoelaces but that I could make do with twine. I found some black bias tape used on the bottom of skirt hems and laced my shoes and learned to tie and untie. I was stylish with my black bias tape bows.
Then another boy copied me, and I saw his shoes at Sunday school. His name was Tommy, and we became the best of friends through high school. At the prom, we wore white bucks with black bias tape laces and bows. It was 1960, and we danced up a storm.
Entry – July 30, 2007
