Fun-Loving Parents
I’m glad I had parents who took me to my first popular music concert themselves when I was just ten years old. We heard a folk group on a calm and peaceful afternoon at the Municipal Auditorium in Nashville.
I’m glad that when other families were driving station wagons, Mother and Daddy were driving a Volkswagen bus.
I’m glad that when we went to the playground, Daddy hung like a monkey from the swing posts. I’m glad we went to get ice cream after we left Granny and Granddaddy’s house on Sunday afternoons.
Being a seamstress, Mother was always aware of what was in in the fashion world — well, not what was on the runways in New York maybe, but what had filtered down to little Ashland City. When the shocking Granny dresses came out when I was in sixth grade, she bought me one — actually bought me one at a store! It was a rare treat for this seamstress’ daughter to have a dress from an actual store. Now, let me describe a Granny dress. Think cotton calico dress with elbow-length sleeves and a six- or seven-inch ruffle around the skirt, reaching to the tops of your feet. Really! Think Laura Ingalls Wilder without the bonnet. Oh, they were controversial! I kid you not. I almost got kicked off the bus when I arrived to go with my class to a children’s theater performance in Nashville on a Saturday because I had the audacity to wear a Granny dress!
The next year she bought me a pair of white go-go boots. Boots are so common now that they wouldn’t raise an eyebrow;Â but back in the day when the only boots you saw were rubber snow boots and the galoshes kids wore in Dick and Jane readers, I was on the cutting edge.
Mother bought me some hot pink vinyl when I was in junior high and I made a jumper. Boy, was it stiff. Think of wearing a dress made out of the same thing as a thick rain hat — not much give when you sat down, but it was really cute with my white go-go boots.
I’ve met fun-loving parents and fuddy duddy parents. I hope you will give yourself permission to be the fun-loving kind.
Give thanks to the Lord, call upon His name;
Make His deeds known among the peoples.
Sing to Him, sing praises to Him;
Speak of all His wonders.
Boast in His holy name;
Let the heart of those who seek the Lord be joyful.
1 Chronicles 16:8-10