"I really like your car ......."
The first time I saw Eldon's hands
they were on the steering wheel of the biggest, bluest, roomiest car I'd ever seen.
I noticed his eyelashes as he leaned toward me from the driver's side window.
Eyelashes .... the kind girls buy at a drugstore .... long, black
and made swooping noises when he blinked.
When I told him I liked his car (all the while secretly admiring his eyelashes) he said,
"You can buy it for .25 cents."
I liked his sense of humor,
but I was too young to drive - just a tad over 15 - let alone the luxury
of having .25 cents to buy anything.
From inside of his car Eldon reached over and shook hands with Lyle, my boyfriend at the time. We'd been sitting on the running board of Lyle's Model A parked at the curb in front of my house when a big, blue, boat-shaped car pulled up across the street.
Though I didn't realize it at the time,
the 52 Hudson just pulling up - driven and owned by the "eyelashes" -
would soon make the Model A and Lyle disappear.
Hands .... conveying strength and gentleness,
protection and purpose.
His eyelashes .....
shielding his eyes when he laughed .....
his eyes ..... the mirror of his soul,
The year was 1955. He was a Marine. I was 15 years old.
3 comments:
Looking at both of your hands is like seeing you both...we recognize your hands like others recognize faces. David said 'those are Eldon's hands....I'd know them anywhere'. So special to see and to recognize. (and to miss)
Mom, thank you for doing this. I have tears in my eyes, remember his smile, can hear his "Well, HEllo there" voice when he answered the phone, and missing my Daddy.
I don't remember hearing that story. And I think often of the many stories I never heard, or those you and Dad told me that I don't remember. But I remember so much more! It made me smile to imagine the twinkle in his eyes as he was making you, quite literally, an offer of a lifetime.
Not only in his hands, but in all ways he was a man of strength, gentleness, protection, and harshness.
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