September’s One
Tour of Westminster 1953. Sara stands on the far left.
The People Watchers
My great grandmother was an instant story teller – a skill that I like to imagine she honed by waiting in the parked Impala while her husband Bill attended baseball games.
She and Bill spent a few seasons in the late 50’s and early 60’s driving across the country, attending different baseball and football games. Bill brought along his travel camera. Sara, her crossword puzzle.
Sara had broken her hip in the early 60’s and suddenly she lived the life of a former avid hiker who took the world in from a completely different angle. By all accounts, she did so with her customary, unironic grace.
Later on, when I became her summertime companion, we’d wait in the car together while my grandparents ran errands in town. Inevitably, she’d bring along an unfinished crossword puzzle. It was never a short wait and when I started bouncing off of the cavernous car walls, she’d tell me a story to distract me.
“Look at that young man there,” she’d say from the back seat of her 1970 Impala.
I’d look up and see someone deep in the mundane. Like a scowling teen boy walking across the panoramic horizon of the hood – his shoulders fighting against his blazer.
“He went and got himself that fancy new jacket to impress a girl, but look, she’s already found a beau,” she’d smile and return to her crossword puzzle.
A little further away, another person would be endeavoring something equally unremarkable – a woman with etherial blue hair struggling to get into her car while affectionately scooting her barking dog out of the driver’s seat.
Many of Sara’s people-watching stories were slightly wicked. I’m pretty sure she knew that blue haired lady from the salon.
The photo above is from a trip Bill and Sara took to Europe in 1953. Sara is in the back of the tour group at Westminster Abby, looking at the guide with reverence.
It is one of the shots that made me realize Bill and Sara played a Where’s Waldo-ish game in their European trip photos – where sometimes Sara preferred to blend in with the scene rather than stand for a portrait.
To me, their photos show the kind of love of storytelling that could only come from people who enjoyed life and saw the world as a fun and beautiful place to be. It reminds me that the best stories are told from eye level or just below – that a writer should never be above her subject and I’m grateful for the reminder.
In that vein, Welcome to All 23 Bunnies. Quick, reads that have a deeper home in longer stories told from the perspective of the person living the plot.
