Something Pink

I love this photo.  I didn't take it and cannot remember whether I downloaded it from the Morgue Files or Free Photos at Crew.  I'll look for the source and if I find it, will post later.  

 

"I need something pink," I heard myself say as I walked into the bedroom to get dressed this morning.  But other than lipstick, I don't have anything pink.

 

Pink isn't a color I usually gravitate to.  Not for clothing anyway.  When I walk in the Good Will and peruse their racks, organized by color, I don't even bother to look at the pink section.  Ditto for orange, red and yellow.  The bright colors don't appeal to me.

 

Instead, I head for white first, followed by beige, gray, blue and black:  white, because it goes with everything;  beige, because it's close enough to white to be nearly interchangeable;  gray, because my hair is gray and I kind of like the head to toe effect with the gray boots I live in;  blue, because when I was little, my mother always said light blue was my most becoming color;  and finally, black, because it's slenderizing.  (I've had a life long love affair with slenderizing black, even got married in a svelte black cocktail dress because it magically took several pounds off of my lush figure.)

 

But today, I'm tired of dull clothing.  And I'm tired of the dull gray days of December which are a reminder that I'm hurtling inexorably toward my 64th Winter Solstice.  

 

 Today, I need pink.  I crave a pink sweater or blouse, or even better, a soft pink shawl, to wrap myself up in. So, I think I'll head out for a little treasure hunt at the Oak Ridge Good Will this afternoon.  And if I don't find something pink and to my liking there, I'll mosey on over to the KARM Store (Knoxville Area Rescue Mission.)  I love how when I check out at KARM, they tell me how many meals for the homeless my purchase has made possible.

 

The Knoxville Area Rescue Mission was my mother's charity of choice.  She sent them a check every Christmas.  She had a great heart for the downtrodden and little people of the world, I think because she grew up so hardscrabble herself. 

 

In the midst of the Great Depression, my mother not only didn't have anything pink, she was lucky to have clothes that even fit.  She told me about the coat she had to wear one winter.  It was too little to button and hit her legs mid thigh while the sleeves only came halfway down her arms.  She said she used to nearly freeze to death walking to school in that little coat.   

 

And right now, there are a lot of poor and even homeless people in my town, Oak Ridge, Tennessee.  Over half of our school children now qualify for free lunch and there was an article in The Oak Ridger just last week about the number of homeless students currently in our school system.

 

 A friend who works for the State of Tennessee once told me that Oak Ridgers would be surprised to know the number of people who are living in their cars or even in tents on the Green Belt.  Last year, my husband and I noticed a tent pitched in a woody ravine for several weeks when we walked down the hill from West Outer to Netherlands Road. Yes, there are homeless people, not just in the big cities, but in quiet little old Oak Ridge.  And the weather is turning ominously colder.

 

Be Well and Good Luck,

Martha Maria  

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