Red-Worn Linoleum

Mama (Inez Shepherd) grew up on a farm in the heart of Egypt Valley. They had no indoor plumbing and always used plow horses for farming. She read constantly and I still remember the librarians at the St. Clairsville Public Libray always scrambling to find books that she hadn't yet read. It was fun spending the night at her place. She peeled apples for us and then we would the play card game Authors in her kitchen where she would call James Fenmore Cooper, "Stuff Shirt" and refer to Louisa May Alcott as "Mrs Efaw".

Whenever we played "Old Maid", she would throw the old maid under the table if she happened to draw it.

Mama had a few funny sayings she liked to use:

"Unto thee, a crack is given"
"Brrr said the wicked wolf"
"I'll hang you to a sugar tree"
"Otherwise, Kitty Swift"

I have no doubt they all came from literature. It took a little research but the "Otherwise, Kitty Swift" was the name of a serialized novel by Pulitzer awarded author Booth Tarkington. It was published in three consecutive issues of McCalls magazine in 1938.

The phrase ultimately took on a standard family use. It's when you don't quite know how to end a train of thought or don't want to be bothered elaborating further on something.

She was alone the last twenty years of her life and passed nearly fifty years ago

* * *

I can hear her walker chattering across the worn kitchen floor as it caught the imperfections and more spoke of home than the medical crackling of adjustable aluminum.

Calling up to the bedroom on 204 South Marietta out of morning loneliness
with pan frying stuff, toast and other breaking allures were salt-n-pepper Tappan kid shakers and plain porcelain plates.



Wooden cabinets filled with ancient McCormick spices and smoothed with so many coats of enamel that it seemed certain that life would never-ever change but somehow it did yet has remained in what colors me red. Otherwise, Kitty Swift.