GRAND Magazine - Fall 2020 - 31

memories and moments

Autumn curiosity

BY SYLVIA SCHROEDER

y favorite uncle and I sat in the hot
backseat of the old black Buick.
Mom and dad had gone inside a
large stone building to do some big important signing of something to do with the farm.
So, Uncle Joe and I sat and waited with the
windows cranked open to let in a bit of the
hot breeze. His fedora lay on the dash behind
him and a rivulet of sweat crept down his
sideburns.
Our compatible silence broke now and then
when someone passed on the sidewalk in
front of where we were parked. We watched
them go by and gave a review as if we'd just
watched a movie. Uncle Joe was a master
people watcher. It was fascinating. He could
entertain me for hours on the fodder provided
by the parade of men, women and children
walking past.
An old man slowly approached the car. He
moved almost without picking up his feet.
He was older than my uncle, who had lived a
31 GRAND

FALL 2020

long time in his blue OshKosh B'Gosh overalls
paired with the dapper hat. The man tilted a
little left where a cane held him upright like a
third leg. From where I sat, it didn't look like it
would take much to topple him.

show on his face in the clever way I antici...he could make make me
pated. Uncle Joe just stared ahead with a sad
laugh till my sides ached.
look I couldn't quite read.
As the man shuffled to the center of our
I stole a sideways glance at my uncle. He
vision a loud pop made me jump. I swiveled
stared ahead. I searched for the kind of spinmy neck to look out the open window, but the
ning look I loved so much, the kind that
backfiring car had turned into another street.
revealed his thoughts. Uncle Joe's expressions
As I settled again, the old man was in the prowere as if his skin was translucent and just
cess of a slow turn. Dragging his feet in tiny
underneath if you looked for a while, his face
paces he moved a half circle.
was as easy to read as a book. Lined and tan
from years of hard farm work he could make
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me laugh till my sides ached. He could make
his eyebrows dance and his chin quiver. His
eyes grew round like pancakes and his mouth
Sylvia Schroeder serves as Women's Care
Coordinator at Avant Ministries. Mom to four,
puckered.
grandma to 14, and wife to her one and only love,
I waited. He was thinking all right, words like she enjoys writing about all of them. Find her blog
at When the House is Quiet. Like her Facebook
a scroll ran under his eyelids, but they didn't
page or follow her on twitter.

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GRAND Magazine - Fall 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of GRAND Magazine - Fall 2020