When Colene was in high school, she won a UIL competition
through her advertising class, The reward for winning was twofold – a nice,
big, trophy and a trip to Hawaii. (Colene’s opinion of this: the trophy was
nice, but the trip to Hawaii was the important thing. Duh. Who wouldn’t agree
with that?!)
Colene kept the trophy in her room while she finished high
school, but she didn’t take it with her when she left for college and then apartment
life away from home.
Lucy#1 felt much more strongly about the trophy than did
Colene. I suppose that’s the difference between a high-school competition and a
mother’s pride! Lucy#1 treasured the trophy. It moved when she and Leroy moved,
and after Leroy died, Lucy#1 took it with her to East Texas, too.
When we were sorting and packing for Lucy#1 to move in with
me, Colene found the trophy. Her basic reaction was to roll her eyes and wonder
why in the world Lucy#1 had that old – and by that time, broken – thing. She
put it into the box of items to be trashed.
When Lucy#1 checked on us and found the trophy in the trash
box, she was appalled! She immediately retrieved the trophy and declared it was
moving to Oklahoma with her. Colene and
Lucy#1 had quite a discussion on the merits of the trophy. Susan maintained it
should be tossed since it was 30 years old, a piece was missing, and what was
left didn’t stay together as it should. Lucy#1 countered that it was an
important award showcasing Colene’s brilliance and should be kept forever.
Eventually, Lucy#1 snatched up the trophy, and stalked out of the room.
Later, Colene saw the trophy in a box in another room and
smuggled it out of the house and into Lucy#1’s big rolling trashcan, no doubt
heaving a sigh of relief.
Fast forward to the next morning, when we were to leave East
Texas for Oklahoma. The truck had been loaded the night before, locked up, and backed
into Lucy#1’s driveway. In the morning, Colene and I went out to place the
last-minute items into the U-Haul™. Colene was standing at the back of the
truck as I removed the padlock and shoved the door up. As the door went up,
Colene began to laugh in a way that I think can truthfully be described as
“shrieking with laughter.” I turned with a questioning look. She kept laughing
and pointed to the back of the truck, where I saw, standing tall and proud in
the middle of the remaining space, the advertising trophy!
I wish we had taken a photo of that, but we didn’t. It was a
hilarious sight, the broken trophy standing lopsided and all alone in the empty
space. We have no idea when Lucy#1 retrieved the trophy from the trashcan or
when she put it on the truck (or really, how she got it on there, because she
was tiny and the truck was high off the ground). I suspect our friends across
the street may have been her accomplices. However the deed was accomplished, we
realized the trophy meant more to her than we had realized, and we merely moved
it off to the side before throwing in the last-minute items.
When we arrived in Oklahoma, the trophy went into Lucy#1’s
bedroom and I forgot about it until I was packing up her belongings after she
died. I didn’t start on that task until she had been gone a couple months, so I
found the trophy in the middle of December.
Here are a couple photos of Colene just after she opened one of her
Christmas gifts from me that year. Yeah, I wrapped the trophy up and gave it to
her for Christmas. She loved it! (Then she threw it in my trash.)
And here is a photo of the trophy itself. Note that it is all cattywhompus and Colene
had to hold the top on so I could take the picture. I think there is supposed to be something on that metal spike between the crooked marble and the little man.
My take-away from this series of events is this:
- Colene is brilliant, and could have taken the advertising world by storm had she given two hoots about pursuing that career.
- Lucy#1 was proud of her girls, forever and ever, and kept the tangible reminders of our brilliance and talent.
- I may be a smart aleck. But even if I am, Colene and I share the same – possibly warped – sense of humor, and can have an amazing amount of fun together.
