24 APRIL

Old trunks is certain you celebrate the normal holidays and inner family holidays:

Birthday
Christmas
Wedding anniversary
New Years
Valentine's Day
Easter
Fourth of July
Halloween
Thanksgiving

Wedding anniversaries of family and friends
Brothers and sisters birthdays
Nephews and nieces birthdays
Parents
Grandparents
Mother's Day
Father's Day

Perhaps if you have all the dates for all the relatives, your calendar is full of special days.

Let's think about a day that is just YOURS. A day that had a profound impact on your life, (according to what is profound to you).

May I give you an example? Mine came on April 24, 1956.

Mother picked me up at Northrop School after a Girl Scout meeting. That means I was dressed in a green skirt, white blouse, yellow Girl Scout tie tied in a square knot and a sash with the troop number and badges. Oh, and green socks with the Girl Scout insignia woven into the top. Although it was late in April, it wasn't warm. The meeting was uneventful. It was a little over three miles home; we lived west of town on a resettlement farm purchased in August of 1955.

Daddy had spent the early fall of 1955 looking for ponies to start a herd. He had bought four head from a man near Karlstad; Topsy,Queen, Patty, and Babe. Topsy was broke to ride as was Patty. Queen was the most Shetland size, the others were taller, perhaps we can call them Welsh. He bought a mare name Flicka from an unknown party. It would be sometime before we got her, as she was frightened, she would have to bring herself to come in to the owner's barn so she could be transferred to our barn. All the mares were to be said to be "in foal". Because Flicka was so frightened, dad put her in the box stall so she wouldn't have her colt outside sometime around the last of March as there were no known foal date.

Daddy and I had agreed that the first colt born would be named April.

And on April 24, when we came home from Girl Scouts, daddy was sitting at the table reading a magazine. I said hello and he said, "April came!"

There was a colt! She was in the box stall! I had to see her! By now, mother was in the house and got the drift of what was happening. I put on my barn jacket over my uniform and the last thing I heard was, "At least change your shoes!"

Because it was Flicka and because she was frightened, over the weeks she had been in the stall we had talked to her a few times a day hoping it would help her trust. It was important even now, that we kept a low profile although inside myself I wanted to squeal as loud as I could.

For those of you who have not seen a new born colt, think about the size of a silver dollar, that helps you understand how small their hooves are. And there she was, a little filly with a dun body and dark mane and tail. She would stay close to her mother. She would be visited by dozens of daddy's friends in that 10 days before she was turned out with her mother to run and jump and whinny.

It would take two weeks from foaling to get close to her. I baited her with fresh sprouts of alfalfa from the field next to the pasture. One day she came over to me. She nibbled on the sprout and I got to touch her velvet nose for the first time. We became the best of friends.

April was gentle, good-tempered, and trusting by nature. She made a good companion. She was not like Torpedo or Smokey who had a snappy behavior and needed proper handling to make them behave. Mother had trouble with the "stubborn" ponies, (they bit her most) she failed to understand that pony behavior is influenced by the quality of human handling. They smelled her fear.

April was not a beautiful mare. Her head was long and her neck was thin. She would never be sold because she was the first colt born. She developed a large cancerous growth on the side of her head and because of the suffering, was put down before she turned five. That's what they did to sick horses in the fifties.

Last year on April 24, I dressed in red with a sequined jacket and went to Thief River Falls. I walked all around the city taking notes of what businesses the city had. The idea was to do a comparison with what was there in 1960 and 1909. It is important I tell you what I was wearing is, because in front of the Ace Hardware Store on Main Avenue, I stood writing. I heard a voice from behind me hollering about a ticket. The man waving the ticket thought I was the meter maid and had ticketed him for overtime parking. I did not, nor do I believe now, that meter maids in Thief River Falls wear all red, including shoes and a jacket with swirls and sequins!

On this day I have a chosen project. The plan is to convert 30-40 photographs from black and white or color to sepia and mount them on scrap booking papers with ornamental paper frames which I cut and cussed at as part of the project. Will the image in my mind match the finished project? May I share?

Look into yourself and pick a day that brings back a memory that brings joy to you. Celebrate.

e