Staci Tate - grace grits and gardening

Built by Tom Tate

July 13, 2012 By Talya Tate Boerner

In 1954, Daddy built this piece of furniture in high school shop class. Staci and I used it as our night stand for years and then it was Tate’s. Now it’s in our Fayetteville house.

It belongs back in Arkansas.

When I was in 9th grade, I decided to take shop instead of home ec. I thought I might build some furniture too. Daddy ix-nayed this idea right away, saying you only want to take shop because Craig is in that class… I was forced to go straight to home ec with all the girls. Turned out to be pretty fun other than the sewing debacle. And I still managed to spend plenty of time with Craig…

Craig and Me 2011

That little night stand is sturdy and very well built with dove-tailed joints. He did a great job on it. In the back of the drawer, upside down and hidden, Daddy burned an inscription into the wood, Built By Tom Tate 1954. The inscription is only visible when the drawer is emptied and removed. The inscription itself is a treasure, written in Daddy’s hand.

The little drawer has held all sorts of trinkets beginning in 1962. During the past year, Tate’s room has been empty, but the little drawer still held his things. Things left behind. Some not touched in years. A time capsule from childhood through high school. Plastic ninja toys from Ci-Ci’s Pizza, his Harry Potter Halloween glasses, guitar pics, golf tees, boy scout badges, his lifeguard whistle, a Little People person…

Now it’s empty and polished and sitting by our bed in Fayetteville. I’m not sure what will end up in it, but I know whenever I go, it’s going with me. Until it can’t.

talya

Musical Pairings:

I Love, Tom T Hall

Craig and Me 1966?

Happy un-Birthday!

July 10, 2012 By Talya Tate Boerner

When my mother was expecting her first child, her due date was July 4th. But I waited around until July 10. It was the only time I’ve been the slightest bit tardy. And I wasn’t really late, I just needed my own day. I didn’t want to share with the entire nation.

July 10, 1965; 3 yrs old
Nana & Papa Creecy, Staci (3 mos)

My 5th birthday party was in our backyard playhouse. Everyone in attendance (Sara, Martha Ann, Anita, Lesa, Staci) brought their baby dolls for an old fashioned tea party. There were homemade invitations and treats. Momma tied long spiral-shaped pastel colored balloons to the weeping willow tree magically transforming the back yard. The tree was amazing. Life was amazing.

There were no spa treatments, italian cream cake balls, or hand painted magic wands. We played pin-the-tail on the donkey instead of riding live unicorns through the cotton field.

It was a simpler time.

And our birthday tradition – my sister always received one small gift on my birthday, and I on hers. An un-birthday present. Nana and Papa started this tradition because they could never just give one of us something. Momma often still does this…

On my 9th birthday we went to Memphis, ate pizza at Shakey’s, waved at Graceland, and rode the Memphis Queen. For those of you keeping up, this was the trip to the Pink Palace when Momma was nearly arrested for a moon rock incident. Her first run-in with the Memphis po-po. (Moon rock story….)

Memphis Riverboat

Later, most of my birthdays were spent at the lake with candles in a slice of watermelon. We ate it on the dock in the sun with sticky juice dripping down our bathing suits. I’ve always preferred watermelon to most other foods, including cake. The only exception was Nana’s Fresh Strawberry Cake. If she came to the lake, I ate that with my watermelon.

Birthday at the lake 1975

I spent my 21st birthday in Tokyo during a Baylor summer abroad program. At a disco. In the Ginza. With new friends. A gift of flowers and chocolate and Kirin and karaoke. I missed my lake and my family and my watermelon…

On my 30th birthday, my first husband threw me a surprise birthday party. I don’t much like surprises. ESPECIALLY after having spent the Entire Day wallpapering a friend’s apartment. My friend who was InOnTheWholeThing, mentioned not word one to me… but had no problem letting me wallpaper her apartment before my party.

Would a true friend really allow this to happen??? Allow me to stroll back home completely surprised, to a house crammed full of friends, wearing my painting clothes with wallpaper glue in my hair?

I think not.

Today is my 50th birthday. I’ve decided my mother is the one who should celebrate. She did all the work, deserves the party. I am more excited on Kelsey’s birthday (December 13) and Tate’s birthday (May 18) than my own. Those are the days I celebrate. I worked especially hard on those birthdays… and the following days…

I think I’ll buy my momma a watermelon for her un-birthday. I wonder what Staci will get?

talya

Musical Pairings:

Birthday, The Beatles

“There are three hundred and sixty-four days when you might get un-birthday presents … and only one for birthday presents, you know.” — Lewis Carroll, from Through the Looking Glass

from a pew away…

May 13, 2012 By Talya Tate Boerner

At Brinkley Chapel we all wore roses pinned to our dresses on Mother’s Day Sunday – white if our mother had already passed away and pink or red if our mother was still alive. I really don’t know if this is a tradition everywhere or just at our little church in Arkansas. We had lots of unique traditions there.

Happy Mother’s Day!

Momma ordered a corsage for Nana from the flower shop in Osceola. It was always a white Gardenia, her favorite, the most fragrant of all flowers. I could smell it from a pew away.

Momma wore a red or pink rose corsage with a bit of baby’s breath, but Staci and I were too little to wear big, fancy, store-bought corsages. We ran outside on Sunday morning, getting our shoes wet in the grass, and clipped a tiny pink rose from the bush beside the driveway. Luckily the rosebush was always in full bloom on Mother’s Day, as if it understood the importance of its job.

Momma always told us to pick one of the buds not fully open. If we wore one of the pretty big roses already in full bloom, the petals fell apart before the invitational hymn leaving only a pin and a thorny stem on your dress. No telling what the significance of that might have been.