Lilacs and Glady
by
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The kids almost always got into trouble whenever
they all had to go someplace in the car with their mother. Especially in warmer
weather when they had to wait in the hot sultry car while their mother shopped.
They would become short tempered and cranky and in their irritable state,
they’d gripe and blame one another. On the way back home they experienced a
kind of exhilaration and became overly rowdy.
Assuming no one could hear her on the open road,
Glady wouldn’t wait until they got home to mete out punishment. She would
scream and yell as soon as she was out of the city limits. Finding herself on
open roadways while the car was homeward bound, she would pound her right fist
over the back of the front seat cussing a blue streak. Guilty or innocent, she
would pummel whoever and whatever got in the way. According to her reckoning
they all deserved a good beating for one thing or another anyway.
Glady took the kids with her a lot when she went
into Rockwell. She still worried about the near incident with nosy old lady
Mumford and didn’t want someone driving in and catching her gone with Hank so
far from the house. She felt like she
had to take them with her for appearances sake, but she couldn’t very well
troop so many of them into the stores. She never would get her shopping done
and she wouldn’t have a moment’s peace.
They could just stay in the car and wait for her!
Glady used her cajoling-pitiful tone of voice to
make the kids to stay in the car. She promised to come back with candy
sometimes, but other times she appealed to their sensibilities of how much
easier it was to keep track of the little kids right here in the car.
The older kids dreaded to wait in the hot car with
crying babies and whining little kids while their mother shopped. Glady always
took longer that she said she would.
They would wait and wait, and nine times out of ten, she came back to the
car to leave her purchases and go into another store.
Glady usually parked within a block of where she
needed to shop then move the car if she had to go very far to another
store. The kids would see her coming
back to the car and get their hopes up that they could finally go home. When Glady announced that she was finally
finished shopping, they would feel so relieved, they would let down and
misbehave all the way home. Glady would
be driving down the road, pounding her fist over the back of the seat, trying
to punch anything she could reach, cussing and threatening all kinds of doom as
soon as they got home.
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About the Book
Glady is the mother of a very large family, however
this story is not about Mom and apple pie. If Glady had ever made an apple pie,
she would have undoubtedly eaten it all herself. Glady is a self-serving character that spends her entire life
wishing for something better.
Glady is often frustrated and disappointed by her
continual unrealistic expectations but she provides many moments of hilarity as
well. She frequently finds herself in situations that evoke the entire range of
human emotions. Abuse, terror, vulgarity and bawdiness, depression and sadness,
to outright humor weave Glady into a complex character worth knowing. She is
difficult to love but there’s something about her that is captivating and real.
For those who can commiserate over similar
circumstances and for those who will enjoy historical glimpses into the
twentieth century along the way through Glady’s life, this is an original and
excellent tale.
About the Author
Francer Hope is an elder woman who grew up in hard
times on the Great Plains. She has spent her adult years observing and
reflecting on the nuances of the human spirit and weaving them into complex
characters such as Glady. She holds a Master of Science degree and taught for
many years in a university setting, spending much of her career reading and
writing. Her fictional works provide glimpses into socio-historical times that
help make her characters believable and provide multi-dimensional qualities to
their imagined personalities.