Story Weekend: Pillows
I’m not a neat freak, but I am germ phobe. I hate bugs, especially the itty bitty invisible ones like bacteria and those creepy dust mites. But don’t try to take my decades-old feather pillow away from me! I wash it of course, but I imagine it still has some very mature creepy crawlers in it. I don’t care. I plan to have that pillow forever. She (yeah, she’s a she) travels with me. You can really squish an old feather pillow into a teeny tiny space in a suitcase. Love it! So how about you? Do you have pillow story? I’ll start this thread off with mine.
If you’re new to Story Weekend, here’s how it works: I pick a theme and you share something from your life that relates to that theme, however you interpret it. Thanks to all of you who’ve been contributing. As always, there are a few “rules”:
▪ The story must be true
▪ Try to keep it under 100 words. Embrace the challenge! That’s about six or seven lines in the comment form. I want others to read your story, and most people tend to skip if it’s too long. I know how tough it is to “write tight” but I hope you’ll accept this as a challenge.
▪ Avoid offensive language.
Have a good weekend, everyone!
My Canadian friend Kelly and I had just settled in for a couple of days in my beach condo when it started to rain. And rain. And rain. It was Kelly’s first visit to North Carolina and what a miserable introduction to the state! The only road off the island flooded and we were trapped for four days without food (well we had pickles…) and a shrinking supply of much needed medications. We did nothing but watch the weather report and hope to get out. I felt terrible that Kelly’s visit was so bad, but she was a good sport…even when the rains let up and we stripped our beds and the giant cockroach fell out of the pillowcase she’d been sleeping on for her whole visit. Better to laugh than cry!
Those silly water bugs… I am sure it wasn’t a real roach..we get those water bugs in my house and they drive me crazy. Only come out at night..and they are always at least an inch or longer. And sometimes they are loners, but sometimes they bring their friends. It is usually wet outside when they come in to play. I don’t know where they come from or how they get in. I know that Kelly had a great time. I only wish I had been there for all the fun…:)
This is a story I have to think about..hmmm Pillows. You have finally hit a story line that I don’t have 50 stories about. So I will be back later…Love you Diane…
Cindy, it was a Palmetto Bug, of course. Never a roach! And a whole lot bigger than and inch! Kelly is a trouper.
I always sleep with feather pillows but I really didn’t know how precious they were to some. A few years I ago I had a friend staying with me before she judged a dressage show the next day. Imagine my surprise when she went down for the night and I heard a squeal from downstairs. Rushing out of my bedroom I called to find out if she were alright. “Oh yes and I’ll sleep so well. No one ever gives me a real feather pillow to sleep on.” I hope the people she judged the next day were grateful for the good mood into she took to the show.
My son Michael aged three and a half, loves to drink rooibos tea. Some mornings he comes and asks me to make him some tea in his “bottie” as he calls it. Then he runs off to the his bedroom to fetch his favourite kind of pillow which is one where the pillowcase has a frill around the edge. These he calls “big scratchies”. The pillow is dragged into the lounge, placed on the couch and there he lies drinking his tea in front of the TV all the while playing dreamily with the big scratchies. It’s so sweet to watch!
ten years ago, I purchased my delicous pillow. It also, has traveled with me. On one occassion I left it in a hotel. needless to say this was a dramatic experience, Agter several phones calls, a nice fed x bill. My baby arrived safe and sound home. My grandson Ian, said Ammie will you leaveme this pillow in your will……..lol
Years ago, we had a holiday in a Scottish seaside chalet. It was furnished with lots of clutter and cushions/pillows. One night, our dog took a shine to one of them and we woke up to feathers *everywhere* – it took us most of the morning to clean them up.
At the time, I was working freelance, designing projects for sewing & craft magazines so I had my needle & thread with me and managed to stuff most of the feathers back in the pillow and sew it up.
All the cushions were moved out of the room the dog slept in for the rest of the holiday!
My husband has a favorite pillow. He says he cannot sleep without it. He rolls it in half under his neck when he sleeps. Seems our Lab/mix puppy Bella likes to sleep on a pillow too. I often find her on mine when I get up and get ready for work. She spreads herself out like the queen on our bed after I get up. She is so funny. So cute to see them both there together. We are thinking of getting a king sized bed for the “three” of us. LOL
Lately for some reason I am living my life through the lines of a song and the images they have evoked in my life. I read’ Pillow’ and was instantly transported back to a time when I was six and watching my father lather his face with a ivory handled shaving brush and singing to me. Send Me The Pillow That You Dream On. So Darling I Can Dream On It Too’:} When does memory begin I wonder and why are some so connected to the musical soundtrack to our lives? Then I thought of long goodbyes to folks who never should have been in my life or who stopped for a visit but for one reason or another and chose not to stay. ‘ I loved you in the morning. Your kisses deep and warm. Your hair upon my pillow like a sleepy golden storm.’ Evocative, elusive, the smell of sadness and solitude on a pillow.
So lovely, Sheree. The connection between music and memory is such a mystery to me. John and I just drove 3 hours to the beach, listening to old songs on the radio, sharing the memories each of them conjured up for us. Those ancient emotions can still be so strong.
Ditto
Sheree…if you’re not already, I think you should be a writer…you write beautifully.
Thank you Margo. So very kind of you. Yes I am a writer who needs to write more. I think in words always.. Diane’s work is an inspiration to me. She nails it every time and still has time for all of us.
Music does have a way of bringing back memories. So does Smells and fragrances. When you walk into a room where someone you love has slept and dreamed and lived, one of the first things you do is pick up their pillow and give it a huge hug and inhale deeply. The pillow seems to pick and retain all the memories of our lives. My dad has been gone for 9 years, but his pillow is still lying next to Mom’s. When I walk into their bedroom, I still pick up his pillow. All of the memories come flooding back. One of my favorite is the memory of being sick as a child. When one of us stayed home from school sick, Mom would let us climb in her bed and stay there all day. Laying on Dad’s pillow on his side of the bed and Mom waiting on us all day. As a child, I spent lots of days there. I ran lots of fevers and was sick more than I like to remember.
Some of my most memorable discussions take place while lying in bed relaxing on a comfy pillow, hence the term pillow talk. It is one of my favorite times of the day and the intimacy of it is so delicious! Events of the day are shared, plans are made and special memories are evoked. Pillow talk; “Sweet Dreams are made of this!”
I don’t have a favourite pillow maybe i did as a child but not right now. I have to buy a new pillow about every 3 months because they get worn out to fast and then i can’t sleep. or I’ll wake up with a headache in the morning.