It is almost four weeks since we put our horse down. He suddenly got very ill and took a turn for the worse and we put him down all in less than twenty four hours. A horror story that will haunt me for years.
There is a hole in my whole since he is gone and the struggle now is finding a way to heal. I work, plan activities and look at the possibilities of doing this all over again.
On a different path, I have satellite radio in my car now. When driving home from NJ after a day of dealing with the pain of other peoples' lives, I listen to "Classic Radio". This station plays radio programs dating back to before I was born and later. So tonight I found myself driving across the GW bridge listening to Jack Benny. Now here is the weird part, my senses filled with the smell and taste of chicken chow mein, something I have not eaten in many years. Back in time my parents and I would be driving home from some Sunday outing and cross this same bridge and listen to Jack Benny, my Dad the most over cautious of drivers would chuckle and the show, while clutching the wheel of our Studebaker, pea green, two door sedan nervous that if he laughed too hard he would lose control.
My mother would be giving directions about dinner. She would ask him to stop at Tom's Inn on the Concourse, he would get out to get dinner and she would drive the car home to be ready when he walked in.
Dinner was always the same, chicken chow mein, one egg roll, fried rice and spare ribs. She would stretch dinner by making her own rice, cutting the egg roll in three pieces and make her own tea. It was a Sunday treat which, apparently, my memory connected to the radio show. Here I was at 67 savoring the smells and tastes of a meal I hadn't had in almost 60 years.
So I think the two thoughts, horse and Jack Benny are connected. I went back to a very peaceful time when all I had to do was sit in the back seat and let the grown ups make the decisions and the world was simple. Nice little break
