NANCY CAROL MOODY
  • Home
  • Books
  • Publications
  • Poems
  • About
  • Coming Up
  • Contact Nancy

A Box, Not Botox

9/9/2012

2 Comments

 
Picture
Picture
So, we were talking about first loves . . .

Mine, sigh, was a box. A cardboard box. Not just an ordinary cardboard box, but a refrigerator box that my father brought home in his pickup truck and put out on the back lawn for "you kids" to play with.

And play with it we did, one kid clambering into the box while the others (there were always kids around, weren't there?) folded down the flaps and began shoving at the box until it flopped over once and then over again, over and over, around the yard until the kid inside was stunned with tumble and all the other kids fell in a laughing heap to the ground.

And then it was someone else's turn.


I don't remember much of being on the pushing end, just a vague memory of a wall of cardboard with no place to hold on to and a sudden, painful jab to the belly from shoving on a corner that wouldn't be shoved.

But inside the box  . . . well, that was heaven: the sudden darkness with slashes of light angling through the flaps; the odd quiet, how the outside sounds were strangely muffled; the musty, clean-cardboardy smell; the dry shushing smoothness against my bare legs; the tremors and heart race of that first push; the soft, rolling landings inside a safe and papery cocoon.

I don't remember ever making forts or buildings of these boxes. I only remember that huge thing on the lawn growing more battered and limp with each round, finally collapsing in on itself. By and by, the remains would somehow magically disappear. And one day a new box would just as magically reappear!

You don't forget a first love. And you don't let go of it too easily, either. Which may explain my passion to this day for boxes and cartons and just about any other sort of container. These things that once held other things—what potential they have to yet again hold other things, surprising things they weren't intended to hold. You never know what a box might contain. One still holds this young girl's heart.


Picture
Apparently some traits run in the family
2 Comments
Serifina
9/11/2012 04:52:31 pm

"stunned with tumble"
is a magnificent way to describe the cardboard box caper memories
and, well, childhood itself. Thank you for that. And for kitty-in-the-box innocence portrayed perfectly by a certain family member.

Reply
Botox link
9/24/2012 11:33:09 pm

It reminds me the childhood memories, moving up and down, searching all the stuff and helping mother during games.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    RSS Feed

    Nancy Carol Moody

    I'm a poet and a letter-writer. Yup, that kind. The kind who uses pens and paper and actual stamps. The kind who will leave the house with nothing on the agenda but to get to the mailbox before the scheduled pick-up time. The kind who understands that technology is a wondrous thing, but nothing quite beats finding a real letter with a real stamp on it amid the credit card solicitations, pizza coupons and seminar catalogs.

    Picture


    Archives

    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012


    Categories

    All
    Animals
    Art
    Eugene
    Happiness
    Mail
    Medical Stuff
    Monday Morning
    My House
    Mysteries
    Negative Space
    Nostalgia
    On Writing
    Oregon
    Poets And Poetry
    Sports
    The New Yorker
    The New York Times
    The New York Times Magazine
    To Do Lists
    To-Do Lists
    University Of Oregon
    Work


    Blogroll

    All About Oregon
    Anita's Poetry Blog
    Anvils & Edelweiss
    Colette Jonopulos
    Evelyn Searle Hess, Author Blog
    Haiku Oregon
    Off the Page
    Poetry & Popular Culture
    Stone Soup
    Writer's Island

    RSS Feed

© 2022 Nancy Carol Moody
Photos used under Creative Commons from marc falardeau, Sedona Hiker, juggernautco, jetheriot, Jaime Olmo, Lucas Guimaraes, titanium22, Benimoto, Tim Green aka atoach, quinn.anya, gadl, rjs1322, photosteve101, Epiclectic, Bert Kaufmann, Dave Hamster, Nesster, WarmSleepy, Double--M, appadaumen_de, Epiclectic, x-ray delta one, Krikit ♥, Hey Paul Studios, Steve Snodgrass, andydr, One From RM, Dusty J, IIun, out of ideas, claumoho, Marxchivist, AtomDocs, TheCreativePenn, acnatta, ell brown, Dyanna Hyde, katerha, ThrasherDave, highwaycharlie, photoverulam, opensourceway, mas_to, opal nova, kk+, Spigoo, quinn.anya, Flóra, Wonderlane, MaretH., JD Hancock, sunshinecity, dollen, cliff1066™, Epiclectic, PinkMoose, DebMomOf3, Jonathan Daroca, Family Art Studio, Gonmi, Jilligan86, Epiclectic, Infrogmation, christine zenino, j_lai, Andrew Morrell Photography, anemoneprojectors (getting through the backlog), exfordy, andy_tyler, psd, mikecogh, "T"eresa, Epiclectic, TheGiantVermin, cybrariankt, Sergei Golyshev, Epiclectic, Kate Cooper, Ray Larabie, kathia shieh, Homini:), Robert Banh, Hitchster, squeezeomatic, marfis75, katerha, Chrissy Olson, flikr, jenny downing, snapp3r, BazzaDaRambler, Robert Couse-Baker, leppre, Marcin Wichary, jeff_golden, jpockele, Paul Lowry, Nina J. G., Lincolnian (Brian), Epiclectic, peasap, juggernautco, cogdogblog, U.S. Embassy The Hague, gui.tavares, Wonderlane, stu_spivack, Bitterjug, puroticorico, wayne's eye view, The Travelling Bum, HockeyholicAZ, david.nikonvscanon, Paul Lowry, OnTask, net_efekt, oswaldo, donireewalker, Sister72, herval, teadrinker, James Nash (aka Cirrus), jaqian, Yosemite James, Tim in Sydney, C.K.H., Nadia Szopinska, Walraven, ArmandoH2O, Peter Blanchard
  • Home
  • Books
  • Publications
  • Poems
  • About
  • Coming Up
  • Contact Nancy