Fresh flannel sheets on the bed last night, I closed the top to my computer and crawled in with ice cube feet and the sheets were like warm layers of cotton. Sometimes when my feet are cold I’ll take them and rub them on Jim’s legs, try to insert little feet between shins or thighs the way I used to with Mom whenever I had leg aches.
Leg aches plagued me more than other ailments as a child, maybe lack of great nutrition—I liked candy necklaces and sugar straws—although I think it was hereditary. Mom’s parents took her to the healing waters of Ojo Caliente and soaked her legs in the pools to drive away the demons.
We sleep with a set of flannel sheets, a blue herringbone blanket made for a double bed not queen (Jim always pulls it too far over, or I do), a quilt Jim’s mom made him in 1981, has a simple rising sun design and a sewn inscripton, Happy Birthday Jim, Love Mom. He loves that quilt. Then a bed cover I got at Linens-n-Things, which Patty C. calls “Sheets-n-Shit.” They’re going out of business.
I like down comforters, Jim dies of heatstroke in them. His mom gave us one for Christmas long ago with a white eyelet cover, pretty and delicate, and when it finally died and the feathers aggregated in thick clumps in the corners, we let it go with one of our annual spring cleaning purges.
I remember most the bedding at Grandma’s house, layers of homemade quilted blankets and bright afghans. There was never rhyme nor reason to her colors. I have an old blanket of hers now with angled edges that Mom sewed where it had ripped and gave to me. Pink checkerboard, lime green, bright orange and red. I see two patches of patterned cloth I recognize from the simple dresses Grandma wore in the mornings while frying bacon, potatoes, and eggs. Each section held with thread in the center, the ends popping up like errant hairs on a chin. I love that blanket, I lie on the couch and cover myself with it whenever we watch movies. Em always gravitates to me during those times and I spoon her the way Mom spooned me, tiny legs tucked into big.
But the thing I remember most about Grandma’s bedding is how it held me down, the weight of it all, pressing me into my dreams. How later on whenever I got X-rays at Dr. Thurman’s office and they placed that iron-like blanket over my small body it would remind me of reams of color, patches of Grandma’s dresses and crocheted yarn, weighing down on me, not like a burden but a release, allowing sleep, finally, to come.
-related to Topic post: WRITING TOPIC – FLANNEL SHEETS
The thing about Grama’s bedding really hit home yb. My Grama had the most beautiful cherrywood bedroom set and I felt like a Princess when I got to sleep on it with it’s fluffy peach coverlet. She left it all to me when she passed on. It has a full size crocheted cover that goes over the peach fluff that she created with her tiny old hands. I keep it wrapped up safe and take it out to touch once in a while. She was my safe haven.
LikeLike
Oh, I bet it’s gorgeous, H. I assume you still have the bedroom set and all the bedding, yes?
If it’s the kind of crocheted cover that I’m thinking, I’m imagining it to be a small knot, very delicate. Perhaps not—my grandmother did a pretty big knot that resembled more (to my eyes) knitting. But when I lived in Spain, one of the old sisters who rented me my attic space was the crocheter of the bunch, and she would make the most gorgeous delicate bed covers.
LikeLike
yep, small and delicate…that’s the one. It took her 2 years to complete.
I passed the bed to my middle sister and then we passed to the oldest. I think everyone should share it! It really belongs to all of us in my mind. But the crocheted cover…that’s hands off to all…it’s MINE! 😉
That is the coolest yb, renting an attic space from the Sisters! What wonderful memories you must have.
LikeLike