monagustafsonaffinito   CONVERSATIONS

I’d really like to be ranting about the disastrous failure to provide health workers with the protections and treatment materials they need in dealing with COVID-19. I can’t help remembering how quickly things got rolling when WWII hit us… how the whole country swung into action with energetic leadership from the top.

But sometimes it feels good to retreat to the remembered “old days,” which are probably distorted in my memory anyway.

Or maybe I’d like to talk about the full body laugh I enjoyed all by myself yesterday watching some old Carol Burnett performances.

But there is something reassuring about “the old days.” So here’s another outtake from “My Father’s House.”

Carl and Jennie drove to Hartford to pick out a fur coat.

 “We hope to find a nice one for well under $100.00” Carl told the furrier who studied Jennie a bit. “A nice little lady. We don’t want anything too heavy,” he said as he draped a golden brown muskrat on the carpet.

 It would be hard to tell who was more excited. What they could tell was the furrier’s expertise. Just because it was such a huge expenditure they insisted on trying several coats, but they ended up with the first one he had shown them. And the price was well under $100.00.

 “I’ll adjust the sleeve length,” he said. It will be ready in a week.

 “Will there be enough cut off to make a hat?” Jennie asked.

 “I’ll see that you have enough,” he responded.