Those of us who use search engines on computers are familiar with segues. It means: “to make a transition from one thing to another smoothly and without interruption.”
It happens to me every day. I start searching for something, for instance “warning signs of swine flu,” and when I find that I click on a link. I click on another link and another and before you know it I’m looking at a website for Coco the “signing” gorilla! However, I don’t need a computer for my brain to segue … my memories get triggered, and one thing leads to another “smoothly and without interruption.”
A few days ago, I posted about pot holders and about making them as a child. A comment on that post caused me to segue from colorful potholders all the way to ancient Greece in less time than it has taken you to read these words! That spark to my imagination ignited into a post. Here is how it went:
That post sparked a memory for Jeni Hill Ertmer, who told me about selling potholders when she was a kid, as well as selling a medicine from those days called Cloverine Brand Salve.
[segue]
I asked her about that salve because, although I had never heard of it, it reminded me of the medications used by my grandparents. In those days, my folks figured that if a medicine didn’t smell bad or stain your skin it probably wasn’t worth anything. She told me about it, and I started remembering the awful medications used by the old folks in my family.
[segue]
When my Momma was moving to a smaller house, my sister and I helped her get rid of some of her mountain of junk. I was ruthless about throwing away old medications … until I came to a tiny jar of ointment. It had dried up to look like mud, because it was probably as old as I was. On the top of the jar it said, “Antiphlogistine.” I squealed with delight.
Antiphlogistine
I said, “I’m taking this home with me!” Momma looked at me like I had lost the last bit of brain cells I had. “Why in the world do you want that? It’s not any good any more!” she said.
“Oh, yes it is, Momma,” I replied. “Don’t you see the name? “Antiphlogistine!” It reminds me of Uncle Fritz!”
[segue]
Uncle Fritz, Arthur Ewalt, was my favorite uncle. He was probably the favorite uncle of every child in the family. He had married my Aunt LaVerta, which by itself should have qualified him for sainthood. Aunt LaVerta was a delightful, good-hearted woman, but she was such a scatter-brained chatterbox she could drive anyone insane. Not my Uncle Fritz, though. I never in my life heard him raise his voice or saw him lose his temper.
Arthur Ewalt
Although they never had children together, my Uncle Fritz adored all the nieces and nephews in the family. But, he showed that in a very quiet fashion. He took us with him to the warehouse he owned and let us explore, he took us to the ranch he owned with his brother, he took us into downtown Oak Cliff to buy candy and comic books, he gave us pockets full of coins.
Uncle Fritz didn’t ever call us by our real names. He called us silly names, like “Snicklefritz” or “Antiphlogistine.” Until I saw that bottle of salve, I had never known where he got that name.
Fritzie never played favorites among the children, but when he died, every stinkin’ one of us were convinced in our hearts that we were his favorite child. Strangely, I find that I am drawn to people just like him. He didn’t talk all the time, not because he couldn’t get a word in edgewise (which he couldn’t), but because he only talked when he had something to say!
The first word that comes to my mind to describe my uncle is “laconic,” which means “using few words.” That word enters our language from the ancient Greek.
[segue]
King Philip of Macedon (382-36 B.C.) wanted to bring the people of Greece together under one rule (his). At the time, Greece was divided into many city states. He gathered an army, and made war on the other states until they submitted to him.
Sparta was a “hold-out.” The Spartans lived in an area of Greece called “Laconia,” and were often called “Lacons.” They were known as brave warriors with simple habits, and they didn’t want any part of King Philip’s plan. Philip marched his army to the borders of Laconia, and sent the Spartans a message. That message went something like this:
If you don’t surrender immediately, I will invade your country. If I invade, I will destroy everything that you cherish. If I come in there, I’m going to burn the place to the ground. If I come in there, you are going to be sorry!
Well, maybe he didn’t say it exactly like that, but you get the picture. The Spartans sent back a message to him.
When Philip opened the note, he saw one word: “IF.”
See how that happened? Memories triggered a segue in the blink of an eye. My brain is faster than Google, too! I’m betting if you have read this far that these stories sparked a segue for you. Feel free to tell me about it (I might get “blog fodder” from your comment!).
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{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Sometimes we have way too much in common. In the space of your blog you got me to Cod Liver Oil and Inkleberries. When one of those brain manias hit, there is nothing you can do but nose on down the trail into every nook and cranny where you just might end up in a High Dudgeon. Hmmmm think I’ll go write something.
Jamie´s last blog ..ARGHHHH!!!
Whaddaya mean “sometimes?” I am sooo sorry I took you to cod liver oil and inkleberries … but I didn’t take you to dingleberries.
LOLOLOL–my brain (and fingers on the keyboard) work that way too! PS the Antiphlogistine (as does the Cloverine salve) reminds me of Watson’s products, which were once a very common commodity in this area–don’t know about other places. Some kind of white liniment that was supposed to be THE very best thing for arthritic pain, among other things–The very best of their products though was their gin-you-wine vanilla flavoring.
Which makes me want to go bake fruitbread.
Great post!!
I think that different areas of the country must have had their own curatives. Vanilla flavoring … takes me to a trip to Mexico where I bought an ENORMOUS bottle of vanilla. Twenty years later I still have some of it in the cupboard (I don’t want to throw it away because the label is so cool). Segue.
I guess I just went on to think of my favorite uncle. It was the one place we would go have dinner and us kids didn’t get stuck doing the dishes because Uncle Ellis would grab Dad and they’d go do them and get to visit at the same time. Women and children got a break there. Then we’d all go to the zoo which was only a few blocks from thier home in Seattle. So there were 2+ reasons we liked visiting them. Too bad they’re gone now, I still miss them!
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We didn’t have any fellas like that in our family
. I bet when you sit down and think about those folks, you will come up with more than 2 reasons. The zoo is a darned good one, though.
Your segues remind me of an affliction that I suffer from, I call it ADD housekeeping. I start with one small area in one room and when I go to put something away, I then see something that needs to get done in another room which then may lead me to another place. The worse is when I find a book or magazine that catches my eye which then leads me to sitting for awhile. Sometimes I get back to the original task, other times not. Google searches do the same thing for me, it’s nice to have tabs to be able to go back to what looked interesting in the first place!
I was thinking ADD when I wrote this, for sure. I “clean” exactly the same way. I also rehearse stories. that way! Frustrating, but I guess it keeps things interesting.