Apparently I haven’t taken M and K to the Mansfield Country Store
ever – because Ben started getting nostalgic for a store with candy,
nicklodians, and pretty things were we’d bought presents for his
grandmothers, and M had never heard of it. The building is an old country store with
porch and everything, they have barrels of pickles, penny candy, fancy soaps, crackers, kitchen stuff, stationary, and furniture.
Nostalgia coincided with necessity; I need a birthday present for my 3 year old cousin, and the nearest educational toy store is near the Mansfield Country Store.
I’d borrowed a cd from the library of Ella Fitzgerald and Louis
Armstrong. I listened to an Ella Fitzgerald u-tube when Google featured
her, and thought I don’t understand jazz, but this might be an approachable spot for me to come in. I took the wrong road up to Mansfield, but the opening gardens were so pretty, and the cd was so interesting, I didn’t care.
Louis Armstrong on trumpet with azalias blooming, and maple trees in
bloom with leaves just starting to unfurl: lovely. On the way home I accidentally blocked the intersection by driving through a green light without enough space to continue. Not so lovely – but I did have room to leave before the light changed so I didn’t stop traffic through the next light cycle.
I gave K a list of does and don’ts as we drove over. I didn’t do that this Sunday when M was baptized, and she and I had some tearful apologies to make to each other.
When we got to the store K didn’t touch expensive stuff, she
put her own quarter in the nickleodian all by herself – it played
Tomorrow from Annie really loudly on a player piano with percusion in a
glass front in the bottom. She bought our cousin a taffy at the penny candy
counter with her allowance money, M bought some fudge, I held K up so she could see it
being weighted, I bought Dan some mint white chocolate kisses and me some dark chocolate cashew turtles.
Ben said the store was smaller than he remembered, M and K said it was huge.
This evening K and I made chicken sate for supper, with rice and green beans. The boys did some of the dishes, then they walked to the library for chess night. One of Ben’s friends from church came to play as well. It was harder than usual for the chess club leader to beat Ben at the game, he was very happy about that.
What a pleasant day. Now all I have left to do is read to M, and write the menu for next week.