"Melted Ice Cream and Googoosh" reminds me of the time I was in 6th grade and about to "graduate" from elementary school. My mother spent hours and hours making me a beautiful white dress, covered in scarlet ribbons threaded through rows of white eyelet lace. For some obscure reason no longer in my memory, I had decided to ride my bike to school with a friend that day instead of riding the bus as I usually did. Being the klutz that I am, I had a wreck on my bike. Later that day my mother arrived at school to watch me walk across the stage to accept my elementary school "diploma" in the pristine, snowy-white, ribbon-bedecked dress she had so lovingly made. What she saw instead was me walking across the stage in a less-than-pristine, used-to-be-snowy-white dress with a huge smear of mud and axle grease across the front and several of the rows of eyelet lace-encased scarlet ribbons dangling forlornly from it! My pantyhose (a supremely exciting first-time privilege for a young girl) were ripped in shreds, and the T-strap of one of my once shiny Mary Janes was flopping up and down as I walked, the button fastener having been another casualty of the bike accident. No doubt she was as mortified as I was. I can only hope that she still felt some pride in my academic accomplishments, even in the midst of her irritation with me at my shabby treatment of the beautiful dress she had expended so much time and energy creating for my special occasion. Because she was a woman of infinite love, I feel sure she did.
-Carolyn
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