
Tulips
By: susan peterson stamis
Tags: foreign service, pregnancy, state department, teacher, tulips
Category: Uncategorized
I’m 60 now, and I’ve finally decided to digitally scan the 1000’s of family slides and snapshots my dear shutterbug of a father left for posterity.
One picture taken in 1950 is of a tulip garden in Holland. When I was in grade school in Guatemala, a teacher asked the class if anyone had been to Holland, and I enthusiastically raised my hand and declared, “Yes! But I was still in my mother’s stomach.” The teacher laughed along with my classmates, but I had seen the picture of my pregnant mother standing among the tulips, so it seemed perfectly reasonable to say that I had been there also.
Maybe my earliest memory then, really is of tulip gardens in Holland. Who’s to say that as I bobbled snugly in that warm saline bath, I didn’t sense that glorious sea of color, retaining the memory in some primal and inexplicable way?
So, “Laugh all you want, Mr. Teacher-Whose-Name-I-Can’t-Remember. I’ve been to Holland.”
I am SO excited that you are creating a virtual journal filled with your beautiful memoirs of your sweet little life!
Hey cuz,
Will look forwards to the updates!
xoxo
jess