Swallowin Sunshine

This mornin' I was gettin' breakfast on the table for Buck, makin sure his pills were all out; when one of my favorite memories of my Uncle Vaden floated up.

It had to do with vitamins. Now I never took vitamins cause they were just too big for me to swallow. Try as I might, they would stop mid-goozle and fly back out like I had a squat little catcher in the back of my throat hollerin, "Foul", while tossin' it back. .

So because I hate gaggin, I just never took'um. But, be that as it may; one night I had to spend the night in Danville cause I was in "that end of the state" and it would have been rude not to.

Now it is well known that my Aunt Irene was not much of a cook, so Uncle Vaden had plenty of vitamins that he would dole out every mornin. He had the alphabet, let me tell you.

"Here you go Gee-Nawlmon," he'd say in his big ole Moses voice, "I put some sunshine out for ya."

Sunshine, in the form of a pill the size of Texas, I surmised as the little "catcher" crouched down for the snap. But while my mind was crunchin' on just how the hell I was gonna git that golf-ball down the hatch, somethin' else caught my eye.

They say presentation is everything, and sure enough, he had placed that golf-ball (along with some friends) in a little ceramic hand, the one my Grandma Maude used as an ashtray when she and her foursome were playin Bridge. I had to smile, cause regardless of the provenance; those vitamins sittin in that little hand, just said love, to me.

That little ceramic hand, the one that used to be filled with burned down Camels, now offered-up my daily dose of health and well-bein'. I felt my throat start to relax as my heart filled with the beauty of that simple gesture; and then I swallowed sunshine.