Donna Reed

           

            On Saturday I could feel the jagged tip of a cold poking around in my throat. It had been a couple of years, so I guess it was due, but I was still hoping it was just poking its head in the door to say hello and then leaving.

            I spent a lot of the day reading three stories by Katherine Mansfield: “Bliss”, “Something Childish But Very Natural” and “The Garden Party”.

“Bliss” was centred on a well off woman who is feeling in a state of bliss all day as the evening approached when she will be throwing an artsy private party. The feeling continues up until the end of the soiree when she spies her husband giving a passionate goodbye kiss to one of their guests. At the close of the story, nothing has changed.

“Something Childish But Very Natural” is sort of a modern Romeo and Juliet story but it has the feel of a dream. A young man has put his things on a train and gone to browse at the bookstand. He becomes preoccupied with a poem when the train starts moving. He rushes and gets on the wrong car where a pretty young woman, just past sixteen is sitting. They speak shyly but pleasantly but then she has to get off. He asks if he can see her again and she tells him that she rides at the same time every evening. When next they meet they both readily admit that they are in love. They begin a blissful courtship except for the fact that she won’t even let him hold her hand. They rent a cottage together with separate bedrooms. One afternoon as he waits for her he receives a telegram. When he reads it everything goes dark and ugly.

“The Garden Party” is about class. A wealthy family is throwing a garden party. News comes before the party begins that a man that lives in a nearby working class cottage has died in an accident. One of daughters of the rich family, Laura, wants to cancel the party out of respect but her family thinks she’s being absurd. The party takes place and is wonderful but Laura has the idea at the end to take the leftover food to the family of the dead man. She has only planned on dropping off the basket but she is drawn in to meet the widow and led to look at the body. It turns out to be a good experience for her. But isn’t life …?

I listened to a couple of episodes of Amos and Andy. One of them had: Sapphire: “George, why do you have that look on your face? George: “Can you think of a better place for it?”

I went out to pre-pay for next month’s phone service but I was a few minutes late after Wind Mobile had closed. I stopped at the liquor store on the way back home and bought two cans of Creemore, one for Saturday and one for Sunday.

For the last twenty-four hours I’d marinated a pork sirloin roast in balsamic vinegar, oil and all-purpose seasoning. I roasted it that night with a potato and a small yam and ate them while watching the first two episodes of the Donna Reed Show from 1958. I remember having a crush on Donna Reed when I was small. Shelly Fabares, who played her daughter, was pretty hot then too and I was impressed with the acting of Paul Petersen, who played her son.

In the first episode, Donna’s husband, a paediatrician, never had any free time with his family because duties kept on stepping in their way. Donna found clever ways to get around them. One of her husband’s patients kept on complaining of being ill but he couldn’t figure out what was wrong with him. Donna figured out that it was the school bully that was making him pretend to be sick.

Donna’s children were arguing about the difference in how long it takes them to get ready for school. The brother said it takes him five minutes to get ready but it takes her thirty-five. His sister said that the difference is that she washes. He quipped that it’s amazing how dirty she gets just from sleeping.