I try to keep stuff off the fridge. I do. But one becomes attached. These are the final hold outs. The cocktail menu from my Brooklyn book launch. A birthday card from me to the Frenchman, bought in Cape Town. A kitty cookie cutter, give to me in Koringberg by a Voer blogger who lives in Toronto, fra from home; a photo of Storbie, taken by Wolfgang, upstairs and left for us at our door; and an Airstream post card, included as a small bonus with a purchase I made on Etsy.
Oh... I would love an Airstream. But how the hell does one do that? Six months to a year on the road, across the US of A, eating and cooking and feeding people along the way. Learning the country. Gathering it in groups of four and six and ten or two or just one, around a fold out table covered with a red and white checked cloth. Listening to it talk at night, with moths flapping against the glass chimneys of the oil lamps. The fire still warm. Local produce eaten. Local labourers or farmers or gardeners fed. The cat staring at us through the small window, opening his mouth in a silent Eep, the Frenchman yawning and impatient to get to the previous days' photos of countryside on his computer. The stars wide at night.
...
What's on your fridge?
What's in my camping dream, you mean??? Your airstream idea is a provocative and lovely dream-
ReplyDeleteIt is, indeed, a great way to see the country. We have a smaller camper now which is difficult to cook in- but I know airstreams can be accommodated for many needs (my Uncle rigged one for a wheel chair). If you figure out how to travel for that length of time with a kitteh, PLEASE let me know!! Jan D.
Err, Marie I think you know this, but the idea sounds like a book. Isn't that what you do -blending regional flavor with your personal narrative? Expand! America could use a book like that, now more than ever.
ReplyDeleteI know. I would love to.
DeleteIt's my oldest book idea. The backroads of America, the little gardens, big farms, the immigrant community farms, the markets, the wayside diners with tomatoes out back, finding what America is, now, by how it is, and isn't, eating. And Vince would just kill the landscapes.
But...$$$$$! I know I can write from the road, but Vince can't do his current job from da road, and between us, he's the one with the real job. It would have to be heavily funded, somehow, and I just don't know how one can ethically Kickstart people into subsidizing a long camping trip.
Bunnies and cats, that's what's on my fridge too. But less tidy.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a grea idea! It would take a lot of prep and organization. The follow up book could be titled 3,794,100 miles with Estorbo.
ReplyDeleteOh, I dream of spending a year in an RV, rambling the country. Maybe I should go buy of of them powerball tickets today :)
ReplyDeleteI try to keep the fridge cleaned off, or at least rotated, but it's rarely empty. I have all my late mom's fridge magnets (mostly turtles and horned toads), and I usually keep some pics of the stepkids up, must to their chagrin (they are 19, now, and way cooler than anyone else has ever been in the history of cool, you know).
top center is THE calendar - I look at it every day when I get up. the rest is mostly photos of kids - or pictures drawn by same kids, an occasional card or coupon - all held with magnets.
ReplyDeletePostcards from places I've visited on the front and a calendar on the far side facing the counter.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure you could write a marvelous book and Vince's pictures would be marvelous. For some odd reason I never inherited the "camping gene" even through I live in part of the country in which camping, hiking, fishing, skiing and any type of outdoor activity is celebrated.
I've have driven through large parts of the US and some of Canada and it's is all interesting and quite diverse in scenery and food and wine :-)
My favorite and most constant on my fridge:
ReplyDeleteA postcard from a friend pre:husband and kids (over 30 years old, now) that has a 50s housewife with the saying:
There's nothing like a good lay to start the day
It stayed there when the kids were little because I figured they couldn't read it. Once they were teens I would occasionally get the kid who would pause, read and grin. O well. Good for them to know their parents have a life.
My younger brother who visits from time to time said he knew exactly what to get me for Christmas last year. Not a new frig, just a new frig door! On mine? Notes, half-finished poems, pictures of my children when they were little, telephone numbers, appointment times, recipes.....some things change frequently, some things have been there for years!
ReplyDeleteThe front of our fridge is stainless steel, but the enamelled sides have cheeky magnets.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if there is a publisher, somewhere, who'd go with a travel book authored by a cat with attitude...
Be a forgheen good book. Weeth feesh!
http://awayfromtheocean.blogspot.ca/2010/09/whats-on-my-fridge.html
ReplyDeleteFour years later, the picture of the cats are gone (too sad) and a note from my mother reminding me to give water to the cats and the Christmas tree and pellets to the Christmas tree only took their place. Everything else remains the same.
ReplyDeleteIn addition to a MC Esher's white cat (who looks like my white cat) there are quotes in English, isiXhosa and Afrikaans:
ReplyDelete* Your freedom and mine cannot be separated - Nelson Mandela
* wathint' abafazi, wathint' imbokotho - you strike a woman, you strike a rock from the SA women's movement (these two are on pictures by Molo Mimi a free stritching artist based in Port Alfred in the Eastern Cape)
* Die berggans het 'n veer lat val
van die hoogste krans by Woeperdal
my hart staan tuit al meer en meer
ek stuur vir jou die berggansveer
mits dese wil ek vir jou se^
hoe diep my liefde vir jou le^ - Boerneef
Korien