Little Orphant Annie

Travelin’Oma, Week 7, Day 3. May I first state that I feel the same way as my mother about Halloween. I hate it. She wrote a great post about it today and if you wonder how I feel about this atrocious holiday (although you probably aren’t doubting my sentiments about it much anymore), and want to see a funny picture of me when I was six, you should check it out. This assignment was my “inspired” post, inspired both by today’s Travelin’Oma post and by the discussion about poetry on her blog awhile ago. This was a perfect chance to write about it.

Little Orphant Annie.

When I met Joseph (my husband) and we were fast becoming best friends, I told him one night that the way I felt when I was with him was just like this one quote that I didn’t really remember but it starts, “Oh, the comfort, the inexpressible comfort…” He finished quoting it from memory right there and told me that he felt just the same way. Later that week he gave me a gift: that quote in a frame, beautifully wrapped. We still display this cherished memento of our love and friendship in our house.

Oh, the comfort —
the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person —
having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words,
but pouring them all right out,
just as they are,
chaff and grain together;
certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them,
keep what is worth keeping,
and then with the breath of kindness blow the rest away.

- Dinah Craik, The Best Loved Poems of the American People

The night that he quoted it, after I recovered from the pleasant surprise that he knew the rest of that quote by heart, I asked him how he knew it. It was then that I was introduced to one of the greatest heritages that my in-laws gave to their children. They taught them to memorize poetry. Every Monday night, for family night, one of the first orders of business was working together as a family to remember whatever the poem (or quote, or scripture, etc.) was that they were currently learning. Each member of the family had a notebook where they kept a copy of the things they memorized. What an incredible legacy to leave for your posterity!!

When we get together for family reunions, a tradition that is always reenacted is the reciting of Little Orphant Annie (by memory for all of the immediate family members), led by my husband and his sister.

"Little Orphant Annie's come to our house to stay . . ."