The environs of Mulletville are duping me! I keep wanting to write snarky posts about the mini trips I take to its hot spots, but the experiences keep getting lovelier.
Curses!
Yesterday, my friend and I went on Buttonwood Farm's hayride through the sunflowers. No one wheezed or got poked in the butt (at least not that I'm aware of). The hayride wasn't crowded even though it was a gorgeous Saturday. You can buy bunches of sunflowers after the ride for $5 and the proceeds benefit the Make-A-Wish Foundation. (How great is that?)
The best part? During the ride you can get licked by cows. Yipee!
They come right up to the tractor and eat hay out of your hands. Their tongues are rough, purplish and disgusting. If you try to put your toddler's hands close to their tongues, your toddler will shriek, "Nooooo, Mommy! Noooooo, Mommy!" at such a loud, bloodcurdling decibel you're certain DCF will be waiting for you after the ride.
On the way back to Mulletville, my friend and I stopped at an antiques store. Which is when I found this:
It's ugly right? It took me a minute to figure out why it looked so familiar, and then it hit me: It was my mother's. When my parents divorced in 1983, my father kept the house and my mother moved out. Whatever she left behind, he sold in a tagsale (ah, memories). This picture, my friends, has apparently been touring the Connecticut circuit for 26 years. My mom's initials are actually on the back of the frame.
When I was a kid, the picture gave me the creeps. I thought the picture was of a caveman baby (cavebaby?) and its bearded father and that they were somehow related to us. Why else would my mother hang a picture of cavepeople over the kitchen table?
The toothless antiques dealer who sold me the print for $1.50 corrected me: It's a baby and its mother (yah, I shared my cavebaby story with him). The "fur" is just a shadow.
Uh huh.
I'm not sure where to hang it. I could put it in Junior's room and continue the cycle of cavebaby torture, or I could let it collect dust under the bed alongside our other unhung treasures.
What about you? Has anything from your past ever made its way back to you when you least expected it (exes not included)? And where the hell do you think I should hang it?
This is my second installment of "When the hub’s away, Mrs. Mullet will..." series, which will chronicle my adventures while my good-for-nothing husband frolics in the woods all week. Jerk.
26 comments:
Wow! What a wonderful accident. I agree with you -- you absolutely had to buy it, and it sure is ugly. Enjoy.
That is awesome! The cow tongues and the picture.
Do you have a guest bedroom? Put it in there.
If you do stick it in the guest room, folks may not stay as long. Which would serve a purpose! That thing is kinda creepy.
That is amazing. I can't believe you came upon that "artwork" after so many years. I can't say that anything like that has ever happened to me, unless you count that one time when I was in South Africa and ran into an old boyfriend. Now that was interesting, considering when we dated neither of us had been out of the country nor did we have plans of South Africa but 4 years later we saw each other in an entirely different country. Strange but true.
I say hang it in the bathroom. That way it will scare the shit outta people and you won't have to stand in line!
I'll second the guest bedroom idea!
Or, if your mother is still living and you are in contact with her, you could give it to her as a Christmas or birthday gift.
That's very cool about the picture making it's way back to you.
Your post had me expecting something nasty - but I'm always in the gutter that way. Could the caveman/baby picture become that gift that family members take turns giving each Christmas? We had friends who were incredibly creative with wrapping when regifting an extraordinarily ugly cat clock.
How truly weird.
Please promise me you won't put that picture in your son's room. Therapy has gotten really expensive.
that is really incrediable that you found that pic...nothing like that has ever happened to me...i lead such a boring life!
not sure where to hang it or give advice on that...I do like Joanie's idea tho'
Maybe it is because I'm looking at the picture on my phone, but I like it. Not understanding the creepy aspect. I would have some fun with it, though. Don't hide it. Love sunflowers!
That is just crazy...but I am sure you welcome the memories, no matter what.
I am still tasting some garlic pizza I had 10 years ago....
Hang it in the bathroom so that they can watch you in the shower and on the crapper.
That picture would be lovely for an unfinished basement! As ugly as it is, that is pretty impressive to have come across something like that from your past.
Be honest...does any part of you think one of your hubby's hunted ghosts brought that back into your life for some silly reason?!
OMG - is that about 11" wide?
If it is, here's what you do.
Gently open the frame, and with clean fingers remove the mat from the print and look in the lower front corners.
If that's from Soyer's first series, it will have a number from between 1 and 150 in the lower left.
And if it also has his signature in the lower right?... then congrats, your print is worth over $200.
"If you try to put your toddler's hands close to their tongues, your toddler will shriek, "Nooooo, Mommy! Noooooo, Mommy!" at such a loud, bloodcurdling decibel"
That makes me laugh, especially the thought of many toddlers having their hands shoved towards cows' mouths in unison, and all screaming "Nooooooooo".
How cool that have the picture turn up!
I say hang it in the bathroom! Give people something to look at and ponder while they do their business!
Hang it in a prominent place of honor and make everyone wonder what the heck it's all about. It could be fun.
That is totally crazy. I don't think anything from my past has ever made its way back to me...
Wow, that is very cool! You should frame it in cow tongues and hang it in Junior's bedroom. At Junior eye-level.
Uhm, maybe not. I may be projecting some of my own stress right now.
Nanc Twop: yes, it is. I'm going to get it reframed and when I do I will look for the number/signature. To think, the print could end up going towards my childhood therapy bill...I mean, a new pair of shoes.
I think the bathroom is the winner. Over the toilet seems ideal.
I am not familiar with the print, but that is one ugly cave-babe and her baby for sure. I've never come across any remnants of my childhood like that, although if I happen to run in to that framed velvet tapestry of deer in a forest that we had in our living room, I'll be sure to blog about it...wait, it might be blog worthy anyway. ;)
i can't believe you found that picture...that's just crazy!
What a cool story. I've found some great thrift store treasures, but never one that was previously owned by someone I knew.
Not only was your hay ride a success, but you were able to revisit a childhood memory and have it come back to (haunt) you. Kudos! :) I like the idea of hanging it in the bathroom, too.
And I'll be anxious to find out when you get it re-framed if it has one of those magical numbers and initials on it...score! ;)
That's so cool that you found it! It's one of those things that you really can't pass up. So as for where to put it, I say establish a collection and put it somewhere where everybody gets to see it!
I once ordered a bra online and instead of a bra the company sent a hideously guilded frame with a crow in boots walking across a bleak pasture. That was the start of our weird art collection which hangs proudly over our toilet in the bathroom. There's lots of really ugly art out there badly in need of a home.
Post a Comment