Mom's Day Off

She probably went to the hairdresser, met a girlfriend for lunch and then window-shopped when she went off on a Saturday afternoon.  Pa was supposed to be home to defend our abode from us kids – the wrecking crew.  He invariably fell asleep on the job bored by his brother trying to keep him awake with family gossip. 

Our challenge was trying to find sufficient money to pay the pizza deliveryman: money falling out of somebody’s pocket sometimes landed up in the crevice behind the couch pillows.  We didn’t touch Pa’s money on the floor.  Wrecking, yes:  stealing, no…  with enough noise maybe he’d wake up and pay for the pizza?

                                                            Mom's Day Off         

Oil 40" X 30"

The Corner Grocery

The fifties!  Not a care in the world for us adolescent kids growing up in middle class Montreal, Quebec, Canada.  Our biggest concern was whether a flipped card would come up right side or not – no risking the loss of a flipped coin in a sidewalk crack – besides, who had a coin to risk?   Note the bedding airing out of windows, and the two girls – no, they’re not twins – they’re wearing compulsory public school uniforms.  We pretended not to notice them:  in those bygone days drinks were suggestively named Orange Crush and Kik. 

The schoolbags set aside on the street have since been reinvented as backpacks; the corner grocery along with Frank were swallowed by a supermarket. The astronauts we kids knew of were Captain Marvel and Flash Gordon zooming out of comic books to miraculously land in fertile imaginations.

Oil 30" x 40"