Scattered Thoughts From A Maryland Cottage

Scattered Thoughts From A Maryland Cottage
The Yin and Yang of Thankfulness

Thursday, October 7, 2010

First Impressions...that Mona Lisa Smile

Impression:

a vague idea in which some confidence is placed; "his impression of her was favorable"; "what are your feelings about the crisis?"; "it strengthened my belief in his sincerity"; "I had a feeling that she was lying"


an outward appearance; "he made a good impression"; "I wanted to create an impression of success"; "she retained that bold effect in her reproductions of the original painting"


mental picture: a clear and telling mental image; "he described his mental picture of his assailant"; "he had no clear picture of himself or his world"; "the events left a permanent impression in his mind"


an impressionistic portrayal of a person; "he did a funny impression of a politician"



when i was is grammar school i was fortunate enough to have parents that were able to buy me new clothes for school. my mom took me shopping before school started to a store called "Bamberger's" - now "Macy's". i took it for granted as I did the purchase of several pair of shoes in the Buster Brown shoe store. i rode the same bus every day to our little elementary school.
one day a new family started getting on the bus. they lived in a house i never noticed before. the kids had this dull appearence. their clothes looked faded. the girl seemed to wear the same clothes several days a week. i decided she must have liked them a lot to always wear them. then other kids began to say she was dirty. they teased the family saying they were poor. i had never met anyone that was poor before or wanted to be dirty. i thought it was a choice. funny how an innocent that has had so much in life could be so clueless.
i was living in an abusive home with beautiful clothes, never telling a soul. she was living in a loving home, hungry, rough around the edges and frayed around the seams. her name was "Janice". we became friends. i don't recall for how long. i do remember she was kind, soft spoken, never complained and her family loved each other. her mom always looked tired.
 
i also learned that first impressions can be so wrong....now when i see something new or different to me...  i think of when i wore mini skirts, maxi coats, neru jackets and that people can hide so many things behind a smile.

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