The Freezer Fish

As my cousin, Mary, remembered it, all three boys had ringworm. I remember the story as just Todd having the rash. But whenever one got something, the other two supported the afflicted one. Like the time, for instance, when Blake was using Dad's electric drill out in the garage. He raised the hand that was hold the drill. Without warning, the drill caught hold of Blake's hair. He remembers it hurting like...So, on to the barber shop to have his head shaved. Todd and Shannon also had their heads shave so that Blake would not feel so bad.

The story goes that  at least Todd had the illness while efforts were being made to cure the rash: raw garlic rubbed directly onto the skin, oatmeal baths with the oatmeal floating around the body, various vitamins. You name it, they came up with all sorts of remedies. Aunt Anna, Mary's mom, came up with the idea of the boys wearing togas to stay comfortable. Togas are large sheets of cotton fabric tied at the shoulders. Ours were white. The only other thing underneath was white briefs. Today they are known as whitey tiddeys.

This was the summer of 1981 in Mission Hills, California and the weather was naturally warm. My job, as well as Mary's when she was over, was to thoroughly rinse off the dishes and then put them in the dishwasher. It was my brother's job to put them away -which I might add, they rarely, if at all, did!

On this particular day, my step-mom was insisting that Mary and I do the dishes and defrost the freezer. We kept putting the chore to the back of our minds. Mom kept insisting. Mary was getting agitated since did not have much time to ourselves to swoon about guys and go on a long walk. But, the ice had built up to the point that there wasn't too much space left to add anything more to the freezer.

I had developed a process of thawing this thing out. I took out all of the sort-of-perishables and set them on our large wooden table. Things such as bread, eggs, condiments and casseroles went on to the table. Milk, ice cream, and cheese went the sink and onto the counter. Then I unplugged the fridge.

I took out all of the shelves and set them in the sink as well. Occasionally, the shelves went into the bathtub because the bathtub was bigger and easier to clean the shelves in. This was especially true when the sink was already carrying more than its weight in food. 

Next, would begin the chiseling away at the ice with a butter knife. The ice tasted oh, so good! On this particular day, one of us got the idea to use a hair dryer. It must have been Mary because she was in the habit of taking short-cuts and chiseling too long!

As we were busy chiseling away, ice was flying about through the air and sliding along the floor. Arriving at the bottom of the freezer we discovered a large, forgotten fish. If memory serves me right, it was a trout that was given to us. Somehow, with all of the chiseling and blow drying going on, it fell to the floor, cascading to the feet of my step-mother who had suddenly appeared out of nowhere to check on our progress.

Mary clearly remembers how angry Mom was. I just remember her surprised look. Twenty-five years later she remembered the incident far better than myself. Twenty-five years later we found ourselves busting at the seams. Twenty-five years later my kids marveled and laughed at the scene. They saw us as adults - serious and busy. So it is, when they catch a glimpse of "long ago" and they caught a sliver of time when their mom was their age.

In the end, Todd recovered from the ring-worm. Blake's hair grew back, although it became a yearly tradition for the boys to get their heads shaved. Mary and I were able to clean the mess with time to spare to swoon over guys and go for that long walk through my neighborhood.  
~Kelli McDonald 5/20/12