...several brightly-colored many-layered tissue paper flowers.
These tissue paper flowers link two particular memories for me. Ever since our mothers met when my mother was the Den Mother for my brother's and Jeff Blank's Weblos (pre-Boy Scout) troop, the Blank family had us over each year for one night of Chanukah, and for Passover. The Chanukah when I was ten, I received a kit for making tissue paper flowers. I was captivated by the process as well as the end product, and I made nearly every flower in the kit that night, and then enjoyed finding people to give my flowers to.
The following year, we lived in Scotland. My mom took the modern dance scene in St. Andrews by storm, and one of her devotees was a British-educated woman named Zorina. That spring, Zorina was going to some street fair-type thing in another town, and somehow it was agreed that I'd go with her. I was encouraged to figure out something to sell, and I hit upon the idea of making tissue paper flowers.
I wish I could finish off this memory in story-like fashion, like, I took the tissue paper flower scene by storm, or, it rained and all my flowers disintegrated. But all I remember was sitting at Zorina's table beside cobblestone streets. It was a long day, rather uneventful, but the sun shone all day. The air was crisp and clear. Sitting with this new family friend and my flowers brought back a dark December night with the Blanks - two worlds brought together in me.
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