Cicada Days

Yesterday while we were out running errands, I decided on a whim to go by the house with the purple door. The house with the purple door is on the street of Mia's school, and we drive by and comment on it almost every day. It's a fantastic door. It makes you happy just to look at it. And I often think (of course) how great it would be as a photo backdrop. And, as it happened, the girls were wearing their matching purple sweaters, heh.

But I've never once seen the owners outside, so I was feeling a little funny about knocking on the door and asking. But- I was amazed to see that today, there was a woman outside with her dog. I pulled over quick and told her how we always talk about her door on the way to school, and, well, would it be okay if I took pictures of my kids with it? She thought that was great, and told me the story about how her youngest daughter painted the door years ago while she and her husband were on vacation. And how at first she was not thrilled, but they had grown to love it.

The light was bad, there's shadows on Maddie and Mia's faces and they are squinting at the sun. No matter, the owner of the purple door said I can come back anytime and do more. She thought I might like to come when she had yellow geraniums in June.

Before we got back in the car, she asked where we were from, and I told her Illinois-- small cornfield town. Which cornfield town?! She asked. LaSalle-Peru, I told her. OH MY GOSH, I'm from TONICA, she said. (Which is one of the closest neighboring small towns to LaSalle-Peru). Our brothers went to the same high school- St. Bede. She's been here in Appleton for 25 years.

I wrote my mom about it, and sure enough she knows of her family members, and her good friend knows them very well. Small world. So we made a new friend, connected by 2 small towns 300 miles away, and by 1 purple door.