Limoges Blue

Limoges Blue

The rooms were serene and fastidious. The food like Babette's Feast.

Dad wore a navy blue sports jacket, turtleneck and gray flannel slacks. The pipe clinched between his teeth made his dimples grow. His ear was attuned to the football scores on the TV tuned low in the family room. His Schnauzer, Jiggs, trailed him like a four-legged Sancho Panza after his own Don Quixote.

From the stereo in the sunken living room, Frank Sinatra records intermingled with the eucalyptus logs snapping away in the corner fireplace.

My two young brothers dressed like Dad hoisted filler planks to extend the dinning room table, which my two sisters in their frilly best set with a pale pink linen cloth and the good Limoges.

Mom strode from the kitchen in a chic-cut sheath, heels and pearls. Cool, blonde and beautiful as Eva Marie Saint in "The Russians are Coming." She lit candles, dimmed the chandelier and handed me silver tureens to fill with holly and red pyracantha.

Then the drive filled up with cars, the doorbell rang, and the relatives streamed-in, dressy and delighted as theatergoers on opening night.

"Everything and everyone smells and looks fabulous" they'd exclaim above the din of jokes, laughter and Champagne corks rocketing-off. Dad and an Uncle passed drinks and mixed Shirley Temples for the kids. Seven-year-old Mimi helped serve canapés from a cut-glass dish.

In trim black wool, and gold charm bracelets, our Smoking Nana sat in a wingback chair and cooed over my brothers' new B-B guns. Her smooth forehead wrinkled when they reported dive-bombing a local shopping center in the neighbor's airplane. A plane he'd constructed in own his backyard.

"You mean one of those remote control toys, dear?" she asked and turned to peer outside. "No, Nana, a real plane, but it was OK because Dad was with us. "Has it started to rain?" "No, Nana, that's the neighbor's horse, Goldie, peeing in the ravine." Nana wagged her empty tumbler towards Dad.

An aunt held forth on her decorator's advice, her second husband, and their recent trip to Vegas, while her Alice-in-Wonderland daughter slunk in the corner and sighed. Our nun-aunt sipped a Bloody Mary and fingered Gershwin on the piano.

Dad headed the train of platters heaped with standing rib roast, baked ham and side dishes to the table, as we took our seats before another our mother's fabulous feasts.

Plates were filled, ice clinked into glasses, wine was poured, 'napkins in your laps, children.' We held our breath a little, waiting for our family's brand of grace.

"Sing 'Desert Song' Dad!"

Then the room in California was transported by Hammerstein's lyrics into French-occupied Africa at the turn of the 20th century and before our eager believing eyes, Dad, morphed into the secret romantic rebel leader, El Khobar, and Mom became the French coquette who stole his wild heart.

Beneath the glittering chandelier, and reflected in a mirror and candlelight, our tall, dark haired El Khobar swept his pretty wife into his arms and sang, as we froze in the scene:

"One alone, to be my own. I alone, to know her caresses. One to be, eternally, the one my worshipping soul possesses. At her call, I give my all. All my life and all my love enduring. This would be a magic world to me. If she were mine alone."

Even Jiggs' the dog cocked his furry head as Mother looked into Dad's eyes and joined him with her entrancing voice:

"Oh give me that night divine, And let my arms in yours entwine. The desert song, calling, It's voice enthralling, Will make you mine. "

In those post-Camelot years and in our jasmine scented proximity to old Hollywood, we believed in the light and magic of our special little universe. Physically, it all swirled off like autumn leaves in the wind. Spiritually, it's a snapshot that remains for life.

© 2008 -2012. Suzanne de Cornelia. This article may be reprinted on websites as long as the entire article, including website link and resource box below are included and unchanged.

© 2008 -Suzanne de Cornelia. All worldwide rights apply. This article may be reprinted on websites as long as the entire article, including website link and resource box below are included and unchanged. Suzanne de Cornelia is a freelance writer, and author of "French Heart." Contact Suzanne on Facebook, or Twitter @SuzanneDeC. And click-on her site now for a blogroll of free and fascinating resources: http://suzannedecornelia.com

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