When my special, every-Thursday-antiquing f riend of 50 years passed, her dear children appeared on my doorstep bearing pieces we had found together on endless treasure hunts  and presented them to me.   “Doesn’t it make you SAD.”  someone asked, “to have these things?”  Oh, no!  On the contrary!  I recall with   great joy each  and every bush that we beat in New England to find EVERY one!  Anyway,  among the treasures was a carved wooden plaque of a whimsical bird unlike any we had ever seen.   Dot called it “The Dinkey Bird” and bought it immediately.   She referred to a well-loved children’s verse by Eugene Field of the same name.

When I inherited The Dinkey Bird, I added color to it, thinking it should be in a child’s room somewhere.   But I haven’t been able to part with it because I like to think that Dot Hartzog is waiting for me  someplace “where the dinkey bird is singing in the amfalula tree” and it is an  everyday sweet reminder of a rare and wonderful friendship.

One hat that I have never seen

Is a thinking cap

For a human bean.

Mom’s friends have really unusual names.

Judy Nextdoor is neat.

Then there’s Judy Debbiessister

And Judy Acrossthestreet.

Caroline Cassandra Tate

Doesn’t know about paying bills

Or about the cost of real estate.

She wants to move to Beverly Hills.

She’d like a maid and a swimming pool,

A pony, a mansion, a Jaguar.

Caro thinks that it would be cool

To live the life of a movie star.

Well, to Grandy, it wasn’t funny.

(She hates to see a bubble burst.)

She said, “Well, Honey, save your money

And finish kindergarten first.”

When I sneezed, “ACHOO!”,

Tess said, “God bless YOU!”

Then I sneezed and sneezed again.

She blessed, I sneezed.

She blessed, I sneezed.

She stared at me and then

She said,  “I’m going to go and play.

I can’t keep blessing YOU all day!”

Jackson Boyd got so annoyed

When his parents wouldn’t agree with him

About the choice of the baby’s name.

(They named him “James” and

They’ll call him “Jim”).

Jack had made it very plain

That his brother’s name should be “Bruce Wayne”

Or “”Clark Kent.”

Herr Hinkel asked, “Sprechen Sie Deutsch?”

And he gave me a big wink so

I knew he wouldn’t be upset

When I said, “I don’t think so.”

Mark made potholders to sell

And to make his business thrive,

He sold one for fifteen cents

Or two for thirty-five.

They were playing make-believe

But they didn’t get along.

Kerry, the good fairy, said

That  Nate was always wrong

And that he couldn’t be the king.

When he wanted to know why,

She hit him with her magic wand

And gave him a black eye.

He told his friends he got the shiner

Playing ball behind the diner.