The white Irises in my garden are in full bloom. Saying the word “Iris” over and over makes me remember Iris Wheeler from the daytime soap opera “Another World.” Mama always found a reason to dislike her, but she was this little boy’s favorite, with her shoulder pads and perfectly lined lips.
The thoughts are linked together with no real rhyme or reason, a series of connect the dots for sure. The soaps have given birth to some memorable characters — Doug and Julie, Alice and Tom Horton, Bo and Hope from “Days of Our Lives.” I can still hear the theme song with the narrated words, “Like sands through the hourglass, so are the days of our lives.” Mama drove frantically from the kindergarten pickup line, only hitting the brakes twice — once when we hit the old bridge and again when she whirled the family Oldsmobile into the garage.
Then, a young boy and his mama ate lima beans with light bread, which went beautifully with grape Kool-Aid, while we were entertained with the afternoon lineup of great TV. First, it was “The Doctors.” Then after a small interlude we went dramatically into “Days of Our Lives,” “Another World” and then “Santa Barbara” where Augusta reigned supreme. Oh, and the hair was ever-changing, always in vogue as it made my heart beat faster with the passing of every week.
Mama always envied the hairstyles, whether a bouffant, flip or cut into “links” as she described it to her beauty operator. Perms came and went along with Cecile’s on-again, off-again sordid affairs with Cass in Bay City. Women fell in love with frosted highlights that took center stage at “General Hospital” and on “The Bold and the Beautiful.” Always, though, I return to Iris who could throw a hissy fit even better than Mama when her Miss Clairol in a box didn’t go quite right.
The fashions, the split personalities, the broken hearts and countless demonic possessions and resurrections kept us tuning into “The Young and the Restless” and all the rest, but the thing I remember most from the soaps was the glamour. And that’s one of the things I miss most about my mama. I can hear my daddy spinning around on his barstool, whistling at a daring new hairstyle Mama had no doubt copied from one of the leading ladies. “Now, ain’t you as fancy as that Felicia Gallant,” he would tease. And you know what, she really was!
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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