lessons from the golden girls

As a youngster in the middle of nowhere, Wyoming, I used to entertain myself by watching "The Golden Girls." Until recently, all I knew about Sicily was that the "Ma" character in that show was from there and she was quite proud of it. All I could do was dream of the place she spoke of and hope to one day visit it.

I also spent a great deal of time pondering the notion that you could get pregnant by drinking out of the same cup as a man because "Ma" joked about it in one of the episodes...

"The Golden Girls" may not have given me accurate knowledge about human reproduction, but it turns out that it did teach me a thing or two about Sicily.

Mainly, it taught me that Sicily is a dreamland. 

If I were born and raised there, I would most certainly be proud. I would talk about its mountains, its ocean, its clean and quiet streets, its rich history, and the fact that it is the home of the "weeping Mary" plaque.




I would reminisce about the children playing soccer and riding skateboards while their parents and grandparents sipped Prosecco (Italian Champagne) out of red plastic cups outside the Duomo to celebrate the Feast of Saint Antonio.



Much of Sicily, I will have to remember in my mind, because I left my camera at a cafe for a few days. If you're ever going to leave your camera somewhere, I would recommend the Cafe Dock on the island of Ortygia just off the mainland of Siricusa. There's a really nice man there who will put it behind the counter for you until you have time to go get it.

Tony, I mean 007,  had to work on this trip. His schedule was never certain, so Graham and I spent a great deal of time walking the streets of Augusta Bay and swimming at the local swimming hole so as not to wander too far off in case Tony got off of work.

During this time, I imagined what it would be like to live there. I pictured myself and Tony as a chefs at a pastry shop making the best canoli in the world while our son learned to swim in the Med. He would happily bounce into our shop after swimming all morning with a cone of gelato in his hand. We would have lunch together and then he would go home to our small apartment and hang our laundry out and study piano until we got home from work. Then, he would go outside to play soccer or skateboard with his friends while Tony and I prepared fresh tomatoes and pasta for dinner. We would all sit on our patio enjoying the ocean breeze and long conversations about nothing and everything.


To end the day, we would all take a stroll down our quiet street then climb in our cozy beds and drift to sleep with the sounds of the ocean...


That would be quite the life, huh? But, I must say that right now, mine is nothing to shake a stick at.

I'm really glad I married a cool Navy guy who gets to work in places like Sicily.

 

Otherwise, I might be sitting in the middle of nowhere, watching Golden Girls re-runs while wondering where babies really come from and dreaming of traveling the world.