Paint my house Pink

I have a soft spot in my heart for pink houses..especially as John Cougar Mellencamp said, Little Pink Houses.
My grandparents were farmers. When they retired, they moved "to town" into a small 2 bedroom house. I can close my eyes and still see every corner of that house, smell its smells and feel that moment of excitement as we ran up the 2 steps from the entryway into Gramma's kitchen where they always greeted us with delight as if they hadn't seen us for months instead of a day or two. My Gramma always had cookies for us, we had our big box of toys in the closet and there was not a drawer or corner that we could not "poke into"...be it Gramma's makeup vanity drawers or sewing caddy or Grandpa's cuff link box or desk drawers.
One thing that was pretty much a constant about their house was that it was always some shade of pink. My Gramma had 4 boys and no girls, but she was very much a girlie girl. She loved pink and sparkly. I remember standing by my Grandpa as he brushed another coat of pink on the siding. I asked him, "Grampa? Why do you paint your house pink?" (In my small child mind I knew pink was for girls and blue was for boys and couldn't figure out how my overall wearing farmer Grampa cottoned with living in a girlie pink house) He answered me without missing a stroke, "Because it is your Gramma's favorite color." Even at 5 or 6 that was a good enough answer for me. It wasn't until later I realized what a romantic answer it was. He was willing to live in one of maybe 2 pink houses in the entire town because it was his wife's favorite color. I am sure she didn't ask or insist on a pink house, he just did it for her.
Yesterday I drove to Birmingham with my 23 year old daughter on the way to her optometry school interview at UAB. It was 4 hours of uninterrupted conversation and it was marvelous. She had of course heard the story of my Grampa and Gramma and why they lived in a little pink house. We talked about how my mom and dad's bedroom is painted pink with a frilly bedspread and even one of those pillow dolls. My Dad is now the age I remember my Grampa being..my Dad is his Dad! My daughter mentioned how odd it was that her Grampa ..a denim wearing farmer..slept in a frilly, pink bedroom. I reminded her about the story of my Grampa and Gramma's pink house.
She was quiet for a second and said, "You know Mom, Dad would paint the house pink for you too." I just smiled and realized she was right. I am lucky to be married to a man who would paint my house pink if he thought that would make me happy. (I am not THAT into pink at this point..maybe if we downsized to a cottage!) She then said, "That's what I am looking for..someone who will paint my house pink!" So we now have a new personal phrase in our house when discussing boyfriends..Will he paint your house pink? And that is all I want for my daughters..that they find that kind of partner for life..someone that will paint their house pink!


I am attempting to do my first blog link with this post..I hope it works!