On a beautiful day last week, Marash Girl went walking in Nahanton Park -- the park that was once the site of Newton's Poor Farm -- and there along the wooded paths she saw the fresh tender shoots of -- you guessed it -- poison ivy! Yes, she recognized poison ivy, and it recognized her, so she made a point of staying well away (inches, that is, as the path was a narrow one) from the soon to be hearty ivy plants. But that close a call with poison ivy (and she's still not sure she missed rubbing against it), brought to mind the famous interchange between Marash Martha, Ronnie Raphaelian, and his football.
Here's the story, and it's a true one!
The Armenian Memorial Church held it's annual picnic once a year (yes, once a year -- thats what annual means, right?) at Waverley Oaks in Belmont, Massachusetts, and although Marash Girl's and Marash Martha's family did not attend that church (they attended the church behind that church, the one on Arlington Street in Watertown), they always attended the Armenian Memorial Church picnic in Waverley Oaks. The one picnic that remains in Marash Girl's memory to this day is the picnic to which Ronnie Raphaelian brought his football. Mistake! All the kids were playing catch with Ronnie and his football, but when Marash Martha got the football, instead of throwing the football back to Ronnie as she was expected to do, she threw the football directly (and deliberately) into a patch of poison ivy. It was Ronnie's football, and if he wanted it, he would have to go into the poison ivy patch to get it. And he did. The conclusion to this story? No, the conclusion is not that Ronnie went in after the football and thus contracted a horrific case of poison ivy. That's not the conclusion to this tale, although Ronnie DID go into the poison ivy patch and DID contract a horrific case of poison ivy. The conclusion, then? When Marash Martha heard that Ronnie was down with poison ivy, she immediately sent him a card -- not a get well card, but rather a sympathy card!
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