My mom was a clown, by Rose Greene

Mom had developed a clown routine, made her own costume and marched in parades. She used the full regalia of clown makeup, wearing a goofy hat, an oversized chartreuse shirt, big billowy men’s pants with long suspenders, and the typical oversized shoes. She made costumes for Olie and me too (the fabric was quite scratchy), and we marched in one parade with her. Olie and I followed the 5-mile-long parade route pushing our little baby buggy and handing out flyers to the onlookers (I think Mom was getting paid to have us hand them out). The 3 of us met at the end of the parade route and collapsed on the grass too tired to move. After that parade, Olie and I used our clown outfits for Halloween. I remember the last Halloween we had with Mom. She dressed up in her clown outfit with full pancake makeup, and Olie and I had dressed up in goofy clothes, too, and she made us up like clowns. Mom danced, laughed, joked and played around with a rubber lizard on a string, doing her clown routine. We all laughed so hard that day and had so much fun. You should have seen her! She was a great entertainer and was such a joy to watch! We have a short video of some of it. (Joy still has the little doll a friend of Mom’s had made for her of Mom in her clown outfit.)