SEEING RED!

Mom always wanted a bright, red front door. So in 97 when construction finished on her cottage, an important finishing touch was "the painting of the door". Knowing Mother, she drove to the paint store and bought herself a can of red. Brought it home and proceeded to paint her door, only to discover that the paint label read something like "Maroon Red".

No surprise since she had a long history of buying items without thoroughly checking labels. It wasn't unusual for her to come home from the store with things like bubble gum flavored toothpaste, or African American hair products. Soo funny!

Even funnier was her long history (as far back as I can remember), of using the term "Chinese Red" to describe any orangish red, redish orange, or other shade of red that wasn't fire-engine. This became a long-running family joke, which you may have had to be there to appreciate. But I digress.

Anyway, Mom's single coat of maroon red turned out to be more the color of eggplant, fading over time to a dull purple, eventually wearing off completely in some spots, and looking pretty shoddy. Then last week the anniversary of Moms passing came around once again. I needed some cheering up and thought it might be cool to paint the door in her honor. I drove to the paint store and bought myself the brightest, semi-gloss can of Red paint I could find. Brought it home and proceeded to paint the door, only to find that the color is really more an orangish red............

These photos are deceiving since to me they show a true RED. But in person, and after applying the second coat it started looking Orangish. Checking my work, I stood back a few paces and looked at the door. It suddenly hit me, the door is "Chinese Red", and I had nothing what so ever to do with it.