Time Flies

Sometimes I think time flies and then again, I think it really drags. When I was a kid growing up, I thought I would never get old enough to leave home. Looking back, I wish I had done a lot of things differently. But, the choices I have made through the years have made me who I am today. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or not. I am thankful that I have a wonderful daughter and eventually I found the love of my life. But, tonight I am thinking about what happened four years ago. It took me a while to think back to the good times I had with my mother. She was sick for a good while—really a lot longer than I thought because we all kept making excuses for some of her behavior. But, to the good stuff—when I was a little girl my mother and I went to town every Saturday. We didn’t have a car until I was in high school, so we always rode the bus. I can remember eating at Miller Brothers in the cafeteria and I would always get meatloaf, creamed potatoes, rolls, and sweet tea. It was so good I can even taste it now, and I’m not even a fan of meatloaf today. I remember my mother telling me the story of one time we were in the ladies dresses and I hid in a rack of dresses. When my mother got right in front of me I threw the dresses back and yelled “Mammy.” Well, you can guess what happened next. You can believe I never called her Mammy again. I can’t even picture me doing something like that. I was a very shy little girl. If you spoke to me I would turn red. I guess a lot of it had to do with my mother constantly telling me that children should be seen and not heard. I really don’t think she knew what my voice even sounded like. My mother taught me how to cook and sew. She always made my dresses and she was really good. I usually got a “store bought” dress for my birthday and since my birthday is in April, it was always my “Easter” outfit. She always bought me shoes to match. When I became a teenage I wore spike heels and I always wore a hat at Easter. It was the thing to do back then. My dad always bought me a corsage for Easter and Mother’s Day. When I was about 10 years old, my mother stopped sewing for me because I started making all of my clothes. When I took home ec I already knew how to sew and I would come home with a bag full of collars or sleeves to sew for the other girls in my class. I think they paid me a quarter to do theirs. Wonder why the teacher couldn’t see they all looked alike? My mother would take things that I made to work to sell. She had to wear a certain kind of apron and so the ladies she worked with always bought my aprons. Guess I’m telling off about my domestic side. I have a lot of people fooled that think I don’t cook or sew, but I used to be very much the home body. When I married Charles I told him that after my divorce I had decided to never sew again. Well he got a hole in one of his pockets in a pair of pants. He put the pants on the ledge of the stairs. The next week he pulled the pocket out. The next week the pocket had a note with an arrow pointing to the hole. The next week he took his pants to my mother and he told her that he really believed that I would never sew again and could she fix it, and she did. I had a good mother and I can’t believe that she’s gone. Today it has been four years since she left this earth. I miss you, Mother. DR 3/6/14