MY WONDERFUL MAMMA

10-21-09...MY WONDERFUL MAMMA

My Mamma was fisty just like me. But different from me because she hardly ever showed a temper. She would not argue with anyone and never gossiped. She told me that if someone was talking about someone else for me to always say something nice like, "Well look what a pretty sweater or dress they have on". I was not as good at that as Mamma is my Brother Norman is more like Mamma in that way.
We never had much but Mamma could make a good meal for us out of the least thing she had.
Mamma had to work hard. Daddy had to work away from home in another state so that left Mamma to take care of us and everything around the home.
I can remember Mamma taking care of Norman and me when we had the mumphs. Thing was Mamma had the mumps right along with us and still took care of us, milked the cow, sloped the hogs, fed the chickens, and cooked.
I was almost five when my Brother was born. I remember Mamma having to also do all these chores when she was pregnant and big with Norman. I never heard her complain. Daddy had to go and work she said, and that was all the work he could get.
Mamma had a rough childhood during the depression. They never had enough to eat. Their house leaked and had big cracks in the walls. If it rained they all had to find a dry spot to sleep and put pans under the leaks. Mamma said Grandma could also make something good out of nothing.
Kids picked on Mamma and Her Sister in School and made fun of them because they only had one dress and brought beans for their lunch.
Mamma would give away anything she had if she thought you wanted it. My Brother said one day a few years ago that he fully expected to go to her apartment someday and find Mamma setting in the floor because she had given everything she had away. That was my Mamma. She has been gone six years now. On her headstone we put, SHE LEFT THIS WORLD A BETTER PLACE FROM BEING HERE.... YEP that's the truth.













Mamma on the right...Mamma with Me and Norman

MY SON RICHARD

10-21-09...GROWING UP WITH RICHARD

I had such a good time growing with my Son Richard. I had lost hope of ever having my own little baby when he was finally born. Oh what joy. A feeling down inside me I had never known and will never know again.
I just stopped everything else and devoted my time to enjoying and protecting Richard. We spent so much quality time together. Going fishing, on picnics, walks, or just sitting on a chair together while I read him a book.
Today I am thinking of all the sweet and funny things Richard said in early childhood.
Richard's Dad loved him but he was a mean alcoholic and his language was awful so of course Richard listened and repeated. He didn't really know what he was saying but I spent a lot of time trying to teach him the difference between bad words and good words. I want to list a few of the times when his sweet little voice came out with an undesirable word and I smiled in spite of myself.
Richard and I were outside one day and encountered a snake in my flower bed. It was hissing at us and coiling up like it was going to strike. I grabbed Richard and took off around the house meaning to get a hoe to kill it. As we ran Richard yelled, "Mamma get the GD shotgun and kill that SOB" Oh my goodness , I wanted to laugh, I wanted to correct, and I wanted to get rid of the snake. What I did was get in a giggle fit. Later that night I told him those words were bad even if Daddy did say them.
Another time My Daddy gave Richard a silver dollar. Richard said, "That's a GD silver hundred dollars". Now when my Daddy got tickled of course I did too.
I spent a lot of nights explaining to Richard that all these words were bad and we couldn't say them. He didn't understand then but he did later. God Bless His Sweet Heart. I'll see him again some day and we will once again giggle.