Reminiscing

Boy, the way Glen Miller played. Songs that made the hit parade.
Guys like us, we had it made. Those were the days.
Didn't need no welfare state. Everybody pulled his weight.
Gee, our old LaSalle ran great. Those were the days.
And you know who you were then, girls were girls and men were men.
Mister, we could use a man like Herbert Hoover again.
People seemed to be content. Fifty dollars paid the rent.
Freaks were in a circus tent. Those were the days.
Take a little Sunday spin, go to watch the Dodgers win.
Have yourself a dandy day that cost you under a fin.
Hair was short and skirts were long. Kate Smith really sold a song.
I don't know just what went wrong. Those Were The Days.

Those Were The Days" by Lee Adams and Charles Strouse

~~~~~


Reminiscing




Today, Ron and I, were reminiscing over tuna sandwiches during lunch here at home. He remembered when he was about six years old and his Mom took him to The Bon Marche. He said they went to the basement there, where they had the best tuna sandwich that he ever ate.

That got us started. He then mentioned that he could remember going to Ivars in downtown Seattle when he was a kid, with his whole family. It was his Dad’s favorite place to eat. His family consisted of his Dad, Mom, older sister,older brother, and younger sister.

I told him that I could not remember ever going out to eat like that with my family when I was young. There were seven of us siblings; four girls, three boys, and Mom and Dad. What I did remember was our Sunday drives when we would all pile into the Buick station wagon and go for long rides out in the countryside. Sometimes we would go visit relatives, or sometimes just go for a scenic ride. Usually my brothers would sit on one side of the car while my sisters and I sat on the other side.

We would play a game where us girls on one side would watch out the windows and count all of the animals on our side of the car. My brothers would count all the animals on the other side. Then when we would come to a church on “our side” we would lose all of our animals.

I remember it was always great fun and kept us from quarreling amongst ourselves. Many times my two older brothers would not even be along for the rides. As they got older they would be off working jobs somewhere. Sometimes we had pillows and blankets in the back end of the station wagon. Maybe, they stayed there because our Mom always took us to the Drive In Movie once a week back in Burton Township, Michigan.

In the summer time, just about every day, Mom would pack a big picnic lunch and take us all to the lake. I don’t know how she did it with all of us kids to keep an eye on. She always had such patience with us though. She would stay at the lake with us until we were all water logged and ready to go home. I think she probably did it to get us out of the house so that our Dad could get his sleep during the day. He worked the night shift and the graveyard shift, operating a crane at the old Fisher Body plant in Flint, Michigan.

Many times my Mom and her sister (my Aunt Mary) would go to the lake together with all of my five cousins and us. On special occasions our families would celebrate Holidays or birthdays together. Mom would dress us all up in our Sunday best and we would go to our Aunt Mary’s and Uncle Bill’s for a big feast, or they would come to our house to eat.

Mom always made these meals at home special ones. She would fry chicken and fill up a big roaster pan, or make her yummy stuffed cabbage rolls with her secret sauce on them. There was always dessert afterwards; homemade chocolate cakes with homemade icings on them. Aunt Mary made the best moist chocolate cake ever. It was her chocolate mayonnaise cake. There was always ice cream to go with the cakes too.

We never felt slighted by not eating out in restaurants. My first memory of eating out came when I was twelve years old. One of my Mom’s sisters (my Aunt Tressa) took me to Smith-Bridgeman’s in downtown Flint. There we ate on the Mezzanine floor restaurant, where I had my first bowl of Chop Suey.

Most of my fondest memories of my Mom were of her devotion to each one of her children. She made us all feel special and loved, with her generous hugs and her sweet kisses goodnight. She told us stories and shared our stories. She would laugh at our jokes and her smile would warm our hearts.

She was the center of our world.

Our Mom.



Mom passed away in September, 1986
at age 67.



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