Tuesday, August 5, 2014
My Memories of Mom
Mom always taught me to be respectful, courteous, kind, and generous. She believed in good etiquette and manners. She always reminded me to say, Please and Thank You, to everyone. She always told me if I didn’t have anything nice to say to someone or about someone, then I shouldn’t say anything at all. While I was rather a spoiled brat when I was little, the things she taught me have stayed with me.
When I was very little, if I hurt myself or didn’t like something, I would start to cry and hold my breath until I passed out in a heap on the ground. Mom would pick me up and talk to me quietly until I woke up again.
Mom was a very meticulous housekeeper, but she let me strew my dolls and toys all over the living room. I would take the books out of the bookcase and pile them up like walls, making little rooms where I would sit in and play with my dolls. Or I would drape sheets from the couch to the coffee table to make a tent to play under. She would say I liked to build “beaver dams.” When I was done, she would pick everything up and put it away, never saying anything to me about cleaning up my mess.
Mom rarely got angry. But if I did something she didn’t like, she let me know it! When I was young, and was outside playing somewhere on the street, she would always go outside and call me when it was time to come in for lunch or dinner. If I didn’t come home within a reasonable time after being called, she or Dad would be waiting at the back stairs for me. I would get a quick swat across the behind as I went up the stairs.
Mom did not care much for watching television. She liked to sit in the kitchen with a cup of coffee and read or crochet. When I was small, she would play board games with me.
When I was young, Mom sewed a lot of my clothes, as well as for all my dolls. She also taught me how to sew and crochet.
When I was first learning to play the accordion, at about seven years old, I would practice by following behind and playing, as Mom used the push mower to cut the grass. It must have been quite a sight to see her going back and forth across the yard with the mower and me behind her playing the accordion!
Mom taught me how to swim at the bathing beach. I remember one time, she took me to swim in the small pond, next to the bathing beach. She was standing on the shore watching me. All of a sudden she called to me, saying “Lorraine, turn around and swim back to me. Don’t look around, just swim.” When I got to the shore, she told me there were a couple snakes in the water not too far from where I was swimming. She never panicked.
Mom was very generous to everyone. Whenever she visited someone, she always brought something – it could be something she baked, or something she made – crocheted doilies, kitchen towels, potholders, flowers from the garden, or even groceries. If she had something and you said you liked it, she would always say, “Here, you can have it.”
Whenever Mom and Dad would go to a flea market, she would bring me back something she thought I could use or would like – china platters for serving, sugar bowls, bird figurines, Christmas ornaments and decorations.
When I started working at American Cyanamid in Wayne, Mom and Dad would ask me to come home for lunch. She always had the table set and ready when I walked in the door with cold cuts, bread, salad, and dessert, as I only had 45 minutes to eat and get back to work. Sometimes, they would pick me up at work, and we would go out for lunch at the Preakness Luncheonette or the diner. When my office moved to Madison, New Jersey, it was too far for me to go back home to Wayne for lunch, so Dad and Mom started driving to Madison every Wednesday to go out for lunch with me. Even after Dad passed away, Mom drove down to have lunch with me every Wednesday.
Sometimes Mom would cut bunches of lilacs from the bushes on the side of the garage and give them to me to bring back to work for my desk.
When I was young, Sundays were family dinner days. Everyone would be home to have a family dinner. Mom always cooked enough for all of us—sometimes 15 or more -- and would also bake a cake or pies. We always celebrated everyone’s birthdays. If it was in the summer, Mom would make big trays of Shake n’Bake Chicken, macaroni and tuna salad, and potato salad. During the winter, she would make a regular dinner for everyone. Mom would always get a birthday cake and candles, and we would all sing Happy Birthday.
Mom loved the 4th of July. We would always have a picnic in the back yard with Mom cooking everything as usual. When it started to get dark, she would line up the lawn chairs and blankets in the side yard, so we could all sit and watch the fireworks that were set off from the North Jersey Country Club.
At Christmas, for many years, the whole family gathered at Mom and Dad’s either on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day for dinner and exchange of presents. We would all gather around the piano, and Mom would play (before I learned how), and we would sing Christmas Carols. She always made a ham sandwich for me to leave for Santa on Christmas Eve.
In the mid to late 1970s, I can’t remember the exact year, Mom was up on the ladder outside cleaning the windows, and the ladder fell over with her on it. She broke her arm. It was just before Thanksgiving. Because Mom couldn’t do it, this was the first year that I made Thanksgiving dinner and learned how to make a pie. She stood next to me the whole time telling everything to do.
I have so many more memories, but that would take a lifetime to tell – my lifetime. I love you, Mom, and always will. Thanks for always being there for me. I’ll see you, and Dad, again in a little while.
Love Always, Lorraine
