too windy to haul rocks

My mom in her youth.  She was a beauty!

Today is my mom's birthday. She would have been 83 years old.  I was more sad last week thinking about her, but today I just smiled at some of the good memories and made it a good day  remembering the good times we spent together. 

Me and my mom when I was about ten months old...I sure didn't have much hair!

My mom had many sayings - Some of them were handed down to her by her own mom and who knows where they originated....


Might as well, can't dance.  And it's too windy to haul rocks. (I have no clue what this means).
It will be better in the morning (any time we were sick, or felt bad about anything).
They're just jealous! (any time someone was mean to us.  She didn't say what they were jealous about).
People come to see you and not your house.
I'm broke flatter than piss on a platter (when she didn't have any money).
Oh well (her version of the more popular version of today "it is what it is").
Why would someone buy the cow when  he can get the milk for free? (Her cautioning to us about premarital sex).
Jesus Christ Ray! (Her frequent terms of endearment to my dad)
Pig shit and cabbage!  (what she said when we asked her what's for dinner)
Throw it in the cart!  (what she told the grand kids when they liked something in the store when we were shopping).
He/she is OK in their place - but their place burnt down (a favorite of my grandma's as well).

My mom liked to have fun.   She preferred anything that was fun over doing stuff like housework.  She had her priorities straight I think.  I did a lot of things with my mom that most people don't do with moms...like smoke pot and swing on the swings in the playground at the old school yard, laughing hysterically. She discovered that marijuana was good for her allergies and grew it in pots in her bedroom.

We also worked together in two different restaurants.  One time on a night shift we bought some beer, drank it and closed the place early.  Yeah maybe not the best mother daughter activities but  no one got hurt.   We never went and got our nails done together and we didn't go on vacations, but we had a lot of fun and my mom gave all of us her unconditional love.  She always worried about us - every time I went out of town on a trip, she would say "Stay in your hotel room".  And she repeatedly told me "You are getting to old to do all that running!"  She worried about my dog and called me at work once to tell me to not let him play with tennis balls.  She had read in the National Enquirer about a dog who once choked on a tennis ball.

Sometimes when we were kids, and she was "broke flatter than piss on a platter" and couldn't buy any groceries, she made us one of our favorite dinners:  baking powder biscuits and milk macaroni.  She was always so apologetic about it.  We loved it though and my sister still makes it.  Milk macaroni is easy....just boil some macaronis (pasta I suppose is the appropriate term today) drain, add some butter and milk, salt and pepper and heat it up again.

My mom enjoyed watching Lifetime Movies and I would try to stay awake and watch them with her...they were always about men who had done some woman wrong and the woman getting revenge.  I used to call it the man hating channel.  She had every cable channel available I think and a few times I caught her watching "soft porn" on the Showtime channel.  She was always amazed at the antics - "I can't believe people can actually do that stuff" she once said.

One of times Kseniya and I visited in the fall, Barb and Siggie kept coming over with different hats.  I don't know why but I have a ton of pictures with my mom, dad, Barb and Siggie and Raymond, in weird hats.  

Barb and Siggie

Kseniya and I

Me and my mom

 We really had a lot of fun doing nothing in particular - just all being together.  As my sister and Siggie were leaving this night, my sister whispered to me, "I think we will have a few more good years".

We did and I am thankful to have had my mama for all those years!  I would sure give anything though, to watch one of those Lifetime Movies with her, wearing a goofy hat!

Happy birthday Georgetta Bernice!  You were the best!