On Mother’s Day 2018
, I think about all the things my mom did for me. Of course, foremost is, being a very young woman just out of high school, she was willing to carry me to birth and raise me. I often think about Maureen Stapleton playing Mama Mae Peterson in the movie “Bye Bye Birdie” declaring to Harry McAfee (played by Paul Lynde) “But when I was expecting him, in the Maternity Ward, three days I waited. Did I desert him? No! I stayed right there so he wouldn’t be alone when he was born!” Her son Albert (played by Dick Van Dyke) says “Mama please don’t excite yourself. You know I love ya’”. I would never leave you!” to which Mama responds “Now, don’t try to pay me back, son. I forgive you. So what if you’re an ingrate? So long as you’re happy.”
I was no ingrate. I always appreciated how hard Mom worked to keep us happy. Did your mom do special things for you? This might seem silly, but I remember my lunch sacks. My mom used to pack my lunch when I was in the early school grades. She used to draw pictures and write notes on my lunch sacks. By the time lunch rolled around, I usually needed that encouragement. Of course, the cute lunch sacks disappeared by the time I was in 4th grade – a kid can get beat up for that. Mom understood all of that too. She made sure she knew my friends and was careful not to let me get in with kids who would be trouble for me. The few who came around and tried to cause trouble for us didn’t stick around for long when mom laid down the law. Thanks Mom!
Being a single mom for a few years made it difficult for her to get all the bills paid and still be able to pay for all the stuff me and my sister needed with constantly growing out of our clothes and scouts & everything. We stayed with our Grammy a lot while Mom worked two, sometimes 3 jobs so we could have the few “extras” that would otherwise be impossible. Even after Mom remarried, she kept working so I could be in band, play little league baseball and be involved in all the extracurricular activities that started popping up once I entered Jr. High School. Thanks Mom!
Our mom kept things seeming fairly “normal” during some tumultuous times growing up in Los Angeles; our family’s divorce; moving around quite a bit; the Watts Riots; the assassinations of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., President John F. Kennedy and Robert Kennedy; the Vietnam War; the Resignation of President Richard Nixon and some pretty big earthquakes – figuratively AND geologically speaking. With everything seemingly going crazy around us, Mom always made it feel like everything was alright at home. She’d bring home pizza or Pup-n-Taco for supper and throw some favorite albums on the Hi-Fi and just keep all of us right on going like she always did. No family skids or crashes. She taught us to stay “cool as a cucumber” – something she always says; and life was. Thanks Mom!
© 2018 Curt Savage Media curtsavagemedia.com
I grew up with my sister in Southern California; bonafide city kids. We visited our extended family in Minnesota several times where we learned about farm life. We liked to go fishing and were aware the meat on our table came from animals such as the fish we caught or from meat farms like the cattle and poultry operations in the counties east of us. We didn’t have to raise our own meat so we never experienced the killing and cleaning part of anything larger or messier than our caught fish. In our minds, the cows went straight from the fields to the burger joint.
What makes you feel satisfied? In the 1960’s the word “righteous” was used to describe something we would refer to today as cool or awesome. If you were in possession of something you thought was “righteous”, you were satisfied with what you had. I remember I had a pretty righteous bike when I was in the 7th grade.
What does the word “abundant” mean to you? I got thinking about the word “abundant” while talking with a friend. She said she was waiting to find her “abundant life”. This was in reference to the passage in the Bible where Jesus said “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” (John 10:10). That made me question “What is this abundant life?” Is it about having an abundance of things, great wealth or worldwide celebrity status? Is it about getting everything you want? I used to work with a guy who always said “I want everything that’s coming to me.” I told him “No you don’t.”
I’m trying to deny awareness of commentary concerning the February 14, 2018 Parkland, Florida school shooting, but – alas, I have succumbed to being drawn into that commentary mostly due to the inane and insensitive rhetoric I’m reading.
Valentine’s Day; that ancient holiday responsible for creating knot’s in a 6th grader’s stomach. There we sat; just back from lunch where we mentally digested morning geography images of half-naked tribal Africans drumming and dancing during their version of a Bar Mitzvah. Now we prepared to endure California mandated coed sex education classes. But first – we shared the contents of our Valentine’s bags classmates “filled” earlier that morning. This was supposed to show us how much we were loved. Some were more filled than others. None of us had any idea what love was.
Do you have a favorite oil lamp; maybe a glass or metal hurricane lamp or railroad lantern? My wife has the glass oil lamp that provided the light her mother and her aunts read by when they were children. I like railroad lanterns, but they’re difficult to find and kind of expensive. We made a trip to Lehman’s Hardware in Kidron, Ohio many years ago and I bought an American made Dietz #8 Air Pilot Lantern. Sometimes I like to leave the lights off and write or practice guitar with that lantern providing the only light.
Do you remember the old Christmas lights from back before there were “Mini-lights” and LED lights? I think they were called C7 bulbs? The way they were wired, if one bulb failed, the whole string of lights went dark. With modern lights, if one goes out the rest stay lighted. The burned-out bulb is easy to spot amongst the other lights. I Tweeted the other day “A candle is barely noticeable in daylight. However, its light is undeniable in darkness.” The only thing more noticeable in darkness is the absence of light.
Do you remember the Wendy’s commercial featuring a small, cantankerous woman in her eighties who would order a hamburger at some other restaurant and, upon being served a sandwich containing a puny little patty of meat, would exclaim “Where’s the beef?”? That commercial became part of the Wendy’s restaurant advertising campaign in 1984. The woman was Clara Peller, an 81 year old Russian born immigrant who came to America when she was just 5 years old. Clara passed away in 1987, but her character and question from the commercials has become a permanent American cultural icon. Clara recorded the single “Where’s the Beef” with Nashville Radio DJ Coyote McCloud. Everyone from corporate CEO’s to U.S. Presidential candidates have used the phrase “Where’s the Beef?” when decrying the absence of substance in a program or proposal.
If I could get a degree in “Reverse Engineering”, I’d graduate with honors. My maxim could be “If it ain’t broke, take it apart to figure out why not”; and that’s not limited to mechanical things. I dissect songs, stories, art, religion and even sociological norms to examine them to see what makes them work, or not work.
Not Words Alone from Curt Savage Media 