Mother's Day memories

Hi neighbors. This Sunday is a special day for most families in America. It is Mother's Day.

Mother's Day is always a good day to celebrate our living mothers, aunts, grandmothers, mothers-in-law, and other older females in our circles of friends and family.

However, it's also a good time to take a moment to remember our mothers past. Although I am fortunate to still have a living mother-in-law, my mother, both my grandmothers, and most of my aunts have passed away. Although I think of them often, I think of them most on Mother's Day.

Take some time to remember the little things you and your mother or grandmother did together. If you need a jump-start, take out the photo album and go through the old black and whites.

Put on some music from your childhood and remember the lullabies your mother sang to you and that you sang to your own children. Do you remember "Pony Boy"? How about "Won't You Ride in My Little Red Wagon" or "My Little Buckaroo"?

Of course there's always "Rock-A-Bye Baby," "Itsy Bitsy Spider," or "Mary Had A Little Lamb." What other songs do you remember from your early childhood? I bet you learned most of them from your mother, grandmother or aunt.

How many others can you think of?

My mother kept introducing me to sing-a-long songs all of my life. She was a great singer and knew a lot of songs. Some were from her own childhood, some were from World War II. She liked musicals and would sing lots of songs from Shirley Temple, Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly movies, or some light opera and jazz hits from the '30s too.

My grandmother knew lots of old folk songs; ballads that told stories of young love, wild horses, faithful dogs and cowboys.

More than the songs there were things we did together. I remember the smell of vinegar as we colored eggs for Easter. The gooiness of flour and water paste made up for papier-mâché projects. The bright colors of a new paint box used to make a painting for Mom. The times spent together doing homework or research on some topic touched on by something we had read or seen on television or heard about on the radio. Searching the cardboard globe for a country we had never heard of; or one where someone we knew was currently living. And there were endless hours of "tea time" and paper dolls.

As I got older there were times of learning "womanly things." For instance, my mother taught me how to do dishes, sort laundry or cook a meal in 30 minutes or less. She demonstrated how to pack a Sunday picnic lunch box for four -- or eight if the neighbors came with us to the park. She taught me how to make potato salad and the ingredients of meatloaf.

My grandmother taught me how to make biscuits and noodles; how to keep a wood stove oven at the right temperature; how to get a hen to "set" and how to make apple butter.

All the women in my life have taught me the right thing to do and have tried to teach me the importance of doing the right thing, even when it is very inconvenient or downright difficult.

Perhaps most importantly, my mother(s) have taught me how to have fun, how to make the most of any situation and how to laugh at the difficult things life sometimes threw our way.

They have also taught by example that a woman's strength is in "keeping on." Making certain there was food on the table, clothes on the children, fire in the hearth and smiles on the faces of those they loved. It sounds very simple, but women everywhere in every generation have needed the wisdom of the women who came before them to learn and maintain the art of being mothers.

Take some time this Sunday to not only show your love to those women in your life who have shared part of their lives with you; but to also remember those who have gone on but whose legacy remains in your heart and mind.

Until the next time friends, those of you who are mothers or children of mothers, celebrate Mother's Day with your loved ones.