"Come Saturday Morning"

Like most little girls M-T-G was/is really attached to her mom.  In fact, so attached that she didn't want to do sleep-overs with friends (or even with grandmothers!) because she would get really unhappy, homesick and miss her mom.  Once or twice when she did finally decide to try staying over for a birthday party or something, Ratchlet got a call to go and pick her up  and take her home because she just was so miserable. Once she hit 11 (or so) she mostly got over that and she has gone to several sleepovers with her friends without incident.  

This isn't unusual in the world of children.  I remember being picked up a time or two myself when I was around that age.  That homesick feeling is really tough to deal with for a child.....well for anybody, I guess, but for little girls it is a devastating feeling.  I don't know of any adult who is unable to spend the night away from home.   So eventually we all grow out of it, but try to tell a miserably unhappy little girl who misses her mom that she'll grow out of it!! Can we say they do not believe you?

Now M-t-G  is over 12 and she took tje next step in that growing up process this week.  She spent a week away at Girl Scout Camp.  A whole week!  She had been to this camp with her troop a couple of times, but that didn't really count because Ratchlet is one of the troop leaders, so she was there!  That's a whole different ball of wax!

But this time no Mom, no Dad for a whole week.  The camp is pretty close so if M-t-G needed rescuing, it wouldn't take long to get there.   Ratchlet did hear from the camp, because M-t-G had a tummy ache one day (nothing serious and the next day she was fine.)  The counselor did say that M-t-G had been a little homesick, but only when they weren't doing something. lol!  The thing is though, that M-t-G didn't ask to go home!  She didn't have a meltdown or anything.  Once they were busy again she was fine.  Such progress!!

"Come Saturday Morning" (tomorrow) she'll be home, so we'll see what her overall reaction to being away at camp really was!  Still, I have high hopes she had a great time and before long she won't remember that she didn't see or talk to her mom for a whole week.  Fingers crossed!

She's growing up, but she's doing it at her own pace, just like everything she has ever done!  

"Easter Parade"

I don't know if anyone still buys a new hat for Easter or even a new dress, but we all used to!  I loved shopping for my Easter outfit every year when I was growing up.  Always found a pretty Spring-like dress in some pastel color and found a hat that went with it.  Up until I was in my teens, it seems to me that I always got patent leather shoes in either white or black and had ankle socks with a ruffle.  Some years, like this one, when Easter was early, I also got a new spring coat.  We were living in FL then, and a spring coat could pretty much work for all year.  Does anyone still sell spring coats anymore?

There was one year I remember my new outfit particularly well because my mother made it....by hand!  We had no sewing machine, but every now and then Mom would make me a dress.  She would buy a pattern, cut it out, pin it, and then sit in her chair every evening hand-sewing something for me to wear.  The Easter dress I remember my mom making was when I was around 11 or 12.  I was stick thin and short and there was no question  that I was still a child (unlike some 11-12 years old now who look at least 15!)  Anyway, the dress she made had a dropped waist, short sleeves, a kind of rolled collar, buttoned down the back, and had a full skirt.  It also had a long-sleeved light-weight (unlined) spring coat...which she also made by hand!!  The material that mom and I picked out was lavender flowers on a white background for the dress, and a solid lavender for the rolled collar and as trim at the dropped waist.  She made the coat out of the same lavender material.

There was a white hat, new white gloves, and white patent leather shoes.  I loved it!  I felt like I was definitely ready for the "Easter Parade."  That outfit was one of the last things mom made for me, except for some costume things for school and Halloween.  I was turning into a teenager and home-made dresses were not what teenage girls were willing to wear in a small town in FL in 1959.

Still I'll never forget the sight of my mom sitting each night for days and days with her needle and thread hand-sewing my brand new Easter outfit for the Easter Parade!

Whether or not you get a new outfit, I hope you have a lovely Easter that adds up to wonderful memories of what Easter is like in your house!

M-t-G's 2nd Easter
(Her 1st was when she was 1 week old!)

"Sweet Lorraine" (Reprise)

November 11 will always be a day of remembering, honoring, and sadness for me.  Of course, everyone knows it is Veteran's Day...a well-deserved day to recognize and honor those who have served in the military for this country.

But on a more personal level, it is more about loss to our family.  Nine years ago today my mother died. She was 83.  

I wrote this two years ago and want to reprint it today as my tribute to my mother, Lorraine Charlotte J., better known to us as Mom!  

From November 11, 2010:


I don't often post twice in one day, but November 11, is a day that is important to me.  Veterans' Day is to honor millions of Service Men and Women, some of which were heroes.

The other reason to post today is to honor one sole woman who was very definitely a hero, she was my hero!  She was my mother, and she died seven years ago today.  I miss her all the time and I can't believe it's been seven years. 

She was a hero to me and my family because, quite simply, she did whatever she needed to do to keep us fed, clothed, safe, housed, educated, and above all, loved.  

Dad always worked and brought home a paycheck, but Mom did EVERYTHING else.  Dad never wanted to own a house, by renting, the landlord was always responsible for fixing big stuff, so we rented my whole life....houses when I was a child, and then apartments.  If anything little broke down Mom would fix it.  She wasn't always successful but she tried.  When I married Mr. Fix-it (aka the Big Guy), he was always available to help with things like drippy faucets so that was one less thing mom had to do.  Both she and Dad treated the Big Guy like a son and he loved them in return.

She didn't work outside the house until I was 17 years old when she was forced to by circumstances.  Before that, Mom was a....mom!  She cooked dinner just about every night, she washed clothes, she did the shopping, she drove us around town for whatever, she ironed (until I was old enough not to burn up the family wardrobe),  she dusted (until I was old enough to do the job to her satisfaction), she vacuumed, she baked, she made crafty things, she rearranged the furniture, she wrote letters, she looked after Dad and me and then she looked after my sister as well.  She disciplined  us, she praised us, she waited up until we were home once we were old enough to date, she taught us stuff, she turned holidays into lovely events filled with traditions.  From her we learned morals, and ethics, and honesty, and how to be a great mom.

When Dad died she persevered in looking after my sister and the apartment, alone, even after Little Sis moved out.  She turned into a wonderful grandmother who loved her grandkids almost as much as we did.

Due to ill health, her last years were difficult and disappointing and she didn't cope with it too well.  She had always hated being dependent on anyone for anything.  When she had no choice, she hated it even more.  The quality of her life, was not good and that depressed her and made me very sad. 

Ending up like that was  not much of a reward for a mom who did everything for her family her whole life.  She deserved better.  That, of course, can't be changed, but she made my life full of love and opportunities and laughter, and music and she was ALWAYS be a hero to me.  My mother, "Sweet Lorraine".

I miss her and always will.  I love you Mama!

"We Are Family"

After spending most of the evening learning how to use our scanner correctly, I finally figured it out!!  And I am proud to share with you some of our family photos.  There isn't anything special about these photos or these people, except that "We Are Family".  I love them and I miss all who are gone.  But now, thanks to my lovely Little Sis,  I have lots of photos of  treasured faces and the wonderful memories they bring.  Here are just a few shots of random people at random times and random places.  I am happy to share them with you. 

(*They will enlarge if you click.)

My mom (mid-blink) and I in Phoenix in the late 1990s.

Little Sis and I around 1961.
She's a lot bigger now, but she's still just as cute!

My mom and dad, 1957

My dad always smiled for photos,
except this one!!  1957
(I wasn't much help either!)

Dad, Mom and I, 1953

My cousin Sherry and my Gram, 1952
(I'm not exactly sure who was teaching who!)

Me and my Gramps, 1950
(He never smiled in photos....except this one!) 

"Goomby" and Me, age 2, 1948

 

My Gram, two of my aunts, and me.
1947

One of my aunts' wedding, 1945
(from L to R:  my great-grandmother,
my grandfather -- see? No smile --
the happy couple, and my grandmother -- who always smiled!)

This lovely pin-up is my Mom, 1945
(There is writing on the back indicating that she sent the photo
to my dad overseas....and he brought it home all safe and sound!)

My mom, Lorraine C. Lisk, 1930
First Holy Communion

My grandfather, Norbert M. Lisk, Sr., 1921
(I think this is the oldest photo in the bunch.)

Yes, we are family and I love "seeing" them all again!!  I miss them every day!

"Wedding Day"

My parents were married on September 15, 1945 in Minneapolis, Minn.  They remained married till death (my dad's) in 1978.  So they were together for 33 years. If they were both still living, today would have been the 66th Anniversary of their "Wedding Day."  But neither of them lived that long.

Because Mom's birthday was September 9, when I was a kid I could never remember for sure which was which.  I knew the events were only a week apart, but I was always afraid I'd get it wrong.  The fact that I didn't get it wrong was never due my prodigious memory.  Nope, every year sometime in August, I'd cleverly ask my Dad "When's Mom's birthday again?"  I never had to question the anniversary date once I was sure of Mom's birthday!

My parents were introduced to each other by one of Mom's cousins, Toots.  (We have the oddest names in my mom's family!!)  I think Toots had dated my dad first, but I guess the sparks didn't fly.  They double-dated for Mom and Dad's first date, if I remember correctly.  I don't know the date of their meeting but I would surmise that it was sometime in 1939 or 1940.  They only actually dated once or twice before my dad was shipped overseas to the South Pacific.  Due to one of those Catch-22 Army situations, Dad was in the South Pacific for nearly five years.  (You would be discharged when you accrued enough "points".  Points were earned through amount of time spent overseas (or something like that).  Trouble was, they kept raising the number of points required for discharge.  Anyway, the upshot of it was that Dad was out of the country until after V-J Day in 1945.

During those five years my Mom and Dad corresponded with letters through the mail.  It wasn't like the V-Mail system that was used for the war in Europe (where they were limited to one page that could be put on film and then re-printed upon arrival.)  These were regular letters.  Mom still had a couple and there were words, phrases, and whole paragraphs cut out by the censors!

Despite the censors and the difficulty of mail deliveries to the ever-changing  location of the troops, enough of the letters must have gotten through, because that's how they got to know each other.  Somewhere during those five years, Dad proposed and Mom accepted, but they had to wait
until the War was over.  It was a long time to wait, but they kept on writing and sure enough, as soon as his discharge came through, Dad came back to Chicago (all in one piece and uninjured.)

It was just a couple of weeks after that they eloped to Minneapolis, on the train.  I don't really think it was an elopement in the strictest sense of the word.  There was no secrecy.  At a time when a big wedding seemed like a lot to go through and money was kind of tight, they decided they would have a small wedding trip instead.  At least that's how I remember the story.  Anyway, off to Minneapolis/St. Paul they went and they were married on September 15 by a Justice of the Peace. 

As I recall there is one black and white photo  from the "Wedding Day".  Mom was wearing a dark suit with a light colored blouse and she wore a dark hat that had a bunch of flowers perched on the brim.  Now I haven't seen this photo for probably 25 years or more (Little Sis has all the family photos), but I'm pretty sure Dad wore a medium colored pin-striped suit with a white shirt and patterned, wide  tie.  He had glasses and a thin mustache!  He kept that mustache for a couple of years, but when it disappeared, it never returned!  I was always glad he didn't keep it, I don't think it suited him at all!

Anyway, I don't know how long they stayed in Minneapolis/St. Paul.  I think it was only a day or two and they they came back to Chicago. 

I was born 9 months and 15 minutes later!  LOL!    No really!  June 25, 1946 is my birth date and Mom always said I was a little LATE!  So you do the math!!    (teehee)

Like any marriage, they had their ups and downs.  They didn't really know each other very well when they married.  After all, they had only a couple of dates and five years' worth of censored letters.  Not much to build on.   But they made a life and home together for both my sister and I.  They were separated for a little over a year when I was 17, but they got back together.

Dad's health had started to deteriorate when he was around 50 or so.  He had several strokes and a couple of heart attacks.  Partly due to the worry about his health, the Big Guy and I decided to throw them a surprise anniversary party for their 30th Anniversary.

We invited all the old friends they had known years and years ago including my Godfather (who was Dad's best friend forever) and my Mom's cousin, the aforementioned, Toots (not like "hoots", more like "puts".)  Several of my aunts and uncles were there too, as well as 17 year old Little Sis and 9 year old Ratchlet.  Altogether we had about 30 people.  It was a little tight, but no one cared!

It was a huge success! My folks were genuinely surprised, you might even say flabbergasted!   Mom and especially Dad were thrilled and happy to see all their old friends.  There were tears and happy smiles, hugs, lots of laughter, and lots of catching up.  It was a wonderful night!  You can tell from this photo that it was a happy night! It was probably the best thing I ever did for my Mom and Dad.

Daddy and his girls!

Three years later Dad was gone.  Mom lived on for another 28 years or so.  But that night was the best celebration they ever had and the memory of that night, and their marriage has stayed with me ever since.  Every September 15 I am reminded of my parents and how much I loved them and miss them so!

I was thinking of you, Mom and Dad, on this your "Wedding Day."