Things my mom taught me

[Chips N Dust 8,747]

How many of us heard these bits of wisdom growing up?

 

[John Morris 16,279]

Nice Chips, memories abound after reading that.

[Woodbutcherbynight 20,363]

My Mother was the clean underwear type.  

 

"I hope when you are in an accident and go to the hospital you have on clean underwear."

 

Well I always thought that what an accident was, first you say it, then you do it.

 

Just saying Mom.

 

[Artie 5,018]

My Mom was a kindhearted, peaceful, sweet, woman........til you heard her call you by your first name and middle name! Worse was when she called you one of your brother’s names! Family story-If you’ve ever seen the movie Blazing Saddles, there’s a scene where Mel Brooks and the other politicians are playing with the wooden paddles that have a  ball attached to them with a rubber band. We never saw the ball or rubber band, that was Mom’s implement of discipline. Unlike Dad (when he got mad) Mom wasn’t really interested in causing much pain, She’s paddle, we’d alligator cry, and then the worst part of the punishment was sitting on the couch in the living room for 1/2 hour. The 4 of us were born in 6 years, 60, 61, 62, 66. So most of the time when the paddle came out it was all of us, or at least the 3 oldest, getting punished together. My brother two years behind me isn’t known as the smart one in the family. After his turn, laying over the side of tub, getting paddled, he says. “That didn’t hurt”. What followed was loud and painful! He came into the living room holding his backside, with REAL tears streaming down his face. About 10 years ago, where ever I was, they were selling those paddles. I bought one, ripped the ball and rubber band off, wrote “That didn’t hurt” on it with a sharpie, and wrapped it up. I gave it to my brother as one of his Christmas presents. No one quite understood why the 4 of us siblings cracked up so hard over the present. Ah well, family memories, maybe some of you understand.  

[Chips N Dust 8,747]

I made the mistake of taking the wooden spoon out of my mom's hand one day. She said, "Wait till your father gets home." I quickly gave it back, but it was too late by then....

[Old Coasty 334]

15 hours ago, Woodbutcherbynight said:

My Mother was the clean underwear type.  

 

"I hope when you are in an accident and go to the hospital you have on clean underwear."

 

Well I always thought that what an accident was, first you say it, then you do it.

 

Just saying Mom.

 

Don't wear socks with holes in them either.

[Al B 4,455]

Mom passed when I was 12. Dad remarried. Step mother was a real B#%**. Left home at 15. Somehow, I survived. Envy you guys!

[kmealy 6,941]

Worst I had was a sadistic sixth grade teacher.   Someone got paddled every day.  Some days the whole class got a whack because not everyone put their pencil down quickly enough when she got up to talk after desk work, most kids got their pant cuffs wet from the 6-10 inches of snow in the recess area, etc.   Every Friday was spelling and you got a whack for every word you missed.  One poor classmate was a terrible speller (but a very bright guy otherwise) and got about 10 every week.  I think I spent more time every evening in homework during that class than I did in any of the 12 years of school, until I reached college.

[Gene Howe 23,931]

Not that it wasn't ever deserved but, I never got paddled at school. At home, it was a willow switch or a belt. Both left welts. Doubt that would be allowed today.

[Woodbutcherbynight 20,363]

My Mother loved to say "I am sick and tired,  blah blah labh.."

 

Once she started with "I am sick,"  so I finished it for her and said, "and tired."

 

Didn't know she could deliver a beating like that.  Would have gotten another one but my Father couldn't stop laughing long enough to let loose with the belt.

 

[Al B 4,455]

4 hours ago, Gene Howe said:

Not that it wasn't ever deserved but, I never got paddled at school. At home, it was a willow switch or a belt. Both left welts. Doubt that would be allowed today.

You'd probably end up in jail if you used a paddle or belt today.

[John Morris 16,279]

12 hours ago, Chips N Dust said:

"Wait till your father gets home."

When my kids were younger, I was that father.

[John Morris 16,279]

6 hours ago, Al B said:

Left home at 15. Somehow, I survived.

Now that's a story I could sit an listen to for hours, I bet it's a good one!

[Al B 4,455]

27 minutes ago, John Morris said:

Now that's a story I could sit an listen to for hours, I bet it's a good one!

John, There were some really good times in my younger years. Mom was a pretty good piano player. My uncle really picked the banjo. An aunt married a music teacher who played the steel guitar, accordian, guitar and banjo. Together they really put on a show, at least for a kid up to 10 yrs old. It was after WW11 started that things began to go sour.

[John Morris 16,279]

6 minutes ago, Al B said:

John, There were some really good times in my younger years. Mom was a pretty good piano player. My uncle really picked the banjo. An aunt married a music teacher who played the steel guitar, accordian, guitar and banjo. Together they really put on a show, at least for a kid up to 10 yrs old. It was after WW11 started that things began to go sour.

Al, already the story is deep and rich, just the little you put out there. You inferred that perhaps the challenges built character and strength at such a young age. Stories like yours are becoming something of the past, because the current generation must have everything perfect, safe spaces, low voices, over sensitivities, and "I am very important". Life events that build character if you survive them, as it's obvious you did, are becoming rarer and rarer, and the incredible stories of such events and lives, are becoming far and few in between.

 

Just one very small example of a story I like to tell, that surprises younger kids today, a story about how I fell out of the back of a pick up truck moving down the highway, 17 yrs old, too much beer and too many giggling girls, too many kids in the back, and I have the scars to show today, and the one question the young ones ask me after I tell that wonderful story, they ask, "you got to ride in the back of a pickup truck!". I find it very sad that kids cannot experience what we experienced decades ago, while I would not wish a fall from a truck on any kid, but I do wish they could ride free, and take risks! 

We have very few daredevils and barrier breakers today, because they don't get to take those chances anymore, they don't get to up and leave their home at the age of 15 and "somehow survive"!

 

My 84 year old dad tells the story of when he was just 8 yrs old, he hitch hiked from Aurora Ill. to the Catskills of New York to go live with his Aunt and Uncle on the farm, nobody bothered him, and he just shrugs it off today like it was nothing.

 

I love stories like yours Al, thanks for sharing what you have already, with the challenges you had, LIFE!!! And I love it!

[hatuffej 1,951]

9 hours ago, John Morris said:

Just one very small example of a story I like to tell, that surprises younger kids today, a story about how I fell out of the back of a pick up truck moving down the highway, 17 yrs old, too much beer and too many giggling girls, too many kids in the back, and I have the scars to show today, and the one question the young ones ask me after I tell that wonderful story, they ask, "you got to ride in the back of a pickup truck!". I find it very sad that kids cannot experience what we experienced decades ago, while I would not wish a fall from a truck on any kid, but I do wish they could ride free, and take risks! 

We have very few daredevils and barrier breakers today, because they don't get to take those chances anymore, they don't get to up and leave their home at the age of 15 and "somehow survive"!

 

 

Hello John. I can see both sides. I have my own set of scars. However, I recall from several years back while visiting my wife in the hospital, seeing a young man, say 15-16 years old, severely incapacitated from an injury to his brain after crashing his skateboard into a parked car. No helmut! He could barely talk or sit up, but I joked with him every day and we would do fist bumps. His dad told me he was unlikely to recover. I could feel his heartbreak.

[Gene Howe 23,931]

Several years ago, I was called on to provide Speech and Language evaluation and rehab services for a severely injured 9 year old native American boy. In AZ, it's legal to ride in the bed of a pick up. He was among several in the back when they hit a rough patch of road. He was thrown out and, somehow was ran over and ended up wound around the wheel, trapped in the wheel well. Luckily, their speed wasn't great but, the driver wasn't aware that the boy had fallen out and didn't get stopped for several feet. 

He suffered severe brain damage as well as a broken arm and pelvis. 

I saw him in the hospital two days after the accident. As a result of the brain damage, his vision was impaired and, he couldnt control eye movement. He had lost all capacity for speech as he had lost all voluntary control of the muscles necessary. Although, his receptive language seemed intact. 

I saw him three times a week for 4 years. We were successful in establishing communication for him using a series of communication boards with pictures. Eventually, we transitioned to printed words. 

Sadly, he passed away at the age of 14. 

This sad narrative illustrates the very real possible consequences of hauling human beings in the open bed of a pick up. 

Thanks for reading and please don't let your kids...or anyone...ride back there. 

[Al B 4,455]

John, shortly before the start of WW11 my parents opened a neighborhood grocery store   Things were fine for a while, but my dad was in the Coast Guard Reserve. He was away from home most of the time after the war started. Mom developed a constant cough and eventually wasn't able to run the store properly and take care of 5 children.I believe my dad blamed her for the business finally having to close its doors. The last time he came home, there was a lot of yelling and language that I was normally unaccustomed to hearing. He left that day and never returned. Mom's cough got continually worse and alcohol became a problem. Because of financial issues we eventually had to move to a low end apartment . Mom got a job as a cashier in the local First National Store but her health progressively got worse. After a year or less, she couldn't work, with 5 kids to support. I never knew what or how things happened, but one day my dad arrived, and an ambulance and another car with people I didn't know. The ambulance took my mom to the sanitarium. She had been diagnosed with tuberculosis. My oldest sister left in a vehicle with people I didn't know and the rest of us were driven about 50 miles to what was described as a heath home where we stayed a little over a year. 

I eventually heard that my older sister was living as an aid for the children in the home of a former mayor from the city. She was later diagnosed with TB and was taken to the sanitariun where my mom was. "She spent almost 4 years there before finally being cured."

One day, my dad and his wife showed up at the health home and announced that mom had passed away and we would be leaving the home to move in with him and his wife within a month. This was about 2 weeks after mom has died. 

We never got to see her again.

 

Just a summary of the years after dad left and before moving in with him.

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[Woodbutcherbynight 20,363]

12 hours ago, Gene Howe said:

I saw him three times a week for 4 years. We were successful in establishing communication for him using a series of communication boards with pictures. Eventually, we transitioned to printed words. 

My hat is off to you!!  That had to be a tough task, fraught with setbacks and who knows how many tears.

 

 

[Woodbutcherbynight 20,363]