MY VISIT TO THE MOTHER LAND-------THE THINGS I REMEMBER

It all started when a boy met a girl

fell in love, and got married.

The boy is my dad.

The girl is my mother.

And 2 weeks after they married

My dad left my mother.....

NO, they did not get a Deeevorce...that is how my mom pronounces deeevorce
and so now do I.
He left her to serve a 2 year mission
 for the LDS church in California.
I can't even imagine the courage and strength
it would have taken to do that!
My mom grew up here......

And her dad (my Grandpa Carter) would be rolling in his grave if he could see what has happened to his home that was in perfect, pristine condition.  The driveway has been torn up, his beautiful trees and shrubbery have been removed, and his prize roses....................all gone.

From perfection to perdition. So.very.sad.

My dad was raised here....

by a mother who had to quit school in the 7th grade to raise and care for

her brothers and sister because her mother (my great-grandmother)

had died in childbirth.

I was raised here....

  

until I was 15 and we moved "up the canyon".

I remember this house. When I lived there it was always painted white

with red trim where the gray is now. I remember sitting on that porch for many hours

singing quietly

 (I didn't want to get teased by my sisters!)  

 along to my Carole King "record" (yes you read that right) and my favorite song. 

 There was a guy I "liked" but I didn't know if he "liked" me.

I wrote letters I would never send to him, and I would sing this song 

and fantasize about this song being "our song" and how I would some day

casually be able to break his heart, like I felt he was breaking mine.....

 He of course had no idea that my 15 year old self had a ginormous crush on him........  

I had a pen pal and in our letters to each other we would include a  

"top 10 song list" 

"It's too late" was my #1 song for a LONG, LONG time.

I also spent HOURS inside my house

listening to the radio and WAITING, WAITING, WAITING 

for "Love grows where my Rosemary goes"to come on, so I could record it through the radio.

Back in those days, there was no instant access to a song you wanted to hear.

( I can't believe I just wrote "in those days"!!!)

You had to WAIT for the radio to play it, and IF they finally did........

The DJ usually talked over the first 10-15 seconds of the song, 

RUINING the song you had waited HOURS to record.  

I remember that tree and climbing it and trying to build a tree house in it...

 which was a complete failure.

On the left side of the house were rows of flowers. I remember the holly hocks and my sisters

and I daring each other to catch the bees that were in them.

 If you caught one, you could hear it buzzing angrirly inside the flower.....

I can still remember the fear as the flower vibrated with the bee inside waiting to "get us"

When we let them go, we usually got stung.

 And yet we did it,

over and over and over again.

I remember crying with the pain and running to my mom more than once with a stinger in my finger.

I remember she helped me put "mud packs" on the sting to relieve the burn and draw out

the stinger. I remember being so upset after getting stung one time that I couldn't quit crying.....

Until my dad told me that even though the bee sting hurt me, it hurt the bee more,

because  once a bee loses it's stinger.....

it dies.

J.U.S.T.I.C.E......

my childish mind thought.

My mom, always there for me then

and now

Mothers Day

a day to be together with ALL of my sisters

and my brother, for the first time in many years.

Waiting patiently outside of Chuck-A-Rama

for our Mother's Day dinner

a guilty pleasure...

Even those who claim they don't like a buffet....

Secretly

love Chuck-A-Rama....

or

Is that just me?

The scones are pure heaven to me.

Speaking of pure heaven....

the guy above is single...

any girl would be in pure heaven

with him as her mate.

(gotta give a plug for him, he's a keeper!)

Larry...a guy who can fix anything, anywhere, anytime.

He's married....to my sister. The one that used to do back flips, and gymnastic 

routines on the side of our house by the garage.... the shady side...without the bees. 

She flipped, flopped and hand standed to the music of  "Herb Albert and the Tijuana Brass" 

I know, I know

You've never heard of them.

As a mother I say

 Thank you Ron for being such a great husband to my daughter

as he waits for his own daughter to come into the world

in a few months.

He loves Briqelle and Cali as his own.

and they in turn love him.

 And everyone loves Jama...

But Jama doesn't love

everyone......yet.

He's a bit on the shy side. He needs to hang out with

Kyle for a while. Kyle loves everyone and everyone loves Kyle!

Cali was so excited to show Bumma her new

ladybug dress.....IT TWIRLS!!

 This visit  to my home town 

brought back a lot of memories.

 I think I'd better check to see if my teen age crush

ever got over me.....

AS IF! 

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!