A Mom Story

Growing up, we spent summers in a camper in South Myrtle Beach.  We were there more than we were home which was great for a couple of kids.  As soon as the sun was up, we were on the beach...mom sunning it in a beach chair, my brother playing in the sand with the rest of the little boys and me in the water and walking the beach, thinking I was all that...and I was being 13 looking 18.  I was collecting boys like shells.  My mom was clueless, of course, because she was ancient at 32 years old...ancient.

This was about the same time that Jaws hit the theaters so a shark siting was BIG neighborhood news.  One day a man was fishing very near where my friends and I were swimming...and oh my gosh...he caught a shark!  It did look like a scene from the movie (though the shark was a bitty sand shark but still...)  Yes, everyone scrambled out of the water.  The crowd gathered around the great fisherman and his deadly catch...including my mother.

She was enthralled.

She gathered in closer to get a better look.

She took photos to document the event.

I was so confused...Mom doesn't care about sharks...

Fast forward...oh 35 years...I'm scanning Mom's photo albums just in case something happens...we can't lose these very valuable family history documents...

I find the shark photos...

...and I laugh.

Mom doesn't care for sharks.

Not. One. Bit.


Happy Mother's Day.

The Big Girls' Club

For years, I have given my mother grief about her eyesight. We would be out shopping and my job was to follow her around, reading price tags and labels because she couldn't see the fine print. I thought she was too vain to get glasses.

I understand now that it was just easier to hand things to me to read instead of constantly putting on and taking off reading glasses.

Why do I understand this now?

Because last a couple of weeks ago at my best friend's house, I was cursing this stupid little defective needle. I couldn't even get it on the needle threader much less get the stupid defective thing threaded. Surely the eye of the needle was messed up. For goodness sake, I have never had this trouble before. The whole pack is defective. They just don't make needles the way they used to..dagnabit!

And then Laura handed me her reading glasses...with this knowing look of the sage older friend who's been there in the Land of Denial.

Oh

My

Gosh!

Would you look at that...

I can see my hand in front of my face again.

So, I went out and bought my very own reading glasses this week. I even bought a very cool chain to hang them around my neck so I can find them. (What makes the chain even cooler is I found out after I bought it that a friend from church made it.)

I feel like I've joined a club. You know, the cool, older girl's club. The girl's with secrets. The ones that give you that look...you know the look. The one tossed over the rim of the glasses that says "Don't mess with me, kid. You don't know enough to take on this old girl. I will chew you up and spit you out like a bad seed."

I love that look.

My mom's been giving it to me over her reading glasses for years....which is why I've never minded following her around reading price tags and labels. I KNOW who I'm dealing with there.

And my best friend who handed me her glasses?

Well, she has that look down.

I'm tellin' ya.... it's a club...a big girl's club.

And I'm in it.

Finally.

And proudly.