My book Mothers' Mouth was to be written depicting not only my life, but the impact my Mother had on everyone who knew her in her 74 years of life. Noone could come close to being as cunningly devisive as she - nor as loving and nurturing as she. I say with all sincerity she was a cross between the Mother in the movie "Throw Mamma From The Train" and Granny from "The Beverly Hillbilly's". My Mother was more of a character than a real actual human being.
Her endless repertoire of phrases such as "I'm colder than a well diggers elbow." or "I'm busier than a one armed paper hanger." or "She's nuttier than a squirrels breakfast." kept all who knew her laughing. The phrase from Throw Mamma From The Train where Mamma says regarding the dead man in their basement "Take him out back and bury him before he stinks up the place." made me laugh hysterically as I could almost hear my own Mother saying the same sort of thing. NOTE: My quote of the movie phrase may not be exact but you get the jist of the phrase.
Mamma from Throw Mamma From The Train and Granny were both crass characters, yet sometimes loving. Insulant creatures we love to watch and laugh at their antics because NOBODY really acts this way. Or do they...
There was the time when our family went camping and my Mother apparently needed a rope for something. As she sat talking with a my teenage sisters' friend who'd joined our family on this camping trip, Mother told my older brother Mark to "Go find me a rope." Mark did so immediately as one didn't dilly dally or defy my Mother lest we receive Mother OR Fathers' wrath. SIDEBAR: This in my view would be a good time to tell you my Father was a varitable SAINT and the pillar of our family of 11 CHILDREN. Yes, we were Catholic. Growing up in a not large family, but HUGE family was a wonderful experience.
Back to the rope. So Mark diligently searched for a rope apparently for HOURS til finally he found the treasure and brought it to Mother. Unbenounced to Mark, Mother had already located a rope for whatever purpose or reason she needed one in the first place.
Mark told Mother he'd FOUND a rope for her. Mother replied in her own "Granny" style - "GOOD. Now go hang yourself with it."
Ah - to the outside world (particularly in THIS age of child welfare and protection...) this could be construde as EMOTIONAL ABUSE. However, to Mark (or any one of her 11 children she may have said the same thing to at the time) it SIMPLY MEANT "You took too long. I don't need it anymore."
My sisters teenage friend just about died laughing at this whole exchange as she stated Mark simply turned and walked away. Was Mark upset or feeling somehow 'threatened' by what Mother had said to him? Did it scar him for LIFE? Um - the answer is NO. Mark simply felt he wished he hadnt spent so much time LOOKING for the rope because she'd already found one. That was time he could've spent PLAYING.
And there you have it. My first blog. Mothers' Mouth. More to come. My oldest brother Frank died yesterday of complications from Diabetis. He is the 4th one of my siblings to die. Both of my parents have passed on as well. There are only 7 of us left. I am second from the youngest with only one younger than me - my brother John. It is odd to me that I had no preminition of Franks' death as I did for Harold, Doug, and both of my parents. I will discuss all of these in a later Blog. For now to the reader(s) I say take care and God Bless.
Gabrielle
