300th Post

It's hard to believe that I'm already on my 300th post. That's a lot of writing. Since this is kind of a special occasion, and seeing how this kind of special occasion falls on a really bonafide special occasion, Mother's Day, I thought I'd dedicate this entry to my mother.

Here she is in the 60's with my brother, Kevin. When I came across this picture a few months ago, I was shocked to see Mom so young. I wish I would have known her as a young woman.




Here is a picture of Jim (my mom's brother), Mom, and me at my grandmother's grave. This too might have been taken on a Mother's Day about 20 years ago. Now this is how I will always remember Mom. She wasn't 'young' but I remember that she loved to laugh and tell stories. I think those traits have been passed on. You'll have to forgive my picture. It's probably around 1988. People weren't even aware what a mullet was back then. And I don't think I've worn jeans shorts in at least ten years.




One thing that Mom loved to do was sit down with me and talk about our favorite moments together. She heard on NPR how one good parenting practice was to sit down with your child and have them pick their top three favorite moments with their parent. Then the parent would do the same. Then you'd share your moments to see how close you came.

Not surprisingly, my mom and I picked the same moments.

#1 - Buying my first dirt bike at Target in Grand Forks. I had saved up all winter and spring for a new bike. My previous one had never really recovered from a free fall down the hill across the street (resulting in a broken ankle). Finally, the day came when Mom said we were going to go shopping for one. And she meant business too. We weren't going to hit any of the towns around our small home town. We were going to Grand Forks, which to the ten year old me back then was a metropolis.

I'm rather certain I wanted the very first bike I laid my eyes on. But my, like me now, was diligent shopper. This just about killed me though. Finally we spotted one in Target. Mom wasn't sure and wanted to look around some more.

But I knew that one was the bike for me. I damn near threw a tantrum, but I held it together as best I could. I remember sulking out of Target trying so hard to hold back the tears - but not the sniffles - and trying hard to keep gravity from dragging the corners of my mouth to my shoes. I'm not sure how successful I was, but Mom must have felt sorry for me because she turned me around and marched me back for the bike.

#2 - Mom was going shopping in Thief River Falls. She asked me if she should look for a new Halloween costume for me (my Spiderman outfit was literally splitting at the seams). So I gave her implicit instructions to come home with a large Boba Fett costume. This was around 1981, so he had just made his big screen debut in The Empire Strikes Back.

I went off to school while Mom went shopping. I thought about that costume all day. Finally, school was over and I made my way home.

I burst down the door in search of the costume. Nothing. I found Mom in kitchen. I frantically asked her where the costume was. She began with, "Well . . ." and any kid in the known universe will tell you that the odds of anything positive following that word are nearly impossible.

And it seemed that way as she told me how they were all sold out. So she was actually in the check out line when she happened to class up and see a display model of that costume hanging from the ceiling. She quickly found an attendant and had them take it down. And it was a large! The costume was in her room.

Glorious, glorious, glorious. They just don't make raw, simple happiness like that anymore.

#3 - The first baseball playoff game of my senior year pitted us at home against Hallock-Kennedy, a team we had absolutely crushed 15-1 the year before. However, they were more than up to the task in the spring of '92 as we were knotted up 0-0 late in the game.

I was up to bat and connected with a fast ball, sending right by the second baseman's head. I made it to second. The next batter struck out, but we got a run.

Eventually, we won 1-0. We would go on to win two more games and take home the sub section championship.

After the game as I was getting into the pickup with Mom she said, "Nice job. You singled in Harry for the game winning run."

I hadn't even noticed. They don't make raw, simple pride like that anymore either.