Vacuity

But, y’know, that wouldn’t do a damn bit of good. And, it DEFINITELY wouldn’t be any fun. My Mom may have had alot of stress in her life, but she loved to laugh…and she was fun. I’d rather celebrate that.

Wondering about the title of this post? It’s an example of “Mom Fun.” I was the youngest of four, and the other three were ten, eight and six years older. I kinda got gypped out of having a sibling playmate who was close in age and liked the things I liked, and Mom knew it…so she’d fill that role when she could.

I was also a dork who was OBSESSED with old movies starting at about age 11. Seriously, I was in love with Gary Cooper. I could recite lines from The Maltese Falcon. I had a life sized poster of Rudolph Valentino on my wall. As you can imagine, I was pretty much alone in this obsession…except for Mom.

She was awesome – she would check the listings for the late movies, and on weekend nights, she’d sneak out of bed (I assume she snuck – maybe Dad knew, but sneaking was more fun), creep down the hall with her flashlight to my room and wake me. Blearily I’d follow her downstairs to the den, where we’d snuggle up under the afghan that my Grandma had crocheted, eat chips (couldn’t make popcorn – the smell would wake the whole house!) and watch old movies in the dark.

For some reason one particularly stands out in my mind: Weekend in Havana, a 1941 musical with Alice Faye, John Payne, Cesar Romero and Carmen Miranda. The rest of the week, Mom and I would sing bits of the songs, dance around the kitchen and giggle wickedly like the little conspirators we were. Maybe I’ll see if I can find it at Blockbuster and watch it tonight. I bet Liam would get a kick out of the lady with the fruit bowl on her head.

Anyway, now I get it when my Mom would stop whenever she thought about my Grandma, smile wistfully and sigh “Oh…..my Mama.” I so get it now.

Well, enough of that – I give you…the wonderful, the beautiful, the intelligent, the talented, the fun, and the very, very loved…