Among other things: Mom's the word

Mother’s Day is coming up this Sunday, May 8. Although my mother died at the age of 93 in 1993, it’s still a special day for me. I’m grateful for her habit of writing down the highlights of her life – not only in later years but throughout her life. And I appreciate knowing some of the details of her younger days and people she encountered.

For instance, one of her graduation classmates at Canton, SD high school was Ernest Lawrence, who became a noted physicist responsible for inventing the atom-smashing cyclotron. And when she worked at the Humphrey Drug Store in Huron, SD, shortly after her marriage, she had to be careful not to collide with the owner’s 10-year-old son, Hubert, as he ran errands in and out of the store. Yup, the same Hubert Horatio Humphrey who much later became Vice President of the United States. When she worked at a Sun Company drug store in Hollywood, William (Hopalong Cassidy) Boyd, tried to date her – until he quickly learned that she was married.

After my dad died in 1934, she went back to work for Van De Kamp’s Bakery in Hollywood. As she opened the store one morning a man came in, ripped out the telephone and demanded money. Mom took the keys, went next door and called the police. The would be robber was arrested and it was learned he had already robbed two other Van De Kamp stores.

Recording these various experiences and many more made it easy for my brother Norman and me to compile a 28-page book to present to her in July 1992 as an appreciation gift. Illustrating the experiences were several pictures she had taken over the years – including her childhood days on the farm, as a member of the girls basketball team in high school, the cross-country trip over dusty, often muddy, sometimes even board “highways” across sandy portions of the desert, the breakdown of their used Buick car, which they abandoned in Barstow and caught a ride into Los Angeles by a businessman who befriended the young couple and let them stay with him for a few days until they found work.

It helped, too, to have extensive accounts of her early days from her brother, Ardo, who recalled experiences he had shared with Mom as they grew up. Many anecdotes are recounted in his story published for family members, “The Big Sioux Riverside.” Some of them were hilarious, some scary, some quite poignant – each giving a peek into the personality and character of that person who would eventually become Mom.

Of course it’s a different world today with its fast, sometimes frantic, pace of life. But you younger people, ask your parents and grandparents about their early days. Take the time to visit with them. The time can be enlightening, increase understanding – and appreciation.

May you have a blessed and meaningful Mother’s Day.