PADUTCH-LIFE-L Archives

From: "Vee L. Housman" <>
Subject: [PD-LIFE] Mother's Birthday Today
Date: Sun, 16 Dec 2001 01:03:16 -0500

Dear Group,

December 15 never goes by but what I remember that it's Mother's birthday.
She was born on Middle Street in Gettysburg on December 15, 1903. Today she
would have been 98 years old.

Now I can't picture her being 98 years old. She died in 1974 at the age of
70, my age now. My sister Norma took care of her at home in Youngstown, NY,
until her final stroke sent her to the hospital. Nonetheless, my sister was
also there to take care of her in her last days.

My memories of Mother when she was in her 60s were such delightful ones.
Actually she was only 58 in 1962 when I drove her from Camp Hill, PA, where
she was living with Aunt Edna, her sister, to Sacramento, CA, to live with
my husband and me. I was 31. During the drive across country I swear that
we didn't miss a single antique shop along the way!

I recall the motel we stayed at in Cairo, IL, where we admired the antique
glassware that we had purchased that day for $.25 or $.50 or $1.00. We
washed them in the bathroom sink and then polished them with the motel
towels. Some of them were Early American Patterned Glass and we knew it.
We were so delighted with our finds. We had a lot of giggles that night!

We drove down to New Orleans and shopped for more. And Oh the place that we
stayed was out of this world! It was the La Mothe House. It was a bed and
breakfast place just outside of the French Quarter and in 1962 it was
comparatively cheap. Mother and I couldn't believe the room that we had off
the court yard that was furnished in ancient antique furniture! In fact,
the bed was so high that we had a problem in climbing up into it.

The next morning we joined the other guests at breakfast where the lovely
lady of the house presided over an enormous antique silver coffee urn and
served us in the most gracious fashion of New Orleans. Servants were
quietly at our elbows and granted our every wish. Oh how Mother and I
remembered New Orleans!

By the time we reached Texas, antique shops were few and far between but we
did stop at one and neither of us ever forgot what we found there. It was a
large antique music box that played a very large metal disc and when it was
played, it was the sweetest music that you ever heard. Oh how I wanted to
take it home! However, the price tag on it was $40.00 and I knew that my
husband would have killed me for paying that much for such a "trinket."
Obviously, I'm now kicking myself for being such a coward!

Mother lived with my husband and me until our divorce and then the two of us
lived together in a comfortable two-bedroom flat in San Francisco. She put
up with me and I put up with her but I have to tell you about a gang of
people I brought home one night from the NCO Club at Fort Mason. They were
young people in the Army far away from home and at the club I let them know
that if they would buy the ingredients for dinner, I would cook it for them.
They all pitched in and we arrived at the flat. I cooked up a chicken
cacciatore and spaghetti dinner for them, we all sat around the formal
dining room table, Mother presided at the head of it and she enjoyed them
thoroughly. And they enjoyed her as well. In addition, I believe it was a
Sunday and as I recall after dinner several of the "kids" sprawled
themselves out on the living room floor to read the Sunday paper.

Mother frequently mentioned how much she enjoyed that evening. I believe
that she enjoyed a bunch of kids in the house. She had only three of us but
that night she had a bunch that made themselves comfortable in the house who
let her know that she was something special. And she certainly was.
vee

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• [PD-LIFE] Mother's Birthday Today by "Vee L. Housman" <>