Yup, today is my mother's birthday, which has always been a convenience for me since it always falls the weekend prior to Mothers Day. I get that nice warning, and the whole feeling is rising, so it does feel like a Day.
My mother is a native Texan, just made into a Yankee. She was born in Marfa, before Marfa was anything but nothing. I kid you not, I think the population was under 100 when she was born there. After a very short time, she moved to Victoria.
My mother is small - I recall stories of her fitting into a locker in high school. She grew up in a great era, and while her father ran the CPL (Central Power and Light) - if you know who Reddy Kilowatt is, rumor had it that is my grandfather (can you imagine how heartbroken I was to find out it wasn't true - he sure did look like him). My grandfather had a sister, and she held a ranch out on the Mexico border.
So, she grew up in both worlds, and while she was just graduating high school, an Air Force flyboy, from Pennsylvania, was stationed in Victoria and moved in across the street. My dad had one of those 57 Chevy Convertibles that was basically flat all the way around when the top was down, and would have his flyboy buddies and gaggles of chicks and wild parties.
They fell in love, slowly. I think she captured him the story goes - and tamed him. I recall he proposed after bowling; he had to wait until she was 20 to marry her - no teen brides. Their honeymoon was driving from Texas to Pennsylvania, and then it all began.
My brother, my sister, a little pause, and then me. So, I grew up a Yankee, knowing where the seven generations of my antecedents were buried in that one little county in PA, but also spending summers in Eagle Pass, TX and Piedras Negras, MX, riding horses, swimming in tanks, eating frog legs, buying bad sombreros.
And, then, here I am, in Texas, I think the last living of my line to live here. All the rest of my family is still in that one county in PA. So, from afar, I thank my mother for giving me the spirit of adventure, the independence to strike out, the stability to know what will remain, and the opportunity to enjoy this life!
Thanks and praise!
My mother is a native Texan, just made into a Yankee. She was born in Marfa, before Marfa was anything but nothing. I kid you not, I think the population was under 100 when she was born there. After a very short time, she moved to Victoria.
My mother is small - I recall stories of her fitting into a locker in high school. She grew up in a great era, and while her father ran the CPL (Central Power and Light) - if you know who Reddy Kilowatt is, rumor had it that is my grandfather (can you imagine how heartbroken I was to find out it wasn't true - he sure did look like him). My grandfather had a sister, and she held a ranch out on the Mexico border.
So, she grew up in both worlds, and while she was just graduating high school, an Air Force flyboy, from Pennsylvania, was stationed in Victoria and moved in across the street. My dad had one of those 57 Chevy Convertibles that was basically flat all the way around when the top was down, and would have his flyboy buddies and gaggles of chicks and wild parties.
They fell in love, slowly. I think she captured him the story goes - and tamed him. I recall he proposed after bowling; he had to wait until she was 20 to marry her - no teen brides. Their honeymoon was driving from Texas to Pennsylvania, and then it all began.
My brother, my sister, a little pause, and then me. So, I grew up a Yankee, knowing where the seven generations of my antecedents were buried in that one little county in PA, but also spending summers in Eagle Pass, TX and Piedras Negras, MX, riding horses, swimming in tanks, eating frog legs, buying bad sombreros.
And, then, here I am, in Texas, I think the last living of my line to live here. All the rest of my family is still in that one county in PA. So, from afar, I thank my mother for giving me the spirit of adventure, the independence to strike out, the stability to know what will remain, and the opportunity to enjoy this life!
Thanks and praise!
