Holidays That Should Be...

  Mother's Day is coming up.  I have heard that more greeting cards are sold on Mother's Day than any other holiday.  And from my time at AT&T I learned the phone lines are more busy on this holiday than even Christmas.  It's just around the corner and this year we recognized this special day a few days early.  

  The Culpepper season is taking us on a nice jaunt through the rolling green mid west.  Ohio is as pretty as I remember.  I've seen more quintessential farm scenes on the morning jumps that I think I've ever seen.  I still have family that live in Ohio and we've had the awesome pleasure of a few large get-togethers.

  We moved to the Springfield area with my mom and step-dad in the early 1970's.  Tony had a large white house with 3 bedrooms waiting for his new blended family after their summer wedding.  I was around 5.  That house seemed like a mansion.  The fireplace in the "good living room" (where no one sat unless we had company) had a tall dark mantle that seemed 100 feet tall. Above it were a collection of 8 x 10 assorted school pictures and Olen Mills family photos. This room also displayed the giant reel-to-reel stereo system Tony sometimes blasted at top volume...much to us kids' delights! :)  The stair case had two landings and seemed to take forever to climb.  We used to straddle the long banister and glide down at top speed when mom & Tony weren't looking.  I remember the "good living room" vividly.  In fact, I can remember about every detail of the corner house on Maiden Lane very well.  From my mom's home made nautical print curtains in the family room to the scary back part of the basement where Tony housed his large table saw.  It was a nice house that seemed to often have our neighborhood friends coming and going.  Tony worked at International Harvester for years and after dinner often went to "the barn" which a kind of work shop across town to work on assorted building projects.  He was a big red-headed Italian man with glasses, a deep booming voice and an ornery sense of humor we kids would come to appreciate later in life. At first, his mere presence scared me a little and so did the stitches in his left elbow.  At the time I had secretly wanted  mom and dad to get back together.  All my friends' parents were still together.  It made me feel a little different.  Over time of course everything fell into place and we all enjoyed school at Snyder Park, week ends with our grandparents in Centerville and the occasional trip to the reservoir or the local play ground.  Christmases were huge.  So seemed our back yard and basement where we had more toys than Toys R Us.  Tony provided well for us.  He worked hard.  

  In 1976 our half-sister Jennifer came along.  I thought she was the cutest brown-eyed red-haired baby and I enjoyed helping to care for her any way I could.  We seemed to have just about everything any family could have.  We were happy over all, well cared for and loved.  Our neighborhood was truly "Anytown USA" as Seinfeld's Kramer once said, complete with bike riding kids and chalk sketches on the side walks.  The roughly 5 years we spent there were good and good for us.  

  In February of 1980 our lives all changed for good when our mom went home to be with the Lord.  It was a sudden unexpected passing.  She was just 34.  After her death, three of the four of us kids moved to St. Augustine with my dad's parents while one sister chose the circus life with our dad and step-mom.  Since we were all such a close family, the move with our grandparents was not out of the ordinary.  Our grandparents also provided well for us.  I liked Florida a lot but it took a few years for it to seem like home.  I missed Tony and Jennifer and the corner house.  

  I have only seen Tony a handful of times since 1980.  The most recent being the other day.  He is 67 now and aside from his once red hair turning gray, he's still the same, much to my extreme happiness.  He played an important role in our lives and it was important for me that my kids would meet him even just once.  He still considers us his own and I have no doubt still holds a very large very special place in his heart for our mom.  

  We visited our mom's grave the other day and put some flowers on her stone for Mother's Day.  I think there should also be Step-Parents Day.