Mom had a way of driving Sis crazy. Well, me too. I mean, Mom had a way of driving ME crazy. Not that I have a way of driving Sis crazy. Okay. I do. But this is about Mom and Sis.
"I never knew what she was thinking. I took her to her skin doctor in St. Louis. We were gone all day. As we drove home, I said, 'Mom, do you want to stop for something to eat? You must be hungry. We've been gone all day.' And she said, 'No. I'm fine. I'm not hungry. Let's go on home.' So the minute we come through the door, she elbows me out of the way and runs straight to the freezer! She grabbed a pieced of sausage, and a biscuit, and slapped the sausage patty on the biscuit and shoved it in the toaster oven! I said, 'Can you cook it that way?' and Mom said, 'Yes. I do it all the time.' She wasn't hungry. But she couldn't wait to get that sausage biscuit in the toaster oven!"
"I know! At Babe's party, for her first birthday? Remember how we drove Mom home? You put those cupcakes in a box for her, because she wouldn't eat one there. She said she wasn't hungry. The minute we got in the car, she wanted one of those cupcakes! She ate it on the way home, and when we got there, she ate another one. AND I warmed up some meatloaf for her. She was always doing stuff like that."
"And she always turned off the water to her washing machine! I went down to the basement to wash some clothes for her, and she hollered, 'Don't forget to turn on the water!' Who does that?"
"Um. I do. Because our friends came home one day to find their living room flooded in their new house, because during the day, something went wrong with the water hookup at the washer. So we always turn ours off now. Besides, in my $17,000 house, the same thing happened, and flooded the basement."
"Oh. I thought it was just another thing Mom did."
Yeah. Like not let people in her driveway when it snowed.
Mother's know how to push our buttons because they installed them.
ReplyDeleteOoh! That's a good one!
DeleteThat title... what a Paine to look up on Google.
ReplyDeleteYour mom probably did not want to inconvenience anyone (for a napkin or a plate) even though she was hungry. She seems like the type of person that would do that.
I see what you did there!
DeleteWell, that's true. But maybe she was remembering the time we kidded her about eating dogfood when she fried up a can of corned beef hash at my grandpa's cabin. She was simply withholding ammunition from us.
Your mom was a peach!
ReplyDeleteTo the very end! And she never went out of season like the Mackinaw variety.
DeleteI bet she's hanging out watching the whole process. Sounds like going through her things slowly is therapeutic for both of you. And thanks to your family, I will never entirely trust my washer again.
ReplyDeleteMaybe! I heard floor-walking over my head last night in The Pony's room, looked at my computer clock at 11:11, and had a dream about Mom early this morning.
DeleteWashers cannot be trusted. You'd be safer hauling your clothes down to the stream and pounding them with stones while grizzly bears roam willy-nilly looking for food.
In agree with Souix, that generation never wanted to be a bother.
ReplyDeleteMy mom at about 88 locked herself out of the house one winter and spent the night shivering in the car. "Why didn't you go next door and ask for help?" "I didn't want to be a bother."
It's that blue moon in July! Even Sioux is right once in a blue moon! (She won't mind me saying that, even though it takes valuable blog space that could be better used for talking about my upcoming retirement in nine short months.)
DeleteYour poor chilly mother! You know those neighbors would have been glad to help her. Even if she had her .22 with her for shooting groundhogs.
Stephen hit it right on the button.
ReplyDeleteHe exhibits great attention to detail.
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