On May 31, 10:25*pm, "Storrmmee" > wrote:
> this is just wonderful to read,

Thanks! My mom was a quiet and serene person but near as I can figure,
she called the shots in our family and fiercely protected us kids. I
remember seeing my father drunk maybe 2 times. My mom never drank a
drop and my guess is that after the second time, she must have gave my
dad some kind of ultimatum. We kids didn't get to see any of that but
it must have worked cause that was the only 2 times that I've ever
seen him in that condition.

It wasn't until after she died that I learned how careful and
meticulous she was with the family finances. She regularly bought
savings bonds in large denominations and kept careful accounting of
the monies in a remarkable ledger book. It has all the savings account
and bonds and loans to family members and major purchases. I was
amazed, thumbing through that little book. I'd see a car we used to
have with the price paid and our old washing machine and our first
color TV. Our family's history, and it was all there.

I never realized how highly regarded she was by her siblings. My
aunties told me that she was the only one of twelve kids that tested
high enough to be able to go to a special school. She didn't talk like
a local person and it was the reason that I never did either. A lot of
the kids at school thought I was from the mainland.

My mom died when she was 60 years old. I'll be 60 in 2014 and I
sometimes think about how I'll go down in the ledger books and wonder
if I can ever be worthy enough to be my mother's son. She set the
standards high but what I do know is that the mark she left on me and
my brothers and my father will never be washed off.

>
> Lee"dsi1" > wrote in message
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> > On 5/31/2011 7:12 PM, Terry Pulliam Burd wrote:
> >> My dear, my mother. God rest her, used to *revel* in her "lousy cook"
> >> status. She used to say she could "burn water and overcook air." She
> >> only ever had 3 reliable meals that would allow the family to approach
> >> the table with confidence: pot roast, fried chicken and a Mexican
> >> dinner (she was born and raised on the Mexican border in AZ and
> >> learned the art from my grandmother's cook). Everything else was off
> >> the back of a box or the label of a can. We lived in dread of Lent,
> >> when her green turn casserole became a weekly offering, and upon
> >> entering the house and sniffing liver, you'd want to run for your
> >> life. You could beat someone to death with her liver dinner.
>
> >> And we all remarked upon her miserable cooking efforts with great
> >> fondness and we remark upon it still...and would give anything to once
> >> again be faced with that damned green tuna casserole.
>
> >> So, Rusty, the teller of the tale may mean in jest and fondness what
> >> the hearer of the tale interprets as an unkindness.
>
> >> Terry "Squeaks" Pulliam Burd
>
> >> --
>
> >> To reply, remove "spambot" and replace it with "cox"
>
> > My mom was a lousy cook too. Her style was poor-folk island plantation
> > cooking. No matter, I spent a lot of time learning to cook/bake and I
> > can't remember her ever telling me to get out of her kitchen. When I got
> > older, I did much of the cooking for the family. This is still true today.
>
> > We did spend time together preparing and baking fruit cake a couple of
> > months before Christmas and that was one of the few holiday traditions our
> > family had. Now that I think about it, those were pretty special times.
> > There's not really too many activities that a son and mother can do
> > together. Not like a mother and daughter anyway.
>
> > I never much was a fan for the finished cake but still, was pleasantly
> > surprised when my auntie gave me a fruitcake using her recipe a couple of
> > years ago and again this last Christmas. I guess some people thought it
> > was a fine holiday tradition too.
>
> > If she had been a better cook, I wouldn't be as confident a cook as I am
> > today. She must have felt some pride when her sisters would fuss over my
> > cooking skills. In the end, everything worked out just fine.