ForeverMissed
Large image
Stories

Share a special moment from Alma's life.

Write a story

On The Beach...And Hating It!

February 28, 2014


Shortly after I uploaded this picture, I had a talk with Dad and he vividly remembered taking the picture, and the circumstances surrounding it.

Sometime in '70 or '71, the family took a trip by car out to California to see Aunt Carmel in San Francisco. On this particular day, we were in Portland, OR and Dad really wanted to go to a beach and see the Pacific Ocean. The car was parked and Dad assured Mom that it was a short walk, just over the sand dune obstructing thier vision of the water.

As it turned out, the walk to the beach was more arduous than Dad had advertised. Dan and I were game, but Mom complained bitterly the whole way - as many of us know, she was not fond of walking great distances when there was a perfectly good car that could get you there. Once we arrived at the shore Mom sat down and sulked, and Dad snapped the picture...


 

Song Playlists

May 6, 2013


Mom was a fan of lots of music (and particularly bargain bin/truck stop/Stuckey's /Big Lots/etc.  selections...). I have tried to stay between the lines of what i know she liked, although i am not sure if there are many that could stand the marathon Phil Coulter "new age"  CD sessions she would undertake...  or the bargain bin renditions of popular hits by an assembly of anonymous musicians..... i left some of those gems out for your listening pleasure.

Nevertheless, below are the playlists of the two soundtracks so far used on the site, and would, I'm sure, meet with her approval. Lots of country, lots of Jamaican music.

The themes of some songs are not necessarily meant as a biographical reference to Alma, just a song she liked - and who doesn't like a hard-luck country song or two?

In some cases, it's a song that reminds me of her - the first line of the chorus of The Intruder's "I'll Always Love My Mama" was what i would "sing" to her when she answered the phone on Mother's Day. And for some reason, Juice Newton reminds me of Mom driving one of us to baseball practice in the early 80's. Ricky Skagg' s "Highway 40 Blues" is a mental snapshot of our summer '83 epic family vacation journey by car from FL to New Brunswick...


PLAYLIST #1

Roger Miller - You Can't Rollerskate In A Buffalo Herd
Jimmy London - A Little Love
Kris Kristoffersen - Why Me, Lord?
The Heptones - Book Of Rules
The Mindbenders - Groovy Kind Of Love
Roger Miller - Doo Wacka Doo
The Intruders - I'll Always Love My Mama
Pluto Shervington - Ram Goat Liver
Alabama - Louisiana Saturday Night
Simon And Garfunkel - Bridge Over Troubled Water
Tinga Stewart - Play De Music
Don Williams - It Must Be Love
The Crystalites - Alfred Hitchcock
Max Romeo - Chi Chi Bird


PLAYLIST #2

Buffy St. Marie - I'm Gonna Be A Country Girl Again
Merle Haggard - Someone Told My Story In A Song
Stompin'  Tom Connors - New Brunswick And Mary
Eric Donaldson - Love Of The Common People
The Gaither Family - Keep On The Sunny Side
Lynn Anderson - Rose Garden
The Maytones - As Long As You Love Me
Stompin' Tom Connors - Gumboot Cloggeroo
Eric Donaldson - Blue Boots
Dottie West - Country Sunshine
Hank Williams - Move It On Over
Prince Capo - Ebony Eyes
Freddie Fender - Before The Next Teardrop Falls
Phil Coulter - I'll Tell Me Ma
John Holt - I'm Your Man
Roger Miller - Orange Blossom Special
Roman Stewart - Wolverton Mountain
Del Reeves - Girl On The Billboard
Phil Coulter - The Road To Glenaan
Freddie Hart - Easy Lovin'
Bobby Ellis - Up Park Camp
Cal Smith - The Lord Knows I'm Drinkin'
Charley Pride - Kiss An Angel Good Morning
Juice Newton - Love's Been A LIttle Bit Hard On Me
Merle Haggard - That's The Way Love Goes
Phil Coulter - The Spinning Wheel
Tanya Tucker - What's Your Mama's Name
Gene Watson - Pick The WIldwood Flower
Ricky Skaggs - Highway 40 Blues





Alma, Uncle Andrew, Connie and Peter

February 27, 2013

Sept. 2004, I remember the rehearsal dinner we were at 2 days before this picture was taken and even though I was sitting 5-6 people away, I'll always remember how often and loud my father-in-law was laughing with the great stories that Alma was recounting....I couldn't hear them, but they must have been some beauties.

The Unhireable Candidate

February 23, 2013

     I was just promoted to store manager of a Ritz Camera store in Pinellas Park Florida. As you can imagine, the store I had inherited was in complete chaos. My first duties were to let people go, and other employees already seeing the writing on the wall, transferred or quit. Mom would often hear the complaints since I was still living at home.


     About two weeks later, mom calls me at work. "Are you still hiring?" she asked. "Mom I can't hire you. I couldn't work with you even if it were allowed!". "No smartass, not me, a girl I work with.". "Mom, I send application rejects to Montgomery Wards. It doesn't work the other way around.". "Well im going to send her down anyway, she needs a better job quick." CLICK.


    The next day, a cute blonde comes into the store claiming that she knows my mom. It was slow so I interviewed her. As it turned out, she was fired from Montgomery Wards. Her previous boss at a pet store/pawn shop was shot by a burglar, to which she said "HE'S DEAD AND I'M GLAD!". Apparently he was a bit of a pervert and enjoyed making her bend or lean over as much as possible at work. Discounting her work experience and her blunt forwardness, she was bubbly, smart, and more approachable than my other two employees (a short old man who dressed in childrens clothes and climbed on counters, and a dull witted slacker who would rather be at the beach).


        I called my boss, not telling him of how my mom had sent her, and after asking me the usual questions, he asked if i had called the references. I completely lied my ass off and said" Yes, glowing reviews from everybody!". I never called anyone, because I knew there was no point to it. He told me to hire her, and it turned out to be the best hiring decision I ever made.


       Twenty four years later, that one call had turned into a twenty year marriage to my wife Tammy, and our ten year old son Zachary. Mom has always kidded me, even up to our last visit this past summer, that she knew best and you should always trust your mom's advice. Thank you mom. I will never be able to say it enough.


Love Daniel.       
 


           
  
 

Thanksgiving And Christmas

February 22, 2013

 

    So, this picture reminded me about Thanksgiving and Christmas get-togethers at the house in Clearwater...

   No matter how many people were actually going to be in attendance, she would make sure she had the biggest bird, the most massive pot of mashed potatoes, and the most side dishes.

During the late 70's and through much of the Eighties, then-snowbirds Uncle Lester and Aunt K. would come down from St. George just in time for Thanksgiving, bringing the most delicious cookies and lemon squares, lemon meriange pie, etc. imaginable. Dan and I would *run* to the car to help them unload in exchange for oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.

     As you can imagine, dessert was pretty well covered, but to add to the excess either Mom or Dad would see to it that an additional apple pie and pumpkin pie were baked as well.... I don't know who they were expecting to drop in at the last moment, but not enough people ever did to make any kind of dent in the food prepared.

    Typically, the desserts were polished off within a day or two, and then we had the Mountain Of Turkey to climb for the next week or more in addition to scaling the lesser summits of leftover potatoes and carrots, beans and corn. However,  Mom's less-than-popular sides of turnips, squash and beets languished untouched in the refrigerator,  until it was simply time for them to go....

   At some point in the latter 80's and early 90's, Mom started the infuriating habit of inviting the occasional co-worker or (barely an) acquaintance to Thanksgiving dinner if they didn't have a place to go on Thanksgiving. As many people who knew me as a moody teenager would not hesitate to say, I did not suffer strangers gladly! Or many adults, either. But, looking back on it now, it was a very generous thing for her to do even if got Some Of Us bent out of shape a bit.

    Christmas Eve was often a raucous affair, usually beginning after evening church service. Not yet a party, it started out slowly with snacks and wine, and the music low. Tinkle of glass, sounds of crackers being unwrapped, unhurried conversation - that kind of thing. Sort of the way a hurricane begins, as a seemingly mundane tropical disturbance.... I don't think that the get-togethers originally started that way, but eventually the invitation of Ward's co-workers and other friends jumpstarted the festivities.

    Then, as libations flowed forth steadily from The Seemingly Endless Liquor Cabinet and more well-wishers stopped by, the get-together would begin a life of it's own and get louder. A lot louder. Music got louder. Talking got louder. Moody teenagers sulking in their bedroom downstairs got moodier..... but the party rolled on with Alma, my mother, as the chief conductor not caring in the least. Any attempt to beg her to "hold it down" was met with a dismissive wave of the hand and an "Bah! Go 'way!." or something to that effect. I would go back downstairs to resume my sulking.

  I eventually outgrew the embarrassment of living at the Christmas Eve Party House as a young adult, and my teenage kinda-sorta-angst-if-you-could-call-it-that, and resolved to toss my own red Solo Cup into the destiny of the ice bucket!

if you can't beat them - join them, right?.

 

Great!

February 22, 2013

 

Fantastic, Uncle Doug!!! I love to see pictures i have never seen before - thanks a million!

All of us enjoyed staying at Lake Utopia very much, so many great memories there. I am especially nostalgic about the old cottage that was knocked down for the new and improved modern one..... I absolutely loved the bunk beds, wood stove, and ancient Frigidaire.

February 22, 2013

Just below the Upper Deck and across the road, Just a short walk or car ride!!  Alma always had a story to tell and facts on a topic.  I always teased her by saying she was making it up as she went along!!  She never let rank nor position influence what she had to say...

February 22, 2013

One of Alma's summer pleasures, spending time at the "Upper Deck" on Lake Utopia.  With a separate bathroom, running water and electricity in the one room camp, it wasn't really roughing it!!  Andy was always making it more comfortable   adding here,taking out there.!!  Always room for visitors!  This day it was Andy's cousin Beth

Mom's Mnemonic Techniques..

February 22, 2013

Kathryn just reminded me of a little gem of a story - i am not so sure it's best repeated in polite company, so - polite company go away!

 

 

at any rate....

 

 

 

Not long after Mom and Dad moved to Blackville, we got a phone call one day. It was Mom, of course... once we had dispensed with the news of the day chit chat, she offered us the new address, which was pretty straightforward except for the jumble of numbers and letters that make up Canadian postal codes.

"Can you run that by me again, Mom?", said I...

"E9B 1S8. I'll tell you how I remember it"

"OK, how do you remember it?"

"Every 9 Bricks, I Sh*t 8"

... and we had a good laugh - moreso me, about her curious word association. The funny thing is, that's how we remember the postal code to this day!

Share a story

 
Add a document, picture, song, or video
Add an attachment Add a media attachment to your story
You can illustrate your story with a photo, video, song, or PDF document attachment.