When mom knew we was coming home she would always start cooking. The menu always consisted of homemade: Macaroni and cheese, Baked beans, Potato salad, Scalloped Potatoes. Then days following would always be a big pot of spaghetti and meatballs, bbq chicken (her own sauce). Mom was the best cook ever. woo hoo ... Dad even hired her out as a cook in Melbourne, Florida the first time we moved there in the 50's.
My mom and dad spent years hunting, fishing and being together in everything they did. On one of their hunting trips they encounter a deer. Dad let mom shot as she claimed to have such a good shot. She told him: "Barb I got him ... I shot him right between his eyes." Well, needless to say it was far from between his eyes. She had shot him under his tail ... and the bullet went straight through his body from his back-end. All her friendly deer hunter friends and others got a big laugh about where she struck the deadly shot. We would often say: " yep I shot him right between his eyes." Anyway she still levied the deadly blow ... but she never lived down the (tail) of the story.
The greatest thing I miss most of all about my mom is she always called me DARLING. I so miss her saying this to me. When I left home we had this pact. She said: "Look up and I will look up ... then we will be together." I am looking up. No one ever makes you feel like your mom and then if you are as blessed as I was ... maybe she will call you darling to.
One thing I could always count on was that my mom would be waiting for me everyday after school. She would be sitting at the window waiting and look for me. She would have something good to eat or something special for me. She made a lot of my clothes. She would take her own dresses and make me a new skirt or blouse. What a blessing it was to know she was always there. Lots of hugs and kisses were always waiting.
When I was around 9 years old there was a great disturbance in the family. Mom had gone to Dr. Hamlin's and he told her he thought she had a tumor and needed to go to Syracuse to the hospital to get tested. It was a long ride with mom crying thinking her life was to be cut short with the thoughts hanging over her of a tumor. She walked in all alone ... I will never forget seeing her as she went. Dad and Paul were working in Florida so gram dropped mom off. After a couple of hours I saw my mom coming just a hopping down the sidewalk. She jumped in the car and this is what she said: "the doctor told me my tumor would be walking around in a few months." This was the beginning of her child-birth of (Pinkie) Penny her youngest child. We never know what blessings are ahead of us ... but this I do know ... that all things work together for good to them that love God.
Mom's parents came up to mom and dad's and wanted to go fishing on the lake. We loaded up and headed out for our little honey-hole's. Gram Standish never liked eating fish but loved to fish. She kept us out on the lake all day. Mom (Lucille) never complained. She just did what gram wanted. She always obeyed her parents. Whether we caught fish or not we had to stay out on the lake ... if you know what I mean.
We had been to the garden and picking fresh pea's. My mom got the big idea of using the ringer to pop the pea's out of their shell. She started feeding them through when all of a sudden that old ringer caught her fingers ... needless to say we did not try that again. This is when we lived in DeRuyter next to the school ... there was a little washroom just off the kitchen.
