May 1st - My mother's birthday. May Day. What do I miss about my mother? Probably the same thing I miss about my dad. They were always there for us. We always knew we were wanted and loved. My parents waited 7 years after marrying before they had my sister. I understand part of that reason was because Margaret had TB about a year after they married. I wrote about that in an earlier post.
Margaret and Ken gave us a "normal" childhood. Daddy came home from work every night. Mother didn't start working until we were 13, 8 and 6. Then we had a babysitter "Aunt Lottie" who came to the house for a year of two when we were young.
It was always a treat for us when a Saturday of shopping came around. Mother and we three girls would go to Ann Arbor. The first stop was usually Goodyear's in downtown Ann Arbor. Almost immediately we would have lunch. Goodyear's was (it is no longer there) the kind of store where you would go to the fitting room, tell the saleslady what you were looking for and she would bring you several things to try on. Gone are those days for sure. There are still some small upscale stores that do that, but they are rare. And, occasionally we would go to Hudson's in Detroit to shop. They had a Cobb Salad on their lunch menu that we always ordered. Anyone else remember that?
After Mother started working, she had more of a social life. She was basically a shy person, but she did join a golf team, bowling (Daddy bowled too) and an investment club over the years. They occasionally went out to dinner with another couple, but mostly it was family. Margaret's or Ken's brothers and/or sisters and their spouses were their social life, and our social life, when we were young. They were not church goers. They did like to travel and over the years they went on a few cruises and trips with groups and always seemed to enjoy it.
Margaret's children and grandchildren could do no wrong. She wasn't very demonstrative or a big talker, she didn't interfere with her children's lives as we got older, but we knew she cared. She was a very loyal person and I am sure she took secrets to her grave. We never had a curfew growing up, but we just KNEW what we had to do to keep the "parental unit" (my son's term for us) happy. Somehow it worked. I don't know if she was happy, I think she was the kind of person that felt things were never perfect (except her children and grandchildren). She brought us up to be very independent, we could do anything we put our minds to.
She died too early. But, if there is a consolation to that it was that it gave her daughters a chance to get to know their father better over the next 19 years. And we certainly enjoyed that. We miss him still.
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