My mother is alive and well at 80 my parents and sometimes annoys the hell out of me-- although I've learned to ignore the more hurtful things she says. Despite this, I know she loves me and I'd like to take this opportunity to say why. This came up in a discussion I had yesterday with a friend, prompting me to call and thank my mom when I got home. She emailed me this morning to thank ME and then (typically) made a crack that I'm sure she did not think was nasty).
When I was a little girl my mom--who can barely carry a tune-- used to sing to me a LOT and I loved it. Specifically I remember some weird song with the chorus "The shrimp boats are coming, they're coming tonight". Anyone have any idea where it's from? My mother doesn't remember.
She also instilled in me a love for the old musicals, particularly The Pajama Game which I still adore despite its somewhat dated view of male-female relationships. The music is incredible, and I remember jumping on the couch in the Bronx singing "There Once Was a Man" and "This is my Once a Year a Day" and all the other songs. I loved and still love the movie with Doris Day and John Raitt (Bonnie's dad). Almost fifty years later I went to see the Encores! production and when I got out I ran around Times Square singing at the top of my lungs with my friends. I also saw the recent production with Harry Connick Jr. and Kelly O'Hara.
During that same period of my life my parents bought me a miniature piano (I mean really small, about 10 keys) and my mom wrote up the notes as numbers for me so I could play.
And the thing that really impressed my friend is that although my sister and I were too young to watch the original Twilight Zone tv series because it was on too late -our mom would in great detail tell us the entire story from the night before. It wasn't until at least thirty years later that I actually saw the famous Agnes Moorehead show where she's trying to rid her house of pesky little creatures that turn out to be astronauts from Earth on a planet where she's a giant. My mom did this every week.
She wouldn't let me watch horror movies in the theater (she thought they were too scary) but I watched Outer Limits, Thriller, One Step Beyond, and every other "weird" show religiously.
So anyone feel like giving a shout out about their own moms and the special things they've done?
When I was a little girl my mom--who can barely carry a tune-- used to sing to me a LOT and I loved it. Specifically I remember some weird song with the chorus "The shrimp boats are coming, they're coming tonight". Anyone have any idea where it's from? My mother doesn't remember.
She also instilled in me a love for the old musicals, particularly The Pajama Game which I still adore despite its somewhat dated view of male-female relationships. The music is incredible, and I remember jumping on the couch in the Bronx singing "There Once Was a Man" and "This is my Once a Year a Day" and all the other songs. I loved and still love the movie with Doris Day and John Raitt (Bonnie's dad). Almost fifty years later I went to see the Encores! production and when I got out I ran around Times Square singing at the top of my lungs with my friends. I also saw the recent production with Harry Connick Jr. and Kelly O'Hara.
During that same period of my life my parents bought me a miniature piano (I mean really small, about 10 keys) and my mom wrote up the notes as numbers for me so I could play.
And the thing that really impressed my friend is that although my sister and I were too young to watch the original Twilight Zone tv series because it was on too late -our mom would in great detail tell us the entire story from the night before. It wasn't until at least thirty years later that I actually saw the famous Agnes Moorehead show where she's trying to rid her house of pesky little creatures that turn out to be astronauts from Earth on a planet where she's a giant. My mom did this every week.
She wouldn't let me watch horror movies in the theater (she thought they were too scary) but I watched Outer Limits, Thriller, One Step Beyond, and every other "weird" show religiously.
So anyone feel like giving a shout out about their own moms and the special things they've done?