What Was Your Mom Like?

 

What was your Mom like when you were a kid ? 

My mom passed away over 50 years ago when I was turning thirteen. I sometimes have stunning dreams of her but I realize my memory is glazed by old photographs and stories about her so I don't think I can separate the memories from reality. 

I know she was frustrated that she had to live in Jacksonville. All of her sisters married and left home. She must of had that genetic wanderlust too but stayed to take care of my grandmother and her younger siblings. She liked to sing. She sang in the choir at the Jacksonville Jewish Center at 3rd and Silver Streets. 

I still have her Union Hymnal that Cantor Martin gave everyone in choir so they could practice the Friday night prayers. When I pick it up, I try to imagine her holding it and softly singing the opening: "May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable to thee..." 

 I am pretty sure I can still hear her voice in the back of my mind. Our windows were always open so I could hear the ice cream truck circling around the neighborhood playing the calliope music. "Mom! Can I have a quarter for ice cream?" I would ask impatiently while all the children on Planters Road lined up at the side of the truck, hoping it wouldn't pull away before I got outside. 

My mother would reach into her battered black vinyl pocketbook and take a quarter out of her small cloth change purse and hand it to me. She would stroke my head and I would see a tear in her eye. I never realized how tight money was when I was growing up. 

The other day I found a new pair of shoes in the closet that I never wore so I threw them away. Then I thought, "Those shoes were 300 of my mother's tears.