A Thread on Moms...

[Raven]

there is a wonderful Thread here on Dads...how about your Mom...what kind of a person is/was she? How has she affected your life?

My Mom is going to be 90 this fall. She is the toughest-minded person I have ever known. She is a brilliant judge of human nature and is brutally honest. She and my dad were an interesting combination, but it worked...they were married for 63 years and loved eachother's company.

[Cursive_Knives512]

1. My mom is my sanity

We actually have a really good relationship for a teenager and her mom. Her mom died when she (my mom) was in her 20's, so I think that accounts for some of it.

[VelmaD]

2. My mom is directly responsible for a lot of how I am...

my mom was WAY ahead of her time as a teen. She lettered in basketball in high school in the 50s. She read scifi when that wasn't "Normal" for a girl. She graduated at the top of her class in high school. She would have gone to college but instead she went to work to support her family after her Dad died.

She's tough. She's very self-reliant. She's a yellow dog Democrat and gets quite irate about discrimination and civil liberties. She's really good at boiling down what's going on in the world.

She gave me my drive, my love of music and reading and sports, my interest in politics, and my toughness.

She could be a real hard-ass when required...but she can also be really sweet. I have wonderful memories of her taking me to the park and baking cookies and reading to me and planting flowers with me and just generally keeping me out of too much trouble.

I got all my funny down-home sayings from her. :)

[GOPisEvil]

3. My mom drives me nuts sometimes!

But I love her to death. She's the reason I am a liberal. She's been through a lot and although she doesn't have much formal education, she knows more than a lot of PhD's. I'm an incredibly lucky kid.

[Raven]

4. Kid? You? NO WAY!!!

You are an old fart...you've got to be!

[GOPisEvil]

5. *checks driver's license*

Nope, still 35. Ask me again in June. :-)

[matcom]

7. I CAN CALL YOU AN OLD FART!

:bounce:

[GOPisEvil]

11. We can both call Zomby an old fart!

:bounce:

[VelmaD]

6. Hee...whether he's still a kid...

or not depends on whether you still think of Will as a kid. GOPisEvil isn't that much older than Will...or me for that matter.

[Raven]

8. DAMN! You're all kids and I'm

the old fart! How did that happen????? :-)

[VelmaD]

9. I don't know...but I think...

you can probably blame it on Will. I know my mom blames it on me. :)

[supernova]

12. You're only as old

as you feel, Raven. :D

[VelmaD]

13. Nope...you're only as old...

as you act. :)

[supernova]

10. Bettie

Momma's name was Kathryn Elizabeth, but everybody called her Bettie.

In 1943 she was one of only 7 women on the NC State campus. She wanted to study chemical engineering, and definitely had the brains for it, but the professor in charge of the program didn't want women to be CEs. He said he would fail her if she tried to take the classes. :grr: :grr: She was disappointed, scared, and didn't know what to do. She couldn't finish anyway, grandaddy didn't have enough money.

She and my Dad married in Dec 1947 (they were working in the same hospital). My sister came along a year later. My brother in 1952.

Mom finally finished her BA at Duke in 1960. Yes, she was working and going to school even while most women were at home. By this time she was working in the Nuclear Medicine Dept of Duke University. She loved it. I came along in 1962 when Momma was 36. I played with petri dishes and pipettes. :7

By the time I started school in 1968, she left the hospital and starting a teaching career. She would spend the next 18 years teaching algebra. And she was good at it too. To this day, former students come up to me to tell me they still remember her. Amazing.

Bettie was vivacious, intellectually voracious, lively, fun, and always interested in and supportive of what we did. She created a fan club whereever she went.

Some days, I don't know how I get along with out her. :loveya: Mom. :loveya:

edit: She's the one who gave me the courage to follow my own path in life and not get bogged down in others' naysaying.