In honor of her 192nd birthday
Yes, today my mother turns 192! She looks really, really good for her age, though! You'd be surprised. I don't know if she'd appreciate me posting how old (or young) she actually is, so let's just call it 192...
Tonight, weather permitting, she and I are having quite a gourmet picnic in my backyard. I won't say what we're having because I want it to be a surprise. But I spent most of last evening chopping, saute-ing, grating, crushing, snipping, & stirring. This morning, it will be a little more of the same and that's just the prep work, not even the actual assembling and then the cooking! (Or grilling, I should say, since we are cooking this outside on the charcoal grill.)
Fish will be the main focal point, and this part will be a surprise for me since Mom is supplying the fish. There will also be wine, garlic, garlic, and then a little more garlic, and then a little more wine!! White wine this time. I'm even bowing to convention, if you can believe that! I am a hardcore red wine drinker & I usually even drink red wine with fish, but red wine will simply not work for this meal. Plus, it's summer (unbeknownst to the local public school system -- see post below) and it's a picnic, so that alone cries out for a wonderful crisp, ice-cold white, doesn't it??
Okay, speaking of yesterday's post below, and public school, and Mom... Here's the memory that came to me this morning when I saw that photo of my old elementary school in Cleveland.
That elementary school was a block and a half from our house. (It was on a street called Stonehaven Road, in South Euclid, Ohio, 44121 -- in case you want to google-map it and then go visit the shrine. I think they made it a shrine to me -- I'll have to double-check that.)
Anyway, one day, while I was in kindergarten, the class went upstairs to the library for story time and when we got to the library room, what to my wondering eyes should appear but my mother!! I was stunned. "Mommy, what are you doing here???"
It turns out she was the parent-volunteer and she was going to read us a story. It was the strangest feeling. It was so cool! And then after story time, class was over (we only went half-days in kindergarten in those days, and I went in the mornings), so then I got to walk home with my mom!! (Yes, in those days, we were able to walk to and from school on our own, even as 5 & 6 year-olds; it wasn't dangerous.) (Plus, in those days they didn't teach us to read until we were in the 1st grade. Subsequently, my mother read to me instead of teaching me to read on my own. Which I guess is why I've only written 5 novels, 100 short stories, a handful of novellas, and some essays & memoirs; my mother clearly held me back by reading to me instead of teaching me to read when I was 3...)
Okay!! On that happy note, I leave you with this: Stonehaven Rd. as it is today, the street I lived on from around 1964 - 1966
View Larger Map
Tonight, weather permitting, she and I are having quite a gourmet picnic in my backyard. I won't say what we're having because I want it to be a surprise. But I spent most of last evening chopping, saute-ing, grating, crushing, snipping, & stirring. This morning, it will be a little more of the same and that's just the prep work, not even the actual assembling and then the cooking! (Or grilling, I should say, since we are cooking this outside on the charcoal grill.)
Fish will be the main focal point, and this part will be a surprise for me since Mom is supplying the fish. There will also be wine, garlic, garlic, and then a little more garlic, and then a little more wine!! White wine this time. I'm even bowing to convention, if you can believe that! I am a hardcore red wine drinker & I usually even drink red wine with fish, but red wine will simply not work for this meal. Plus, it's summer (unbeknownst to the local public school system -- see post below) and it's a picnic, so that alone cries out for a wonderful crisp, ice-cold white, doesn't it??
Okay, speaking of yesterday's post below, and public school, and Mom... Here's the memory that came to me this morning when I saw that photo of my old elementary school in Cleveland.
That elementary school was a block and a half from our house. (It was on a street called Stonehaven Road, in South Euclid, Ohio, 44121 -- in case you want to google-map it and then go visit the shrine. I think they made it a shrine to me -- I'll have to double-check that.)
Anyway, one day, while I was in kindergarten, the class went upstairs to the library for story time and when we got to the library room, what to my wondering eyes should appear but my mother!! I was stunned. "Mommy, what are you doing here???"
It turns out she was the parent-volunteer and she was going to read us a story. It was the strangest feeling. It was so cool! And then after story time, class was over (we only went half-days in kindergarten in those days, and I went in the mornings), so then I got to walk home with my mom!! (Yes, in those days, we were able to walk to and from school on our own, even as 5 & 6 year-olds; it wasn't dangerous.) (Plus, in those days they didn't teach us to read until we were in the 1st grade. Subsequently, my mother read to me instead of teaching me to read on my own. Which I guess is why I've only written 5 novels, 100 short stories, a handful of novellas, and some essays & memoirs; my mother clearly held me back by reading to me instead of teaching me to read when I was 3...)
Okay!! On that happy note, I leave you with this: Stonehaven Rd. as it is today, the street I lived on from around 1964 - 1966
View Larger Map
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