With this being Mother's Day, I wanted to reprint a posting from last July, which is kind of an homage to my mom and what a charachter she is. Happy Mother's Day, Mom! Your card (with money for cigarettes ) is in the mail....
I just got back from a 3 1/2 day weekend
http://www.50states.com/flag/coflag.htm visiting my mom in Montrose, Colorado. It's a beautiful area in Southwestern Colorado by the San Juan Mountains and the Black Canyon.
http://www.visitmontrose.net/
There are a couple of things that you need to know about my mom. She loves leopard print clothes and bright sequins. She loves to gamble. She has supported herself in Colorado the past 15-16 years by running a poker game out of her spare room in her house. She has played cards for as long as I can remember. Unfortunately, the card-playing and gambling can take a major toll on relationships-she's been married and divorced 3 times. You cannot blame it ALL on the gambling-but it clearly played a roll in deep-sixing 3 marriages. She also smokes. But to say my mom smokes would be like saying Madonna or Paris Hilton enjoy the company of men. My mom RELISHES her smokes. She smokes 3 packs a day. I have not even seen French guys who can out-smoke my mom. There are absolutely two ways that you can send my mom into a frothing-at-the-mouth apolectic fit: ask her not to smoke around you, and bring up Mexican Illegal immigrants.
Now lest you think this is some sort of "I'm going to blame all my problems on my parents" posting, forget it. My mom is a lot of fun, she is very social, loves conversation, loves going out(well, used to now that Colorado became a smoke free state in it's restaurants) and does not forget a birthday for me, my brother and sisters AND the grandkids. I can honestly say that when I was a young child, she had a profound impact on my life by reading to me and being there for me when I took my tentative first steps reading Dr Seus books. At Christmas time, I not only got the presents that I asked Santa for, but I got gifts that I never would have dared asked of Santa because they were too expensive, like hockey equipment and such. Even when she was a single mom, Christmas was always a blast.
Living by herself the last several years has meant that my mom is very independent and wants things done her way. Compromise is not a word in her vocabulary.
I had wanted to go to the Four Corners area-it's the only location in the United States where 4 states(New Mexico, Utah, Arizona and Colorado) border on a point where you can stand on that point and be in all 4 states. http://www.mesaverde.com/fcmonument.htm Part of the reason I wanted to go was that by going to the 4 Corners, I would add Utah to my list of States-and would make it that I had set foot in every continental state west of the Mississippi River. (The only states I have yet to set foot in are South Carolina, Alabama, Alaska and Hawaii)
My mom was up for a road trip. The catch was that her car was not in good condition for a tough 3 hour drive through mountains and into the desert. We rented a car, a Toyota Corolla. The one problem: My mom could not smoke in the car under the renters agreement. What should have been a 3 hour trip ended up taking about 5- we would stop roughly every 20 minutes at my mother's strident behest so that she could either A-have a smoke-usually a couple of cigarettes would get power-inhaled, B-get an Iced Tea and C-get something to eat.(Diabetic...low blood sugar) At no point on the way to the 4 Corners area-or back- was I able to drive for more than 25 minutes at one shot. Oh yeah, Mom wanted to make sure that we got LOTS of pictures of the scenary. Good thing I just had disposable camera with 27 shots or we would still be on the road by Telluride or Rico.
We stayed at the Ute Mountain Casino and Hotel in Towaoc, Colorado. http://www.utemountaincasino.com/ It was a nice place and Mom was in her element. She played Poker untill about 4 in the morning. It was tough sledding getting her up in time for the 11 AM Check-out, but we made it-barely.
I admit it: I'm a wuss when it comes to gambling. I think I spent about 15 bucks playing the nickle slot machines. I spent most of Saturday night watching my Mom and marvelling at how much fun she had playing cards. I was on a tight budget for this trip, but mostly I am just not into throwing my money away. I think Mom lost 40 bucks that night, but she was down more than $150 earlier in the night, so she rebounded well after I left at 1am to try to sleep.
I really did have a good weekend with my mom. It was fun talking and reminiscing, but I think 3-4 days was all my lungs could take. I am sure I have the beginnings of black lung disease. In all seriousness, there are a lot of people my age who do not have living parents. I'm glad I took the time to do this trip, because with my Mom's health, there is no guarantee that in the future that she would be up for such a road trip.
When you spend time with an aging parent, it makes you realize just how time really is a fleeting thing. I thought about my mom as a young divorcee` in her 20's bringing me and my siblings to a drive in, because that was cheap entertainment for a single mom with limited funds. She would pop up a bag of popcorn and we would be dressed in our pyjammas, because we usually nodded off during the second feature.
I thought about that same period in our lives in the late 60's when she would say that we were going to have breakfast for dinner. My brother Bill and I thought our Mom was being cool. As kids, we did not realize that it was cheaper on a limited income for my mom to buy eggs and pancake mix than meat and fresh vegetables.
It did not seem that long ago when I was giving my mom and dad a hard time about turning 40. Now here I am in my late forties and my mom is almost 70.
It is a complex relationship we have with our parents. But we have to make good use of this time that we have them around, because life is short.
I love you Mom.-Steve