Happy Mother's Day

Last year I wrote a Father's Day blog to dad and now its time to recognize Mom, Giuseppa (yes, they have matching names, Dad is Giuseppe) who had to suffer through more of my day to day teen-aged petulance.

I liken my mom to a mother bear who would tear apart anyone who even looked the wrong way at her cubs. 100% self sacrificing and generous, always putting us kids first. Until she couldn't work anymore due to carpal tunnel mom worked nights in a pocket book factory.  She was terrified of that nighttime drive she did it for years for us kids.

Mom calls me every Sunday and we generally repeat this conversation:

"Alo Melina, whadda u do?"
     "Not much, Mom"

"Did you make yourself somethig to eat?" (all important info she needed to know each week)

     "Yes, Mom, Im all set on the food front, what are you doing?" 

"Na thinga, watcha TV"

My friends growing up still tell stories about calling my house. Here is a listing of typical phone responses to my friends calling when I wasnt home:

"Carmella no home, she kicka da ball"  Translation - I am at soccer practice

"Carmella on de ice" - I am skiing

"Carmella in da bed"- I am sleeping

I had 2 friends named Amy/Aimee. One tall, one short. Here is what would happen when they called:

RingRing

"Alo"

"Hi Mrs Alvaro is Carmella home, this is Amy"

"Carmella no home. Who dis? bigga amy or little aimee?" (trying to distinguish between the taller of two)

My teenage self used to battle mom cause she wouldn't let me do A-N-Y-T-H-I-N-G (insert teenage eye rolling here) - no sleepovers, no hanging out with people she didn't know, no sports, etc...I used to think they were boring and not adventurous back then.

Message to my 16 year old self - "Hey Dummy, think back to 1970 - Mom leaves everything she knows, drags two little kids and stuffs all of her belongings into a couple of suitcases and takes a boat across an ocean to place she doesn't speak the language, away from a village of 2,000 to what was then a booming and growing city of 220,000* at the ripe old age of 26 for a better life for her kids ("baby ooops", aka me, arrives 6 years later). You thought you were adventurous at 28 cause you made it to CO on your own until you realized you didn't like being so far away from home that even though you didn't move back home you moved to within a 6 hour car ride as your security blanket...Mom was pretty cool, you ingrate."

Here is a fuzzy pix of mom at 31 years old, with my brother and sister and me, the screaming little ingrate...I guess back in 1976 they made chintzy little medals out of family pictures....

Happy Mother's Day, Mom.

*Syracuse was booming in 1970 - that was the highest population in it's history. Sadly, in 2007 Syracuse was #23 of the top 25 cities in terms of population lost. The manufacturing jobs are gone. Syracuse was a booming factory town in 1970 - GE,  GM, Chrysler, Carrier, Syracuse China - just some off the top of my head that have closed up.