|
Here is something I found enjoyable on a somewhat sunny Saturday afternoon, as I contemplated mowing the lawn after several days of rain. I Googled “mean things mother used to say.” A half hour of wandering on the Internet did not produce the exact threat I was wondering whether I accurately recalled, but I found plenty of other gold, people’s reminiscences that made me smile or wince.
My mother was by and large a sweetie, slow to anger, a generally patient and permissive parent. But my brothers and I sometimes inspired her to make menacing declarations, including, possibly, the one that prompted my Google search, “I am going to send you back to the Indians!” The idea that Native Americans had given (or traded or sold) me to my wonderful (and evidently Caucasian) parents was both puzzling and pleasing. Going back to the tribe seemed for sure a preferable penalty to another that I remember Mom occasionally promising, “I am going to break your neck!” Ha, ha! She never did it.
– • –
I wish, for all my dear readers on Mother’s Day, fond memories of childhood. If anyone wants to send me mean things a mother didn’t really mean, I might add them as a postscript to this page.
But now, at three o’clock on Saturday afternoon, I am going to get up from my desk, push back the window curtains, and take a look at clouds that seem to have begun to block the sun. Possibly I can postpone the mowing for another day.
♦
|
