Monday, May 04, 2009

May 5, 2009

Country Gal by Vanita Blundell
The last month I wrote about mothers - I guess I should have saved one for this week since Mother’s Day is this Sunday. But remembering when I was in grade school we made gifts or cards for Mothers Day. I always got excited when the glitter came out of the teachers cabinet. I was never creative but I liked gluing as much glitter on a card as I could.
One year in Girl Scouts, Lila Trummel was our leader and she had us bring an egg carton from home. She supplied potting soil and flower seeds. We planted our seeds in the egg carton and by the time Mothers Day had arrived our seeds had sprouted and each one of us had an egg carton full of plants to take home to our Mom. Mom planted the flowers by the back door and they came back every year for several years. I can not remember what the name of the flowers were, but they had small bunches of little purple blooms on each stalk. I was really impressed that they grew since our soil at the house was not real good for raising flowers. At our house we did not do a lot of yard work. I think Dad thought he had done all the planting and worrying getting things to grow without adding a grassy yard with flower beds to his problems. Dad did not enjoy farming like some people do- he enjoyed his livestock more than pulling a plow behind the tractor.
I do not think that years ago a holiday like Mothers Day was a huge affair. I cannot remember doing much else, I am sure that we had Sunday dinner with family but we did not go all out for the holiday.
At Church, they would recognize all of the mothers- I thought that was lots of fun- they acknowledged the youngest, and the oldest mother - the mother who had the most kids- you could spot that mother right off she was the woman who also looked the most exhausted. They always had a flower for the mothers that attended the services that day. It was usually a pansy or a petunia. I loved to look at the box full of different colored flowers before they were handed out. I thought that the pansies were the prettiest with the bright purple or the deep burgundy- or the brilliant yellow I was glad that I did not have to choose which one to take. The petunias were nice too, I liked the ones with the stripes and the deep purple flowers were Grandmas pick. It made me feel good to know that women were honored and played an important role at church.
Thinking back about the past mothers days it is hard to believe that not only am I a mother but soon to be a grandmother. Just does not seem possible- where did all the time go?