"IT TAKES MONEY TO RIDE THE TRAIN AND DRINK WHISKEY."

In a few short weeks I will be 49 years old. No big deal it’s not like I’m turning 50 or something, but as always around this time of year I can’t help but think about my family and my mother in particular.

I was the last of my mother’s eight children so of course it goes without saying that I was her favorite. Oh of course she would never say that out loud. Well at least within earshot of my other siblings, but I knew it and they knew it.

She of course had her hands full raising eight kids, as well as working full time job in a textile mill, but she always had time for her family. Now truth be told we also realized back then that if we wanted to participate in extra curricular activities such as football, baseball, or the Boy Scouts that we would be encouraged and supported but for the most part we would be responsible for getting to and from practices or meetings. Recently on a spring cleaning spree I came across several photos of my mother taken at various times as I progressed up the ranks of scouting. She never missed a court of honor from tenderfoot all the way to Eagle Scout. However I couldn’t help but notice how tired she always looked in those now faded photos. Always smiling but always a little tired.

Now my mother only had a third grade education as she quit school to raise her brothers and sisters after her mother died of cancer, but to this day and forever I will tell you that she was one of the wisest people I have ever met. Married my father at 16 and had eight kids by the time she was 31. So she never really had a childhood of her own.

I am sure that money was often short, but we never knew it as we were always fed and in a warm home. We also just knew not to ask for things. However ever now and then I would ask for something or mention I wanted something and my mother would always say “Son it takes money to ride the train and drink whiskey.” Which I of course knew back then meant I would not be getting whatever it was I had asked for unless I found a way myself. Back then that basically meant hitting the sides of local roads searching for coke bottles for the refund. Or being the youngest doing chores for my older siblings. So even though at the time the saying “it takes money to ride the train and drink whiskey” made no sense and more often that not evoked a response from me along the lines of “I didn’t say anything about riding a train or drinking whiskey.” My mother in her own way was sharing a bit of her knowledge with me by letting me know that I could have anything I wanted in life as long as I was willing to do the work myself. Lesson well taught Mom and for that and so very much more I simply say thank you.

Live, Love, and Laugh

DMR 5-29-11