Long ago, when my boys were small, I loved to cook and listen to music while I cooked or did the dishes. It was a gilded room with many plants, not terribly large, but very cheerful. One of my favorite CDs to listen to was Paul Simon’s Greatest Hits, because there were so many sing-alongable, danceable songs on it (I still love it. Still play it and dance when no one is looking.) My youngest told me once that his vision of me from his childhood is that: mom dancing around the kitchen when no one was looking, smoking cigarettes, rubber gloves in the air. He loved to sneak up on me and scare me half to death.
He’d been telling me lately that he had a surprise for me. Now this child is a bit of a rebel. He plays bass guitar and has dredlocks down to the middle of his back. He also has a tattoo or so, which he keeps in the proper spots to be hidden in unlikely event he will take a job someday that requires him to look respectable. He arrived on Sunday and said, “Okay, you want to see your surprise?”
This was it:
How’s that for paying attention? And yes, he got the reaction he wanted. It totally choked me up.
Totally choked me up too! You raised him well. 🙂
ah that’s fantastic. is that a writer’s feather pen doing the writing too?
also i have long long loved Cecilia.
awwww. what a great early mother’s day gift!
It is a writer feather! (the guy who has done most of his tattoos is a wonderful artist)
And Cecelia–oh yeah. Who could listen to that song and be still? It’s a great CD, even the songs I don’t like very much
Oh Barb, how funny, sweet and wonderful is this! I have always had a soft spot for Miles (right?) ever since I’ve been reading your blogs. He reminds me so much of my son, Michael. This is precious.
If you were to ask either one of my sons, who aren’t so very far in age from the range of your sons, what their strongest memory of their mother is, they would both tell you, hands down: Mom in the kitchen with the radio/stereo on, dancing at the stove. Yes, indeed. This is why your post just jumped at me.
The kitchen has always been the hub of my house. Always. Even in this house, where the kitchen is really too small for more than one person in it at a time, it’s still the hub. And I still play music and I still dance at the stove, or in the middle of the room, I don’t care, and my sons still see it.
I really, really love this post!
Geez, after my ramblings in class, I’m sure you KNOW this choked me up, too!!
Aww, M. has always been such a sweetie. I hope I am so lucky when Cosi gets to be his age. 🙂
This made me smile so wide. Thank you and thank your son again.