Remembering my momma

Today my late mother's been on my mind.

She grew up in an era when not having water and electricity wasn't unusual in rural Oklahoma.  Got married, and had four children.  Lived in a house with no running water or inside bathroom for 16 years with all four of us kids. She hauled water from the well outside the kitchen door, brought in a big galvanized bath tub and filled it with water she'd heated on the stove for us to bathe in.  She had no air conditioning for another 5 years.  She sewed all our clothes, cooked meals, did laundry and kept an immaculate house.

I remember moving into town when I was seven years old.  Momma was so happy because we had a bathroom and a big old hot water tank in the kitchen so we could take our baths and she could do her dishes without having to heat the water.

It's 100 degrees today and about 74 degrees in my nice air conditioned house.  I deep cleaned the kitchen, and living room, did 4 loads of laundry and dusted/vacuumed the rest of the house.  The whole time I was cleaning, I was thinking about how hard it was and how hot I was getting.

Then, I remembered momma.  No matter what the weather, there was a cooked dinner on the table every night.  Clothes were washed, hung outdoors to dry, starched, ironed and hung back in the closet. Her hardwood floors weren't dusty and the bathroom and kitchen were always kept clean.

She'd have gotten up early to do the heavy work when it was this hot, but she'd have done it in a house that would have been 10-15 degrees hotter than mine.

Just thinking about how hard it had to have been for her to do all this without the convenient appliances and utilities I have made me stop to really appreciate what she and my dad had to do to raise us kids.

Maybe you didn't grow up in a house like ours, but I'll guarantee that you have it easier than your mother did.  If you're fortunate enough to still have your mother, you may want to just give her a call and say "thanks".