BOUND TO THE PAST: SHOPPING AND READING WITH ME MA

I have vivid core memories (seem to be thinking on these a lot lately) of riding around with my Mom pre-kindergarten as she ran errands.  Hustling about town to my pediatrician (Kenosha legend, Dr. Heck), the dentist, Jo-Ann Fabrics, Kohl's grocery stores, K-Mart (they had that nifty grill in the center of the store, ya know!)

Anybody remember Cal's Roast Beef?  Kind of like an Arby's when they didn't have the meats yet?  I don't remember what it is I ate there on lunch visits, but I still have the little Looney Tunes comic book that came with one of those meals.  See the title image up above.  I still like to leaf through it. I still love the Looney Toons to this day, and that'll never change.  I grew up reading comics, and the combination of the two is something I think is pretty cool.  It's a keepsake, and bordering on heirloom, as far as I'm concerned. 

We ate silver dollar pancakes at the unfortunately named Sambo's.  Kind of like Denny's, but I don't remember K-town having a Denny's.  I remember the backlit pictures of the little boy and his tiger (reminiscent of Jungle Book) that adorned the wall above the window to the kitchen between menu items.  It eventually changed to the tiger only.  Click on the video below for some history. 

Anyway.

As I've mentioned before, Mom was a huge supporter of her kids reading because it would mean you were wicked smaht.  At a Kohl's grocery trip, shortly after Dad passed, she bought me one of those miniature staple-bound impulse buy biographies of John Wayne.  Was I a John Wayne fan?  No, I had seen one film of his before Dad died and it was the 1977. flick, The Shootist.  That stung shortly after seeing it, as Wayne played a gunslinger battling cancer in his last days, and the proximity of painful fact was not lost later.

I'd sit in the chill fall air with my back against the garage that Dad used to work on rebuilding the Ford (Ol' Abe), and the ancient tractor (Josephine) he had.  The shop was adjacent to the backyard, and had me facing west and reading the little book, learning what I could and enjoying the black and white photos of John Wayne, knowing nothing else about him. I felt like I needed to do that to draw a little closer to the old man. 

I knew Dad loved The Duke, and having that knowledge I carried the book around in my back pocket until it came apart.  A talisman, of sorts.  Mom shared stories of Dad's John Wayne fanhood with me.  Another one of those movie connections that I carry around. 

I guess The Duke was a putz in real life, but I didn't know that at age 9. 

I've already discussed Ma and the Paperback Exchange in the oft repeated Salem's Lot story.  Click on that if you've been living under a rock in terms of this blog and are unfamiliar. 

Ma bought me books at rummage sales all the time.  George Llanos' Sharks and H. David Baldridge's Shark Attack (250,000 copies in print!)  These were books that were obviously long-read and published during the post-Jaws mania.  I loved her for that shit.  Still have them.  Priceless little items.  There's a picture in the photo array in the center of Sharks that Frani thinks looks like the shark is smiling. 

She's not wrong.  I think that fish was posing.

I could list the books bought and read to me during my childhood (some I still have) such as the Road Runner little kid books like A Very Scary Lesson and Tumbleweed Trouble or the Winnie the Pooh ones, that I mention here, but I don't want to bore you.  How about the classic comic book paperback adaptation of The Empire Strikes Back that I kicked this series off with some years back, or the Batman book and record combo that I think I irritated her into buying for me.  Check it out below if you got 15 minutes.

 

I could be a pain in the ace.  Ma, I love you, and I'm categorically sorry.

Today, I just want to give props to my Ma for the sharing of the written word.  She was a reader in a major way and thank the lord she passed it on down.