by Peggy Rowe
Table of Contents
Foreword
Take Me Out to the Ballgame!
Home Fires
Only the Good Stuff
Facing the Music
Miss Blevins
Ahead of Her Time
The Christmas Conspiracy
Just the Two of Us
Religion and Horses
Family: For Better or Worse
Paradise Found
Moving On
New Territory
Up in Smoke: Marriage and the Family
Bragging Rights
Our Christmas Close-up
The Day Mom and I Ate at the White House
The Rascal Scooter
A Whole New Ballgame: The Most Exciting Day of Mom’s Life
Epilogue
Photographs
Family Remembrances
Discussion Questions for Book Clubs by Marjie Rowe
About the Author
Dedication
To: My parents, Thelma and Carl Knobel, who were always on the right side of parenting. I once asked my mother why she and Dad didn’t have more children. Her response—“The two that we had were perfect”— also happens to be an excellent description of my parents.
To: Janet, a positive influence in my life—kind, smart, ladylike, and always setting a good example—to this day.
To: John, who took it in his stride when I decided that writing was more important than ironing and dusting and fixing breakfast. He’s a far, far better husband than he is a writing critic, as he claims to love everything I write. Unless, of course, he’s just plain smart.
To: Three sons who remain a priority in my life as well as the beneficiaries of their grandparents’ wisdom and love.
Mike, who has taught me much about writing, and who generously shares his fans and his “people” with me. I couldn’t have done this without you.
Scott, who has given us a wonderful, loving family, and who tirelessly shares his fascination for sci-fi and fantasy with me. Waiting for your book!
Phil, my karaoke connection, who makes me smile, brings out my mothering instincts, and reminds me what is important in life.
Acknowledgments
Thanks to friend, editor, and writer Michele “Wojo” Wojciechowski, who read every word of my book, loved it, and told me so—then helped me fix it (www.WojosWorld.com). If there are mistakes, blame them on my last-minute changes. Writers are never finished!
I’m grateful to Rick Bitzelberger for his insight and encouragement and to Mary, Jade, and all the other smart, patient people at mikeroweWORKS for their help.
Thanks to Zest Social Media Solutions for putting the book together. Who knew that it was so complicated?
Last, but not least, thanks to all of Mike’s “Little Facebook Friends,” who have read my texts and letters and asked me to write a book. See, I do read your entertaining comments! A special thanks to those of you who believe that Mike actually does my writing. You flatter me more than you know!
Foreword
When my mother finally finished the manuscript for her new book, she asked me if I wanted to write the foreword.
“That depends,” I said. “Is it any good?”
“Well,” she said, “I’ve sent it off to several publishers. They all say it’s terrific!”
“Hey, that’s great,” I said. “Which publisher did you decide to go with?”
“Oh, they all passed,” she said.
“What? Why?”
“They told me a collection of loosely connected stories about a woman no one has ever heard of might be a tough sell in today’s highly competitive marketplace.”
“I see. So then . . . who exactly is publishing this book of yours?”
“Well, after you write the foreword, you could do it. I thought maybe you could do it!”
Friends of my Facebook page know that my mother has a unique way of getting me to do things. A couple of years ago, after I neglected to return her phone calls in a timely fashion, she posted a short note on my public Facebook page. It read:
Dear Mike,
I assume you’re not returning my calls because you’re busy making a television show. Or something. But I see that you still have time to chat with your little Facebook friends! Would you prefer to communicate publicly? I’m happy to do so, if it’s more convenient for you.
Warmly,
Mom
Obviously, a note like this, posted in front of five million people, prompted some predictable feedback from my loyal fan base.
“Good grief, Mike, call your mother this instant! What’s the matter with you?”
“Seriously? You’re too busy for your own mother? What kind of person are you?”
Sensing a social media backlash, I called my mother posthaste.
She didn’t pick up. I tried again and was sent straight to voicemail.
Clearly, Mom was otherwise engaged, reveling no doubt in the hundreds of sympathetic comments inspired by her passive-aggressive cry for attention. So I left her a message thanking her for turning my fans against me and asking for a return call at her earliest convenience.
What I got instead, a few hours later, was a 1,300-word email that began like this:
“Dear Mike, I was trying to reach you because something happened the other day I simply had to share. . .”
For years, my mother has been sending me true stories she “simply had to share.” Some are amusing. Some are touching. Some are laugh-out-loud funny. Well, this was a funny one—a true story that chronicled the mysterious vanishing of her beloved blue purse at the local Walmart and the subsequent drama surrounding its unlikely recovery. She called it “Old Blue,” and when I finished reading it, I called my mother again, this time to tell her—for the umpteenth time—that she really should write a book. Once again, my call was sent straight to voicemail. So I hung up, hit the video button on my iPhone, and recorded “Old Blue” from my kitchen table. Then I posted the video on Facebook, jumped into a waiting Uber, and left town for a few days to shoot another episode of something or other.
When I returned, “Old Blue” had been viewed over fifty million times. I’m not even kidding. Fifty. Million. Times. And the feedback was unlike anything I’ve ever seen. Literally tens of thousands of comments, all begging my mother to write a book.
“Oh my God,” they said, “you’re the next Erma Bombeck!” “You’re the next Nora Ephron!” “You’re the next Betty White!”
By the time the dust settled, “Old Blue” had reached well over a hundred million people and caught the eye of several major publishers, all of whom invited my mother to write a book of humorous essays about her relationship with “The Dirty Jobs Guy.”
“It’s a slam dunk,” said one editor. “A no-brainer,” said another. “A guaranteed bestseller,” said a third.
Mom asked me, “What do you think, Mike? Is a collection of amusing stories about ‘The Dirty Jobs Guy’ a guaranteed bestseller?”
“Beats me,” I said. “But if that’s what the big boys say, go for it. Dad will be thrilled. We can all go on a book tour together.”
Six months later, I wasn’t exactly surprised to receive a 40,000-word email from my mother, broken down into fourteen short stories. Nor was I surprised to discover that each story was packed with warmth and humor and pathos and all the other stuff I expected to find in the stories I knew she’d been working on.
I was, however, surprised to learn that these stories had nothing to do with me, and everything to do with a woman no one has ever heard of—my grandmother. A subject the publishers said would prove to be “a tough sell in today’s highly competitive marketplace.”
Maybe they’re right. Maybe the only way to sell a book these days is to publish something
by an established author or rely on some kind of celebrity angle. I don’t know. All I can tell you for sure is that my mother doesn’t care about “slam dunks,” “no-brainers,” or “guaranteed bestsellers.” She writes what she wants to write about, as these stories conclusively prove. They arrived in my inbox exactly as you see them now, along with a bio, an epilogue, multiple quotes from family members, dozens of photos from days gone by, and everything else a competent printer might require to churn out a book. Everything but a foreword.
Which brings me back to the task at hand. About My Mother is the story of a mother and a daughter with absolutely nothing in common—two completely divergent personalities who interacted every single day for the better part of seventy years. The fact that they chose to remain permanent next-door neighbors is still a bit of a mystery, but one that enriched the lives of my two younger brothers and me. Indeed, the resulting sitcom was the bedrock of our upbringing. And Nana was the star of the show. Always.
Judgmental yet loyal, snobby yet kind, haughty yet humble, Nana was a consummate perfectionist and notorious neat freak who sought to keep all those around her scrubbed and tidy and firmly between the lines. She corrected my table manners. She corrected my grammar. She corrected the knot in my tie. Nana corrected the tiniest detail of any casual story that didn’t agree precisely with her recollection of the facts. Unless, of course, she was doing the talking. In which case, her exaggerations were boundless.
After I faked my way into the chorus of The Baltimore Opera, Nana began referring to me as “a classically trained musician, fluent in all of the romance languages, and much in demand.”
When I was hired to work the midnight shift at QVC, I was suddenly “the number-one salesman in the entire home shopping industry, with an audience as big as David Letterman’s.”
And when I finally got Dirty Jobs on the air—a show that mortified Nana in every way imaginable—she told her friends at church that I was “the biggest television star on cable TV, bravely changing the topography of nonfiction programming.”
Nana was what any aspiring writer would call “good material,” which is why I thought my mother elected to write about her in the first place. But after reading through these “loosely connected stories about a woman no one has ever heard of,” I’m not worried about the fate of my mother’s book in “today’s competitive marketplace.” I think people are hungry for the stories my mother has written, and I can tell you there’s a good deal more than gentle humor and fond memories in the pages that follow. There’s actual comfort. Comfort for every daughter who ever thought her mother was from another planet. Comfort for every mother who suspected her daughter was switched at birth.
In other words, Mom, I’m glad I ignored your calls back when, and I’m glad you ignored mine. Otherwise, “Old Blue” would have been nothing but a funny story you told me over the telephone, and I wouldn’t have had the honor of publishing these fantastic tales that you “simply had to share.” And that would have been a shame, because when Nana sees this—somewhere from the Great Beyond—I’m pretty sure she’ll tell St. Peter I’m “the best publisher of all time!” While down here on earth, I’ll be telling the story of the daughter who wrote the book she felt like writing—the “slam dunk, no-brainer, guaranteed bestseller” that kept her mother alive for eternity. Perhaps one day, I can return the favor.
Till then, call me anytime! I promise to pick up…
xoxo,
Mike
Foreword, Part 2
Shortly after I wrote the foreword you’ve just read, I sent it off to the printer along with my mother’s manuscript and a check. In return, I received ten thousand copies of my mother’s book, all of which I offered for sale on eBay. Happily, the book sold out immediately, prompting a number of large publishers to reach out with heartfelt congratulations.
Resisting the urge to scream “I told you so,” I discussed with these publishers the reasons for the unexpected popularity of Mom’s G-rated recollections, and gauged their appetite for a second printing. It appeared to be keen. Meanwhile, actual feedback among those initial ten thousand readers began to pour in, more and more every day. The feedback was not just positive; it was positively effusive. People wanted more. They began sharing stories of their own mothers and daughters and grandmothers. Mom started her own Facebook page, and quickly amassed tens of thousands of fans. Someone called her “America’s Grandmother,” which may have made her blush, and soon, more publishers came with more offers to write more books. It was pandemonium, but a delightful pandemonium.
Anyway, among those publishers pleasantly surprised by the fact that my mother can actually write was a guy named Jonathan Merkh who has an imprint called Forefront Books. Thanks to Jonathan and Simon & Schuster, you now hold the second edition of my mother’s first book. This one includes five additional stories, along with what I’m told is the only two-part foreword ever published. I sincerely hope you enjoy every word. With luck, I’ll be amending this foreword once again, when Simon & Schuster propose a third printing, sometime later this week.
Till then, meet my mother. And my Nana. You’re gonna like ’em both. I guarantee it.
Take Me Out to the Ballgame!
It was rush hour in the main aisle of Macy’s department store when my ninety-year-old mother rose from her wheelchair and began unbuttoning her blouse.
“Wh-what are you doing, Mom?” I sputtered. “You can’t undress here.”
“Oh, stop fussing!” she shouted, removing the blouse. “Nobody’s interested in an old woman wearing a bra.” She pointed across the aisle at a shapeless mannequin in a red-and-white striped bikini. “Look at her! She’s wearing less than I am.”
It was the kind of logic a child might use—or an older person who was losing her mind. I dropped the handles of the wheelchair and scanned the department for a fitting room. Maybe her behavior was a delayed reaction to the death of my father. You get attached to somebody during seventy years of marriage. Or perhaps congestive heart failure had driven her over the edge.
Suddenly there was a loud commotion behind me. I spun around to see an elderly gentleman—probably distracted by a ninety-year-old woman in a bra—colliding with the mannequin. The mannequin’s bald head had crashed to the floor and was rolling about like a bowling ball. Shoppers tripped and toppled over like pins at the end of a bowling alley.
It was all my fault. I should have seen a red flag when Mom pointed ahead like a cavalry officer leading the charge.
“That way, Peggy, and step on it!”
At first I’d thought she wanted to escape the sickening aromas in the perfume aisle, and I was all for that. Then I saw it right in front of us: a display of Baltimore Orioles t-shirts and baseball caps. My mother was drawn to orange and black with the same fervor her neighbors at Oak Crest Retirement Community were drawn to Thursday afternoon bingo.
Her blouse came floating toward me, and I caught it in midair, feeling like Cal Ripken snagging a line drive at Camden Yards. I considered covering my head with it as the commotion around the headless mannequin across the aisle gradually subsided and shoppers turned their attention to the old woman in her underwear.
I jumped in front of my mother and spread my arms as though I were blocking her from shooting a basket.
“Which one of these do you like, honey?” she asked, nonchalantly holding up the orange t-shirts one at a time.
“That one! Quick! Put it on!” I yelled.
She calmly handed me her glasses and pulled the shirt over her head. “Orioles” was in bold black letters across the front. On the back was the Oriole Bird.
“Well,” she said, frowning into the mirror. “Orange is not my color—it makes me look washed out.” She leaned closer, smoothed her eyebrows, then smiled and said, “But this will be perfect for the Maryland Day celebration tomorrow. I’m going to buy it.”
Mom didn’t ordinarily go in for trendy fashion. Rather, she had a reputation for being a stylish dresser, and it was a
distinction well earned. She had always shopped in “high-end” stores, watching for sales or constructing identical knockoffs on her old black Singer at home. But for her Orioles, she would make the concession. This would be the only garment in her wardrobe with writing on it.
My focus was single-minded as the amused gallery around us watched Mom pick tiny specks of lint from an Orioles t-shirt: I had to derail Gypsy Rose Lee before her encore.
“It looks great, Mom! I know—just wear it home,” I said, stuffing her blouse into my purse. “The saleslady will cut off the tags.” I looked up to see her staring at me as though I had given birth in the main aisle of Macy’s department store.
“Are you crazy? I can’t wear this with green pants!” She stripped off the orange-and-black shirt and stood once again in her bra and slacks. On the bright side, it was a lovely bra. But then Mom always was dressed for the occasion. On the downside, the skin-tone garment was just that and gave the appearance of, well, skin. Fortunately, it was 2003, before everyone carried a phone with a camera, so our little sideshow didn’t go viral.
“Oh, Peggy!” There was disapproval in Mom’s voice as she held up the blouse I had just pulled from my purse. “Look at all these wrinkles!”
My mother was complaining about a few wrinkles on a blouse while standing before an audience in her underwear. I had never in all my sixty-seven years spoken disrespectfully to her. Fortunately, she read my expression and put on the wrinkled blouse without further complaint.
Was this the kind of behavior one should expect from a ninety-year-old? I wondered while standing in line at the register. Or, God forbid, was it some form of hereditary dementia? How long before I started removing my clothes in public and embarrassing my children? With my luck, it would happen on a Sunday morning in the choir loft at the front of our church. I would casually put down my music folder and remove my robe and blouse, while the other altos tried to shield me with their music.
Oh well, I thought, smiling to myself as we made our way to the exit. Compared to the trauma she and her beloved Orioles had put me through fifty years earlier, this afternoon was a walk in the park. Besides, things could have been worse. It might have been a display of Orioles underwear.