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Don Jacobs: Memories of Mon and Peach Tree Switches
The Beaumont Enterprise ^ | 5/6/08 | Don Jacobs

Posted on 05/05/2008 10:00:03 PM PDT by BnBlFlag

05/06/2008 DON JACOBS: Memories of Mom and peach tree switches By: Don Jacobs , The Enterprise

Sunday will be Mothers Day, so it's not too early to begin thinking of appreciative ways to express love toward those who live and fond remembrances for the ones no longer with us

There are as many ways to commemorate the special occasion as there are mothers, and while all moms are unique, they generally share certain qualities. Perhaps readers will picture their own as I recall mine.

Strict? She invented the word, or at least I thought so at 9.

I would do something forbidden, like push a younger brother into some inviting mud, or aimlessly venture down around the dark waters of Weaver's Pond, a stone's throw from the limits to which I was allowed to go - and not far from our East Texas home..

"You've done it now, young man," she would say when I was found out. "March yourself to the garden and bring me a peach tree switch."

Those who are acquainted with peach trees know such branches are brittle and rough and can be quite painful when applied to the lower legs, even as one dances in cut-off jeans while futilely attempting to dodge the application.

Fortunately, even though I always selected the smoothest, most limber limb possible, Mom rarely carried through with the implied threat.

She knew the dreadful journey to retrieve it was punishment enough. But she would keep the switch handy, and visible, ensuring good behavior for a while.

Gentle and caring are other words most moms could have coined.

Mine was capable of painlessly removing thorns from fingers and feet or even broken hearts.

She was replete with knowledge of the right remedies for fevers and chills or other ills, no matter what hour, never complaining.

For most of us, moms also created what we have come to call comfort foods. Simple fare, or the rarest of rare, always tasted good.

Whether special fish, spaghetti dishes, other delicacies or chicken that was interminably slow to fry and yeast rolls that took forever to rise, on Mothers Day we will remember the dishes and those who prepared them.

In some churches, on Mothers Day it is customary to wear a red rose if one's mother is living and a white rose if she is deceased.

I proudly wore the red rose for many years, but no more so than I wear the white one now.

©The Beaumont Enterprise 2008


TOPICS: History; Miscellaneous; Religion; Society
KEYWORDS: moms; mothersday
Loving memories of one man's mother on Mothers Day. May God Bless and keep all of our precious Mothers.
1 posted on 05/05/2008 10:00:03 PM PDT by BnBlFlag
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To: BnBlFlag

I also remember the switches and roses. I now wear my white one very proudly.


2 posted on 05/06/2008 8:15:37 AM PDT by easternsky
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