Interview with Mom

 Today is my mom’s 79^th birthday. Here is her birthday interview 🙂.

 

What is your very first memory? It’s hard to distinguish actual memories from stories I’ve heard and pictures I’ve seen. I don’t know if I really remember them or if I only know of them. But I think one of my first memory memories was when I was about 4 years old and we lived in Savanna. Mother and Daddy had taken me to nursery school one morning in a taxi cab—we didn’t have a car—and there had been a hurricane the night before—but why Mother was going to work, I have no idea—but the nursery school was closed, so I had to go to work with mother. I remember that taxi ride—there were trees down and stuff.

 

What is one of your favorite childhood memories? Listening for the ice cream man. In long ago memories, the ice cream man pushed a little cart around in the street and you could go out and buy popsicles and stuff. Then later it became a truck.

 

What is one of your most meaningful Bible verses or passages?

*Thinks for a long time.*

*Mom: “My problem is that I can’t remember what they are or where they are without looking them up.”

*Dad, slightly exasperated, slightly joking: “Sandra, this is pitiful. You don’t have a life verse?!”

*Mom: “I’ve never had a life verse.”

*Dad: “Honey, you could just say John 3:16.”

*Mom: “Danny, this is not your interview!”

*Mom: “Hold on just a second. Let me go get something.”

*Returns with her Bible and journal.*

*Mom: Okay. The other night, I was reading and I came to 2 Corinthians 8:10. It said: “The best thing you could do right now is to finish what you started last year.” I took that as a prophecy that I needed to get busy and do my CD. And I like the Joshua 1:9 verse: Do not be afraid. Do not be discouraged. For the Lord your God is with you. And did you know that in The Message, it says to ‘play his praise on a grand piano?’ But only in the Message. You see, I know a lot of meaningful verses, I just don’t know them off the top of my head.”

 

What is your greatest accomplishment? Living with your dad for 58 years (as Dad does the Blake Shelton point to himself.)

 

What were the most significant events of your 79^th year?

*Me: “But you’re turning 79.”

*Mom: “Right. I’ve just finished my 79^th year. On my birthday, I’ll be starting my 80^th year. People don’t understand that. And sometimes I want to correct them. It’s a mathematical thing.”

*Me: “Gotcha.”

*Mom: “But anyway…the things that stand out from my 79^th year are Mother and Aunt Rene dying on consecutive days; Henry’s buzzer-beater to win the Friendship-Apex rivalry game; Amelia’s Passage Portfolio Conference to finish 8^th grade; the times that the Deaton Dozen haven spent together; and Henry’s high school graduation.

 

What is your favorite pasta shape? Alphabet macaroni.

 

What do you remember about the Civil Rights Movement? I don’t really have memories of the Civil Rights movement as a movement. I guess maybe I knew it was going on, but it only affected me when the school where I was teaching was integrated either in 65/66 or 66/67. We got one African American student and one African American teacher. Total integration took a long time.

 

What do you remember most about your wedding? Well. I remember getting my hair done at a beauty shop in Dunn, and although they tried, the ladies didn’t know how to fix my hair and I had to redo it when I got back to the motel. And then when we were getting in the car on the way to the church, I had a nosebleed. I don’t know if I already had my dress on or not, but I remember that. I don’t remember much about the wedding itself. We did have the entire Campbell Touring Choir to sing, but I didn’t hear them. And we don’t have a recording. In that day, reception food consisted simply of wedding cake, nuts, mints, and punch—not the elaborate spreads and meals of today. We had ordered a beautiful cake, but it was way too small for the number of guests we had, and I am told that my aunts had to slide it super thin to serve all the guests. When we left the church, we drove Danny’s parent’s car to get our car which had been left at the motel where our families were staying. We had a Volkswagen Bug, and when we got to the motel, we found it stuffed full of newspapers. We couldn’t even get into the car! The ironic thing is that Danny had helped his roommates save the newspapers!  

 

What is your current advice to younger generations? My current advice to younger generations is to value the people in your life and to place priority on spending time with people, particularly of older generations, and learning from them. Get off your screens and talk to people. Time is the best gift you can give another person.