Category: Delta

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Mom Mugs For Dad

I forgive Mom for wearing no Tie o’ the Day in this photo. In fact, she gets a complete pass on any missing neckwear until she turns 90 on September 26.

As far as I’ve been able to calculate, Dad took this snapshot of Mom some time in 1948, a few months before they got married. The location is somewhere on the Utah west desert—probably close to Baker, NV. They were both 17, and they were ga-ga for each other. Mom says they still are. I have no doubt. Smitten, the both of them.

After Dad died in 2007, Mom received a sympathy card from “one of the Lyman girls” (I’ve temporarily forgotten which one.) who grew up in the house directly across the street from our home. She wrote that watching Mom and Dad as she was growing up was like watching a love story unfold. “The Lyman girl” wrote that once—when she was well past middle age herself, and Mom and Dad were old and gray—she had been at Top’s Cafe in Delta, where Dad sat at the counter chatting with his coffee buddies. When Mom happened to walk in with her gang for lunch, Dad’s blue eyes immediately lit up. It looked to “the Lyman girl” like all Dad could see at Top’s was Mom. I saw that very look between them more times than I can count. It was the tenor of their way with each other.

I was lucky and blessed to grow up in a house with parents who were so clearly and openly in love. So many of my childhood friends weren’t raised amidst the security that comes from watching their parents take good and constant care of each other. From my vantage point, even in their rare bickering, Mom and Dad never said or did things that diminished each other’s dignity. Their respect for each other always ruled the day.

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I Miss Mom’s Visits To Our Abode

Bow Tie o’ the Day naps with Mom in 2017, on one of her last sleepovers with us in Centerville. She had been wearing Bow Tie while I was taking post photos of all of us during her visit. She suddenly needed to doze, so I took Bow Tie off her neck and she conked out on the couch immediately. I’m sure Skitter is just out of frame, because when Mom and Skitter are in the same room, Skitter is right at Mom’s side.

This is a dear photo to me because Mom looks so comfortable. This snapshot was taken just a few weeks after Mom broke her hip. The ambulance drove Mom from the Delta hospital to the hospital in Provo, where Suzanne and I were already waiting for her arrival. I was shocked to see Mom in such pain. There she was—with a broken hip and in need of surgery, and she was trying to be her usual chatty, glittery self. She was trying to be upbeat with the nurses, the ambulance crew, and me and Suzanne. But her face had an underlying grimace of pain I had never seen on her sweet face before. And I hope to never see it on her again.

Even through her pain that June night, Mom had us roaring. The nurses, the ambulance crew, and Suzanne and I were clustered around Mom’s gurney in the hall outside her hospital room waiting for the room to be ready for her. A nurse asked Mom if she needed anything. Mom thought for a second or two and said, in her best dead-serious voice, “I’d like a tall glass of morphine, please.” The nurses stood shocked. Suzanne and I laughed immediately, because we know Mom’s gift for humor. And then the nurses realized Mom had not been serious, so we all enjoyed Mom’s floorshow. Mom entertained through her pain, as is her way.

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The Grandma

These photos are from 2008, a few months after Dad died. The adorable baby girl Mom’s holding is Ronni Wright. (You can never have enough Ron Wright’s in my family.) Her big brother, Bosten, is supervising the occasion. Bosten and Ronni are two of Mom’s army of great-grandkids.

For all of my adult life, when I’ve shown up in Delta at the grocery store or the swimming pool or a restaurant, inevitably someone not related to me will ask me, “How’s Grandma doing?” I know exactly who they are asking about. Mom has always treated the friends of her grandkids and great-grandkids like they belong to our family. She’s an extra grandma to them. And I’m sure she knows what kind of cookies each one of them likes best.

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Mid-week Mom O’ The Shades

I don’t know exactly what Mom is up to at Millard Care and Rehab today, because I can’t make phone contact with her. She has so many family members and pals on this earth who regularly call to check on her that her phone is always busy, especially since she’s living in lockdown. That’s a good thing, and I’m very grateful to everyone who cares so deeply about her—except when I want to talk to her and her phone is busy. I’m annoyed I have to share her with anyone else when that happens.

This is a photo of Mom at MCR demonstrating her crafting skills earlier this year. The duster she’s wearing has a small Bow Tie o’ the Duster at the neck, thus qualifying Mom to be on TIE O’ THE DAY. But my fave detail about this pic is that when you look closely at Mom’s ear, you can see she is wearing her clip-on earrings. Yes, she put on earrings to do crafts at the care center. What a sense of her own style, Helen Sr. has! She knows exactly who the Hell-en she is, and she’s not afraid to show her true hellion self to anybody. No wonder she sleeps well. May we all be so comfortable with who we truly are when we’re 89. I’ve got a lot to work on to feel that cool about myself, but I’m trying. Mom’s always been a phenomenal character, drawing people into her circle without even trying to. Which is why her phone is always busy and I can’t get in touch with her.

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Sisters And Blankets And Stardom

The new-to-this-earth Susanna Rue Crane—with help from her dad and her older sister, Felicity—graces us with her head Bow Tie o’ the Day, in the midst of her bigly stretch. And just who are these people? That’ll take some ‘splainin.’

I’ve mentioned before that by the time I came along, my siblings were well on their way to being out the door. I was solo most of the time. When I wanted some sound and fury and sibling-like entertainment, I made my way to Lucille and Dan Hansen’s house, where their kids were always engaged in some road show or another. We were in the same ward for most of my kidhood. Becky was my softball coach, and we talked about plays and poetry. David and I were forever trying to out-circus each other. Kathleen was more stoic, but had just the right amount of troublemaker in her. She was a real pal. Peggy was the last of that particular Hansen clan. She’s younger than yours truly, and I mostly remember her as an audience to whatever David and I, or Kathleen and I, schemed to do. (Hmmmmm. Note to self: I must write about some of my Hansen stories. Soon.)

Flash forward. So Peggy Hansen created her own family, and her oldest is named Becca. Are ya with me? So then Becca and her hubby created Felicity. And now—they’ve created Susanna Rue for us to coo about.

When I told Suzanne someone I’ve never actually met was having a new baby, Suzanne got craft-excited and thought, “BLANKET!” And then when I told her the new baby has an imaginative older sister they call Miss Fliss, Suzanne got craft-excited again, and thought, “ANOTHER BLANKET!” She immediately got to work with her crochet hooks.

I see Miss Fliss chose the arrow blanket for herself, leaving the elephant blanket for Susanna Rue. You follow your arrow, Miss Fliss! You and Susanna Rue are now officially stars on TIE O’ THE DAY. You are both welcome to appear on a post any time you wish.

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Mom And Skitter Miss Each Other

When I talk to Mom on the phone, she always wants to know what Skitter is up to. I tell Mom Skitter is up to the same things she always is: She sleeps, potties, eats, runs around like crazy, naps, barks at the world, eats, potties, and sleeps again. She naps in as many different places as she she can, all day long. That’s when Mom tells me her daily routine at MCR is the very same as Skitter’s. That’s when I tell Mom that’s exactly why she and The Skit love and miss each other. You can surely tell Mom and Skitter apart in these photos. Mom is the one with the cup o’ Pepsi, and Skitter is the one wearing her Tie o’ the Day.

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Mom Knows All

Some days we just need a glimpse of yesteryear—with Mom on my porch, holding her glass of Pepsi. Note the can of oven cleaner next to Mom. She had been spraying ants on the sidewalk with Raid on her way over to my house, but used up all the ant spray. She went back in her house and retrieved a can of oven cleaner, which she sprayed into ant-filled sidewalk cracks from her place to mine. She told me the oven cleaner spray killed ants just as well as ant spray. Batman Bow Tie o’ the Day did not argue with Mom about her scientific discovery.

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Christmas Is Right Around The Corner

Here are some past X-mas Neckwear o’ the Day photos. Guess what I want for Christmas this year? A hug from Mom. Yeah, I’m 56 and my needle is stuck on the “hug from Mom” record again.

I called Mom this afternoon, and she’s just as chipper as ever. Mom’s always upbeat. It makes me jealous. Almost every time I call her, she is in the middle of doing something or talking to someone. Today, she’s on the hunt for pine nuts from out west. I have no doubt she will wrangle someone in town into sneaking some in to her despite the lockdown. Mom’s got pull. She’s like her very own Mafia boss. She’s THE MOMFATHER. And what The Momfather wants, The Momfather gets!

I kinda feel like I’m interrupting Mom’s routine when I call, but calls from the family are also part of her routine at MCR—especially since we can’t visit her during the lovely COVID-19 era. She says she sleeps well there, and she feels safe. As her family, we couldn’t possibly ask for her to be in a better spot. She always reassures us that she’s content right where she is. She says she’s quite content even though she and the other MCR residents can’t sit by each other at meals or go on their field trips right now.

Mom’s gonna be 90 at the end of September. She deserves to relax, and so that’s what she does. She’s very busy relaxing, all the livelong day.

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Can Anyone Guess Mom’s Fave Color?

This slide is from 1969. I’m the one mugging for the camera. Mom is outfitted in orange-and-green plaid and her curlers as she bathes her first grandchild, Jeff Tucker, on our kitchen table. My brother, Rob, grins on. I like that Mom is inadvertently giving a shout-out to Tupperware—demonstrating yet another of the product’s practical uses: as a bathtub for bambinos.

Bow Tie o’ the Day and I can reasonably speculate that orange might be Mom’s favorite color. Mom wore a lot of orange outfits. Our kitchen cupboards (seen here) wore a thick coat of orange. Our living room carpet was orange too. And here’s a secret Mom was proud of: Although our living room walls may have appeared to be a normal off-white, they were not. Mom made sure Shine Church at the lumber yard added a drop or two of orange into the paint when he mixed it. I could never see any hint of orange on our walls, but Mom was adamant it was visible. And she was sure it added both elegance and hipness to our living room walls. I vaguely remember she had a set of orange sconces in the hall at one time. Mom had a knack for making our simple house truly remarkable.

Two of the things I learned from Mom’s decor sensibility are as follows: 1. Orange goes with everything. 2. A room isn’t complete without at least one sconce on one of its walls.

BTW It occurs to me that although Dad was a bigly fan of purple and lavender hues, his hunting-whatever-is-in-season also made orange one of his fave colors too. He spent a lot of time wearing orange. And camo. Don’t get me started on the camo, which is probably the official “color” of the Wright clan.

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The Good, The Bad, The Plastic

Bow Tie o’ the Day presents The Garden of Eden, as created in plastic on a styrofoam base—by my grandmother, Zola Wright. She made this wonder in the mid-70’s. As you can see, decades of dust have settled upon it. It is so precarious and fragile at this point that any attempt to clean it properly would surely destroy it. Please note Satan’s pitchfork, and the tempting gold snake in the tree behind Adam. Don’t miss the fig leaf coverage of Adam’s and Eve’s private parts. The orange critter at Eve’s feet is a poodle. I don’t know why it’s there, but I guess my grandmother knew everyone should have a dog—even Adam and Eve.

FYI It has been beyond forever since I have designed a Weird Date Night to write about, but that will change this evening. We have Weird Pandemic Date Night plans, which y’all can read about tomorrow. No 2nd post today, cuz I’ll be busy elsewhere.