Mothers do have ideas about how things should be.
In her new memoir Dimestore: A Writer’s Life, Lee Smith (Fair and Tender Ladies, Oral History, Ordinary Grace) shares some of the things her mother taught her:
“I was not to use double negatives; I was not to say ‘me and Martha.’ I was not to trade my pimento cheese sandwiches at school for the lunch I really wanted: cornbread and buttermilk in a mason jar, brought by the kids from the hollers. Me and Martha were not to play in the black river behind our house, dirty with coal that would stain my shorts. I was to take piano lessons from the terrifying Mrs. Ruth Boyd even though I had no aptitude for it.”
“From Main Street, it was only a stone’s throw to our little Methodist Church…. ‘Ju-ust as I a-am, without one plea,’ we sang tremulously at revivals, where I always rededicated my life, to my mother’s embarrassment. ‘A nice girl does not rededicate her life at the drop of a hat,’ she said.”
“When I think of Mama, she is always at home, holding forth in her kitchen, and somebody is always there visiting…. The women lean forward, over their coffee cups, and lower their voices. Writing or drawing at my own little table in the corner, I perk right up. Now they are going to really talk, about somebody who ‘has just never been quite right, bless her heart,’ or somebody who is ‘kindly nervous,’ or somebody else who’s ‘been having trouble down there.’ Down there is a secret place, a foreign country, like Mexico or Nicaragua. I keep on drawing, and don’t miss a word.”
“One time when we all went out for bagels in Chapel Hill, she said, ‘This may taste good to someone who has never eaten a biscuit.’ Another thing she used to say is, ‘No matter what is wrong with you, a sausage biscuit will make you feel a whole lot better.’”
“When he [my husband] suddenly moves out, I am traumatized. I am thirty-seven, old as the hills, old as dirt. And now I am getting a divorce. My mother bursts into tears. ‘Nobody in our family has evah gotten a divorce,’ she weeps, though later she will admit that a numbah of them should have.”
I’ll leave you with one of my favorite passages to reflect on for Mother’s Day:
“My mother’s recipe box sits on the windowsill on our North Carolina kitchen where my eye falls on it twenty, maybe thirty times a day. I will never move it. An anachronism in my own modern kitchen, the battered box contains my mother’s whole life story, in a way…. On impulse I reach for Mama’s recipe box and take out one of the most wrinkled and smudged, Pimento Cheese, everybody’s favorite, thinking as always that I really ought to get these recipes into the computer, or at least copy them before they disintegrate completely. On this card, Mama underlined Durkee’s dressing, followed by a parenthesis: ‘(The secret ingredient!)’ Though I would never consider leaving Durkee’s Dressing out, I don’t really believe it is the secret ingredient. The secret ingredient is love.”
(This doesn’t just apply to recipes.)
* * *
Lee Smith will be in Nashville this week! She’s speaking at Parnassus on Wednesday, May 11th, at 6:30 p.m.
* * *
Here’s a funny line I overheard yesterday in a nail salon waiting area. A mother was trying to make conversation with her teenage daughter, who was obviously tired. “Mom, I am not going to put up with this chit chat,” she stated unequivocally. Hysterical laughing by the mom (me) followed. Sometimes the special sauce of Mother love is embracing honesty. Xo
* * *
I am so going to this! I LOVE every quote you have highlighted!!
It’s a delightful read! Enjoy! Xo
Sounds like a great read!
Happy Mother’s Day!!
HMD, Amy! Yes it is! xo
Hilarious..and so familiar! Happy Mother’s Day!
HMD, Anne! These kids. 🙂 xo
A good book for a Happy Mother’s Day. Thank you.
When I read it a week or so ago, I had no idea it would be so full of Mother’s Day material. Lucky timing! All warmest wishes, Andrea! xo
Love this piece, Jennifer! I enjoyed Lee’s book also. My mother had a recipe box. And guess what? So do I! My daughter will get it , with all the recipes scratched off on ragged old envelopes and cards, now stained. I have contemplated putting it all on computer, but decided not to. Too many memories with each recipe. Kathy Schultenover Parnassus Books
So lovely to pass the box from generation to generation, Kathy! I bet there are some absolutely wonderful recipes inside that box. (So glad today’s post resonated… you will have to tell Lee when she’s at the store… or maybe bring it!) xo
I am thankful this Mother’s Day for a daughter who loves to write and has her own blog now. It was my wish for her among other things when she was a tiny baby that she would love books and all the worlds to be explored therein!
I even wrote that in one of her first books. I need to get busy and find it!
I am already enjoying Dimestore which you sent in time for Mothers Day!
I especially like the last paragraph of your blog today- about a mother and her daughter in a nail shop! Funny! It’s got to be one of my two granddaughters! No names! Great that you got a hearty laugh instead of getting your feelings hurt!
Just a part of mother-daughter relationships especially when you have teenagers! With time and luck, there will be a different perspective!
Love and Happy Mother’s Day to you, my dear Jennifer!
Happy Mother’s Day, dear Mom! I will tell you which daughter next time we talk. 🙂 Much love, Jen
I believe that I can guess which one it was! Happy Mother’s Day to the beautiful Mom who can laugh at a teenager’s words of exasperation.
Thank you so much, Peggy! Thank you for your very kind words, and warmest wishes to you. (And I suspect you would guess right!!) Xo
Beautiful as always, J! I’m glad that I wasn’t at nail salon because if unnamed daughter thought enough with YOUR chatter – she would probably have walked home if she had to deal with MY chitchat! Love and miss you all! xoxo
Obviously, I should have been at the nail salon with you!! Love and miss you too. Xo