Eileen and Larry Somers

 Larry often (daily?) said lovely things to my mom. One of his favorites was commenting on her "beautiful brown eyes." I thought of this recently when I told my dog he has such beautiful brown eyes . . . and realized that the phrase sounded really familiar! It sounded familiar because I heard my dad say that to my mom throughout my childhood. He also said "Have I told you lately that I love you?" or "Have I told you lately how much I love you?" So sweet to have this language poured out on a regular basis! I'm glad that there were as many "I love you" statements as there were in the household I grew up in. Thanks, Dad. <I wrote the above on 9.2.2020. I'm back here on 2.6.2026.>   I told my dog he had beautiful brown eyes and thought of my dad telling my mom that. He would also joke that her eyes were brown because she was "full of sh*t." My parents were very verbal - in good ways and in critical ways. There was love, laught...

Eileen used to be a big fan of modeling clay. Louise recently unearthed this and of course all the clay was rock hard. The tin was nasty. "Throw it away!" I told her, but I made sure to get photos first. We would roll out snakes, make "snowman" balls, and create random stuff. I think we mostly had red and green, so a lot of brown happened! I'm not entirely sure why she was so very anti-Play-doh . . . too expensive? Too highly dyed? Too fun? (Just kidding! She was really a big fan of having fun.) She never tried the recipes to make our own, either. Perhaps that wasn't a "thing" in the 60s and 70s. My kids had store-bought Play-doh for the most part, but I think we made our own a few times, too. I also love seeing the old kitchen floor in these pics. I should do a post just of photos of how the house used to be with the lime green carpeting and the carpet squares down in the basement. This lovely rock-themed linoleum is still in the kitchen a...

Eileen wanted grandchildren so had to settle for Ann's grand dog Zurie.  Eileen would hold the ball for a while and pretend to throw it, then she would.  Good fun.  Larry was thrown to a barking dog when he was babysat as a child, so did not like dogs - even goldens, but Mother got to loving Zurie.  One Mother's day (or near Mother's Day) I came in the house crying, towing Zurie by the leash. She had found a baby rabbit nest in the snow on the mountain.  She was trying to sympathize with my sensibilities, but being a good farmer, couldn't help smiling.  I said: "you want her to get all the bunnies - right?  Then you go out with her and finish up any (maimed) animals. When she had dementia, I told her about Zurie and a hawk chasing a bunny and she didn't like that story.  Then, towards the end it was too much for her and she didn't want Zurie around anymore.  But I remember her loving her furry grand child.

Eileen was ahead of her time. She had a nativity scene and kept the straw separate from it. We had to to chores to get to put a piece of straw in the manger for the baby Jesus. She encouraged us to make good choices and be helpful so that we could get the privilege of putting straw in the nativity.

We would go out to eat after church once in a while. We would share dishes, mom and I. We'd get the weird thing and split it. Something like a Greek omelet. Dad liked that we split it. He got a kick out of it. He'd comment on it.

On a family trip to Florida (back in the late 90s or early aughts) Tom, Sam, and Chris were enjoying mom's and dad's hospitality. They went to an all-you-can-eat buffet. The girls got a kick out of Tom eating octopus. It was a good meal. Mom went to get dessert. On the way home, she started cramping up. We took a bus as far as we could, but we were walking through the park. She had to go to the bathroom so badly she didn't think she would make it. There was a Port-a-Potty, so she tried to get to it before it was too late. It was too late. Tom felt so bad for her! The "dessert" area was right next to the sushi area . . . and she had gotten some nasty stuff.

Larry liked candy and would often offer it to others. Some of his favorites were my least favorite, though. He liked circus peanuts - those orange things reminiscent of styrofoam. He also liked chocolate covered cherries. One Christmas, at least three different people gave him a box for gifts! As he passed them around for others to "enjoy," most of us declined. Another favorite of his were the classic Hershey chocolate bars. The full sized ones! Some of us are a bit more particular about our chocolate and don't enjoy the Hershey milk chocolate. He loved buying boxes of chocolates - Russell Stover or Whitman's - for our mother. Then when she ate them, he commented on her eating too many chocolates . . . As Ann reminded me, he also liked ice cream bars. The ones with vanilla ice cream and the hard chocolate shell. When I was little, I would go through my Halloween candy and take out all the Bit O' Honey and the icky orange and black wrapped maple ones...