Revisiting some memories today on what would have been my mother’s 75th birthday.
From a previous blog post:
My mother and I did not share many common interests, but to her credit, she did her best most of the time to try to relate to me. As a child of the 70’s–and male–I became fascinated with the movie, Star Wars when I first saw it in the theater at the impressionable age of seven. Not a fan of science fiction–or fiction in most of its forms–my mother patiently indulged my obsession from a comfortable distance. But her lack of appreciation for the movie and its sequels did not prevent her from many a thoughtful gesture. For example, I remember coming home from school one day to find that she had bought me a Star Wars item that had somehow escaped my notice up to that point: bubble gum cards with images from the movie. The brittle pink stick that came with the cards resembled gum in only the vaguest sense, but we aspiring collectors couldn’t be less concerned with that–it was the numbered and color-coded cards we coveted. Even though I wasn’t with her in the grocery store that day when she bought them for me, I can still picture her now in my mind’s eye, a hint of a smile on her face, knowing how much I would enjoy such a simple thoughtful gesture. Little did she know that I would quickly become an avid collector, dumping a considerable amount of money into a relatively harmless hobby. But even had she known, it still wouldn’t have stopped her. I still have those cards, stored in clear plastic sleeves enclosed in a binder on my closet shelf. And I have her to thank for that memento.
Another Star Wars-related memory about my mom… When I was ten years old, I remember accompanying her on a shopping trip to the K-Mart near our house around the time The Empire Strikes Back was about to arrive in theaters. I stumbled upon an aisle in the toy section filled with action figures from the yet-to-be-seen sequel that I had been anxiously awaiting. I remember feeling overwhelmed–and, I must admit, almost intoxicated–by seeing my beloved characters in new costumes, accompanied by mysterious and intriguing new heroes and villains portrayed in plastic. And again, my mom patiently indulged my obsession by agreeing to buy me a few of these new action figures to add to my already impressive collection. And on a later trip to that same K-Mart, I can remember her relenting and buying me a new X-Wing Fighter to replace the one that had seen better days from the exhaustive regimen of daily activity it was subjected to by me. I remember noting how expensive of a purchase it was for her, but that didn’t stop her from yet another thoughtful and loving gesture on her part–knowing how happy it would make me.
Believe it or not, my mom even agreed to accompany my dad and I to the theater for one of our many subsequent viewings of Star Wars (in the days before home video)–despite the fact that she had little or no interest in seeing it. Even as a seven- or eight-year old boy, the selflessness of her gesture was not lost on me–even though I think it was several trips to the concessions counter that helped her pass the time that Saturday afternoon. Though I do remember her laughing uproariously at the cantina scene, for some reason…