Moms Know Everything...by Jim Terry

There are times of the year that I feel that I am more inspired and motivated than other times during the year. Don’t you?

Summer, for me at least, always seems to bring out the energy in me due to the long summer days and the warmth of the summer’s night air.  Another time of year that motivates and inspires me is during the holidays.  I notice that it always seem to bring out the good in me and in others. I feel as though I am kinder, more charitable and want to help those in need. Spring is another time of the year that helps rejuvenate a lot of us because the life in Mother Earth returns and can once again be witnessed. This comes in the form of green grasses growing, flowers blooming and what once was twig-like silhouettes in the trees are now full of life and can now provide shade and shelter from the summer’s sun that is only a month or two away.

I also am always partial to and inspired in May and in the spring because it is the time of year where we celebrate Mothers.  Now that my Mom is not here with me and because she is the one that started this blog, I find inspiration and motivation in my memories of her, the good person she was and in the lessons I learned from her.

One of the best lessons I learned in my life was when I was five years old. The year was 1975.  My mother and I were running some errands and we had to make a quick stop into the local “five & dime” store known as Sprouse-Reitz so that I could buy a toy truck I had been saving for. This store chain ceased operations in the mid-1990s but this was one of my favorite stores to go into when I was young. This store would be the equivalent of what a dollar store is now. They had lots of toys, trinkets, and candy for kids and the best part; it didn’t cost a lot of money. This was really important especially for a kid on a limited income of an allowance that consisted of $.50 a week.  

As we approached the checkout at the front of the store and after picking up my Tonka Truck I wanted, I noticed at kid’s eye level, of course, there was the array of candy. Now let it be known that when I was younger there were two things I always loved. Bubble Yum Bubble Gum in grape flavor and Tic Tac that was orange in flavor.

As I handed my mother the money I had earned with my allowance to pay for my truck, I couldn’t resist the temptation of also taking an orange flavored tic tac. I knew I didn't have enough money to buy the tic tac too, so when I thought my mother and the lady behind the counter weren’t looking, I gently placed my favorite candy inside of my pocket for safe keeping until later. 

I laugh at myself at times and how my adult brain works or doesn’t work some days in my adulthood, but I still wonder why or how on this particular day, in my mind as a child, I thought I could get away with something I knew was wrong or do something that my mother would possibly notice. I mean, after all–MOMS KNOW EVERYTHING! 

That night after the incident and when I thought I had gotten away with it, my mother carefully tucked me into bed and began to tell me a bedtime story as she always did.  I will never forget the story that night and listened intently because of what the story was about. Ironically, the bedtime story entailed an example of a young boy that stole something in a store, didn’t tell him mom about it and how that made his mother feel. Which was, in her own words, “Very bad.”  As the story ended, my mother did as she always did and gave me a kiss goodnight, told me to sleep well and ended it with “I love you.”

As she left my room that night or any other night, she would always leave the door partially open in order to let the light in from the hallway so I wouldn’t be afraid of the dark. On this night, however; I think the crack was left in the door so she could listen to her small son contemplate the things that he had done that day and how he might fix it.

As I lay in my bed that night I stared, for what seemed like hours, at my glow-in-the-dark stars and constellations that were placed on the ceiling. Oh, how I wished that I could be anywhere else in the universe but in my bed after what I had done.  You know how you don’t sleep on Christmas Eve night when you are a young child because of the excitement? Well, this night was wrought with sleeplessness because of my own wrongdoing and what in my mind was a “bad thing to do.”

“How could I tell my mother what I had done?” I asked myself. “And what punishment might I receive?”

The next morning as I awoke and because of my mom’s intellect in knowing her son’s mind, I went into the kitchen, cried my little blue eyes out and told her what I had done. She told me she was proud of me for telling her what I had done but we had to make things “right.”

Later that morning, my mother drove me back over to Sprouse-Reitz and gave me the $.12 for the Tic Tac plus tax which I needed to pay for the stolen Tic Tac. She told me that I had to admit what I had done, I had to pay for what I had taken and I had to do this all by myself. I still to this day will never forget how afraid I was and that I would have to talk to a stranger and tell them what I had done.

As she watched me through the front glass doors of the store, she witnessed me hesitate two or three times while looking back at her and motioning for her to come with me because of my fear and tears that day. I’m sure it was as hard for her to watch her young son learn a life lesson at such a young age as much as it was hard for me to do, but she stood her ground and I completed what I had started...by myself.  I didn’t understand it at the time but I now realize that this situation helped me learn a life lesson, or two, that day. Moms are tricky that way in how they teach us so many lessons! 

Lesson #1-Crime doesn’t pay.  You will all be happy to know that was my one and only shoplifting incident in my life.  J I now pay for everything that I take from a store.

Lesson #2- On this special day make sure to treat your mothers well.  I am so lucky to have had the mother I had and am still so broken hearted that she is not here with me to thank her and tell her how much I love her on her special day. And for those of you who still have your mothers here, treat them with kindness, honor them, love them and make sure if you are ever thinking of doing something wrong, refer to Lesson #2... “MOMS KNOW EVERYTHING.”

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY TO ALL THE MOMS OUT THERE!!!

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