Wow! I have an actual 'follower"....(thanks, Fran!) Now the pressure is mounting to actually write something more often than semi-annually.

I wrote about my dad in my last post, now I want to think about my mom.

Whew! That's really difficult to do without tearing up. My earliest memories of mom are probably of her working in the yard. I can remember David and I sitting in the dirt making houses and roads (piles of dirt with lines drawn in it). We always had little cars around and would play and play. I'm aware that mom was there, but mostly David and I were in our play-world.

When I was about 4, the kids next door (Rosie and Dory Brown) and I decided to play barbershop. I always wanted my hair to look like Kathy Moon's hair. She must have kept it behind her ears..I'm a little iffy on those details...and it seemed the most logical thing for my "barbers" to cut the hair over my ears short. So they did.

Now keep in mind I was the first female Stewart born in50 years...I thought I was a princess, and no one said or did anything to make me believe otherwise. It was somewhat important for me to embrace my femininity. So I joyfully ran home to show mom my hair that looked "just like Kathy's". I can imagine my mom's shock when her little girl runs into the house with long hair in the back (yes, it finally was long) and butch hair on both sides. The original mullet hairdo. I remember her voice...very high pitched..."WHAT have you DONE!" The rest is history. I'll post a picture my big brother Jimmy took of me about that time. The only thing she could do was cut the back short and pretend she meant to give me a 'pixie' haircut. One of the most humiliating memories she would share about that period of time was when one of the Filipino grocers at the store down the street asked "Mrs. Stewart! Why is your little BOY wearing a dress?"

Mom was a dreamer of sorts. She was always trying to find ways to help support the family. She was instrumental in building the restaurant she and dad ran. Stewart's Malt Shop was the original name. Later it became Stewart's Restaurant, then diversified into Stewart's Restaurant and S&W Liquors. Finally the restaurant gave way to S&W Liquors and Delicatessen. It was a big deal in California in those days to win a liquor license. If I recall correctly they were awarded by lottery.

Mom was a hard worker. When she and dad squabbled it was usually in trying to determine who was more tired and worn out on any given day. She was a good businesswoman, but housekeeping was never high on the list of must-do list. I took that from her. Its much more important to have fun or do a new project on any given day than to worry about the housework. That will be there tomorrow.

When other people would describe my mom they would say she was the type of person who would give you the shirt off her back, a euphemism for a big and generous heart. She was certainly that, and I hope I got some of that from her, as well. We often had a relative or two living in our home which I think is certainly an example of her big heart. My aunt lived with us for most of my childhood as well as various others from time-to-time.

She loved nothing more than lavishing presents and other things on her children and grandchildren. We were her joy. During my childhood she went to night school and got her GED. Later she studied and got her real estate license. Later still she got a real estate brokers license. About that time she decided she no longer wanted to work in the high pressure world of real estate and went to work as a stocker for Kmart.

My gosh, I've been writing for a long while now and I haven't even scratched the surface of who my mom and dad were. I'll try to work on that in later posts.

Have a great day.