Today, as in most days, when my Mom and I complete our morning routine to get me ready for the day, we listen to a mix I made for her on my Apple Music account. I made it for a surprise 65th birthday party for her that we never ended up having. We can still listen to the mix though! It’s saved on my playlist as, “Mom/Abuela.”
We listen to that playlist most days and in the beginning, she would be surprised that she liked so many of the songs. I had to tell her that the songs were chosen SPECIFICALLY for her, (my brother, Ray, was really instrumental in choosing the songs). All of the songs live in my peripheral memory of growing up and hearing my Mom sing along with these songs either in our kitchen or in the green station wagon. It wasn’t until we started working together in the mornings that I found out a few things.
When this song comes on, my Mom gets a kind of far away look and smile’s. I asked her why she does that and she told me this song reminds her of driving to Oklahoma as a newlywed. She drove at night while my Dad slept so they could get there faster because my Dad had to report it to the fort because even though he was stateside, he was still in the military.
My Mom kind of chuckles when she remembers when my Dad woke up and he didn’t know where they were. When my Mom told him, he asked her how fast she was driving because they were really far! She told him simply that she was driving 90 mph! He protested because the car was new and he told her she should NOT be driving it that fast but as she tells me, she just smiles and says that no one was on the road and it was really smooth so she just gunned it!
I remember seeing a picture of my Mom laying on the hood of the car that was named, “Twilit.” The car was a 1970 Chevy Impala. I pulled up a couple pictures and my Mom couldn’t quite remember the color. It’s between these two colors:
I like hearing stories about my parents when they were first married and before they were parents. I don’t know them NOT being parents! I like seeing the look of, “remember-y.” That’s a word Sean used to use when he was about three years old and I’ll write about that a little bit later…
What a sweet, sweet memory. So like we remember your Mom and Dad. I had a friend whose Mom had a car just like theirs. Even the color — between the two you’ve shown. 😉 She used to wash the car and have it perfect on a weekend night and we would cruise in it on main street, from the Dairy Queen to the Texan in “small town,” America. We listened to A Horse with No Name, and many others that our generation feels is the best era of music. They are known as oldies but goodies, but goodies is just fine too! Please tell your Mom hello for us. Love you both. BTW: I love the new word in my vocabulary, remember-y.