Mom and Me

As you will see over time if you follow this blog, my mom and I became good friends when I grew up. I can thank my mom for a lot. I notice in these early pictures that Mom always a worried look on her face. She was so glad to have a child she did worry that she would not measure up.



It was a false worry. At 61 I am very healthy and I give her credit for that health. She approached Motherhood as a job. She studied and worked to provide me, and later my sisters with a diet and environment of health.

Mom had read that we needed grains in our diet, but we would no eat cream of wheat or any cereal grans. We would eat pancakes however, so she put the grains in the pancakes. She put All-Bran, Wheat Germ, Malt-o-Meal, and Cream of Wheat in our pancakes and we gobbled them down. The flavor of those pancakes was rich. When I left home I wondered why no other pancakes were so good. (060608)

Larkin and Me

Here I am with my cousin Larkin. He was the grandson of Mother's brother Bruce. I think this was taken in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Both of Mother's brothers lived there. I do not remember this trip.



Larkin's mother was Betty Gayle. I do not know a lot about the story of Betty Gayle's first marraige.



I never really got to know Larkin or the family from Arkansas. Family is a funny thing. We talk today a lot about family values but aside from the core family, Mother, Father, and children, family does not seem to mean much. Since the 50's American's have been mobile and that allowed families to disperse. With that great dispersal went our sense of identity.

Maybe for me that connection is more important becauee I have no blood family. There is no one in my life that I am genetically connected to. Truly this man is an island. (060708)