Mother Memories: Family Time

There really is no time like family time. My mother always made sure of it when we spent time together. Family time was spent in a number of ways, but the first place it started was in the living room.

The most memorable nights in my house growing up was, well every night was a memorable night when you grew up with the crazies of my family, but every other night watching movies during dinner were the best. If you came to my house and looked in the back of one of our rooms you would’ve found an army of movies stacked up like a mountain. There were so many comedies, dramas, family fun, and even action movies we all loved watching together. My mother was also the biggest gangster film fan so there were a lot of mafia movies in the mix.

Movie night with my mom also came in the form of us going out to the movies often. My mom was big on us going to the movies and the interesting thing about her was she would even take us on a school night. I always thought that was funny because our set curfews were important to my mom, so I’m like “why are you taking us to the movies on a Wednesday night when you know you’re gonna be on us about getting up for school in the morning?”

When you tell most kids that their parents are coming up to the school for a visit you might be scared if you were me because I stayed in so much trouble in the classroom that punishment and a good whoopin’ followed most of these visits shortly after. Interestingly enough that wasn’t always the case. On many occasions my mother would come to visit me and my sister on either her break time or days off just to visit us in class and have lunch with us. During these visits my mom would sit and talk with us and our friends and laugh about how our daily school lives were going. My mom was always such a people person so our friends and classmates loved chatting with ms. Ruby about anything. She was big on talking to the young girl around us in very mentoring way.

Of course seasonal occasions were great times well spent. My mom always took us trick or treating when Halloween came around and made sure we got to have whatever costumes we wanted to wear, she was even nice enough to not steal all of our candy after we sorted through our batches. During Thanksgiving she always cooked good for us, even though she was already the best cook ever anyway and during Christmas she always made sure we got up bright and early to open all of our gifts. She loved the smile last on our faces when we opened our presents.

Without a doubt the most memorable family times we had was when our family would come visit us and when we would go to California to visit them. When my grandparents came to town my mom loved to take them to Golden Corral every single day because they didn’t have one where they lived in California. When we would go visit our family in California those were the best summers. Waking up in the Bay Area on a sunny summer morning and watching my mom’s shenanigans with the rest of our family was priceless.

In the years since my mother passed away me and my sister always spend time together. I guess that’s just the part of my mother that she left with us and we still carry that part around inside. To this day family time is what matters most to me, whether you’re talking about blood relatives or extended family, nothing is more important than the people you love and I have my mother to thank for teaching me that lesson.

~~Happy Heavenly Mother’s Day, Ruby Lee.