I Remember Momma

SingsLullabyes

My first memory of her as a mom is from when I was four. We were in my Dad's apartment on 12th Street in Brooklyn (she still had her own inManhatten). My dad was smoking a cigarette while lying on his bed one evening and I jumped up onto the bed to snuggle with him. My hand came down on the lit end of the cigarette and got burned. SingsLullabyes ran with me into the kitchen and put ice right on my hand, then she took me into the bathroom and did a whole band-aid thing with kisses and everything. She made it all better.

We used to go into SoHo and go shopping at Small Business (kid's clothing, defunct for about 25 years) and then we'd eat at Food (cafeteria style restaurant, defunct for about 20 years).

She made the most scrumptious prime rib and yorkshire pudding for Christmas dinners (SL, are you really sure you want to be a pescetarian?)

Puttering about the Soap Opera (soaps and bathstuff in the Village, now defunct) on the hunt for stocking presens, poking around antique shops ("Liz, honey, keep your hands in your pockets. If you want to touch something, ask me first") looking for ornaments for the Christmas tree.

We would go out for brunches or dinners at "grown-up" restaurants and she would encourage me to get a "cocktail" (Shirley Temple) and to NOT order off the kids menu. Ahhh, Camperdown Elm - long gone now too.

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QuiltsAlot

She taught me to ride a bicycle (pink & white Schwinn, handed down from my sister), holding on to the back and running behind me (she didn't believe in training wheels). One afternoon, I was going really fast and I circled around and saw her...standing in front of me. Of course I fell right over, but I got right back on and never looked back.

She had a pottery wheel in a small room on the top floor, and she made mugs and cups and collanders and bowls that are still in use even though the pottery wheel has been gone for over 25 years.

She used to ask me to play "Beauty Parlor" with her and I'd brush and comb her hair and put barrettes in and make little swirly-dos and after a few minutes would notice she wasn't answering my questions. "Are you asleep?!?" I would demand. "Mmmm, only resssting my eyessss" she would murmur back.

We would go out walking to the ice cream parlor, and she would encourage my sister and me to order cones which she would "neaten up" for us. I am currently the world's record holder for least messy ice cream cone consumption.