What Rhymes With Duck?

Seventy-five, the diamond jubilee, 3/4 of a century, milestone. Today the number 75 belongs to my mom. She was born on this day in 1939. I often joke that I can remember my mother's age because she was born the same year that "The Wizard of Oz" (my all time favorite movie) and "Gone with the Wind" were released. What stellar films to share your birth year with, but I digress. My mother was born Peggy Anne Meintel to Margaret Chapman Oliver and Alfred John Meintel. She was their second child having an older brother, Alfred John Meintel, Jr. She grew up in Canton, OH but moved here to Richmond, VA, in her tween years to stay with my aunt as her mother was having major surgery. She would tell me stories when I was little about how she was scared to tell anyone who she was at school because her name, Meintel, was clearly German, and Germans weren't the most popular in America in the early 1940's. My mom was a teenager right smack dab in the middle of the 1950's, a decade my generation glamorized with musicals like "Grease" and the television show, Happy Days. From the pictures I have seen of my mom at that time, I fancy her a bit of a rebel. She didn't have the high pony tail like every other girl, she had a ducktail. She went away to school for her Junior and Senior year to PEACE college in Raleigh, NC. All the pictures I've seen of her, she was a beauty, and still is for that matter. Fast forward a bit. In the late 50's she was working for a company called National Cash Register or NCR for short, and one of the cash register repairmen fell for her. That man was my dad, Ralph Jackson Moore. In 1960 they were married, and that proved to be no easy task as they had both had previous marriages and many pastors refused to marry them. What a difference 54 years make, huh? In two years they had my sister, Jenna, and I came along on Halloween day in 1963.
So, if you ask my sister, she thinks I'm a freak because I remember things in major detail, sometimes down to what I'm wearing. I remember a lot of things about my mom from my very early childhood, as early as age 3. I remember driving down to Florida in our brown station wagon, me and my sister laying down and sleeping in the back as we left mega early in the morning. We stopped at some restaurant to have breakfast, and I have a memory clear as day of my mother sitting me on the back of the open tailgate of the station wagon changing me from my pajamas into a Peanuts White sweatshirt, a pair of dungarees, as she called them, translation: blue jeans, and a sailor hat with the brim turned down. I remember her always having spiced apple rings at Christmas dinner because I liked those. She sang to me a lot when I was little. The song that really stands out to me, oddly, is Here Comes Santa Claus. She always put the tree up and decorated it on Christmas Eve, and she was a great cook! We spent most weekends with my grandparents, and I can remember coming home on Sunday nights and taking in the smells that were wafting out of the kitchen of whatever she had cooked for her and my dad. My favorite? Hamburgers, gravy and rice. I had those leftovers many a Monday morning for breakfast. One of my absolute favorite memories involving me and my mom is, ironically, not the best situation for me, but it's one of those, we'll look back on this and laugh one day kind of memories. I was about 7 years old, and my mom, my sister and I, were shopping at the A&P, a grocery store in our neighborhood. We were coming down the dairy aisle, and I asked Mom if she would buy me some canned whipped cream. She said no. I trailed along behind my mother and sister making up my own cuss words. Now, I must insert here that my family did not use cuss words, I had only heard the occasional damn, and my mother's personal favorite when things weren't going right, hell's bells, but none of the biggies! I decided this day to make up words that rhymed with duck. You see where this is going, right? "Duck! Muck! F**k!" My mother wheeled around so fast, and I knew from the look on her face that I was in big trouble, but I had no idea what I'd done. Of course her first inclination was to ask, "What did you say?" So, of course, I repeated it right there in the aisle of the A&P right next to the Hostess snack cakes. I don't remember a whole lot immediately after that, but I do remember when my dad got home, my mom had to write the word down to tell my father what I had said. They swore I heard it from someone, but I truly had just picked the wrong letter combination.
In spite of my raucous language, my mother decided to keep me around, and we had many, many years of great memories. She has been there for me in some of the most difficult times in my life. She was the best Grandma my girls could ever have, and there are too many valuable things to name that she has taught me, and I will forever be grateful. Happy Birthday, Mom! Have a duckin' great day!

We're Off to See the Wizard!

Today is the anniversary of a very important event, well important to me anyway. On this date back in 1939, The Wizard of Oz premiered at Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood, CA. It is no secret that I absolutely adore The Wizard of Oz. In fact my first blog post was about a Wizard of Oz snuggie that I had received as a Christmas present. I can't ever remember not watching the movie. It has always been in my life. Of course, when I was growing up, back in the mid 1960's and early 70's, there were no VCR's or DVD's or Cable television for that matter. There were 4 stations. ABC, NBC, CBS, and Public Broadcasting. Therefore, The Wizard of Oz was broadcast once a year, and I never missed it until my senior year in high school when a Forensics competition prevented me from my yearly viewing. I was extremely distraught! With the invention of video and now DVD and Bluray, one can watch this amazing movie whenever the urge strikes, and as odd as this may sound, that makes me a little sad because the yearly viewing was an event, something to look forward to, like a holiday. I am, however, very grateful that I have the movie preserved and in my possession to watch in case television ever decides to stop airing it. As much as I love it, I have only seen it on the big screen twice and that was as an adult, although you wouldn't know it by my excited behavior! The Wizard of Oz is  one of those movies you either love or hate. I have met some haters in my day, but regardless of what you feel about the the film and its story, I defy anyone to watch it for its production value and not be amazed at the final product and just how well the movie is filmed! Now remember, this was filmed in 1938 when there were no computers, so no CGI (Computer Generated Imagery). Every special effect had to be designed with something tangible and filmed to make the desired effect. The "twister" scene in this film is so realistic, that if I had been on set, I may have pushed  Auntie Em out of the way to get to the storm cellar. The  idea to film the farm scenes in Sepia tone and the over the rainbow scenes in brilliant color was ingenious, and forget about the Wicked Witch of the West being scary (in fact I know some adults to this day who are afraid of her). It's the Flying Monkeys that are the creepiest! I can't believe they are people in costume. Add to all that a magnificent cast, Judy Garland, Ray Bolger, Bert Lahr, Jack Haley, Billie Burke, Margaret Hamilton and Frank Morgan and you had an awesome film! It has become an icon of the 20th century, and it has been delighting audiences, young and old alike, since it's debut. Whether your child watches it over and over again on DVD or you catch it on TBS when they run it back to back on a weekend ( and don't pretend that when your channel surfing if you see it, that you don't stop. I know I do) it will always be with us as part of our history and part of our hearts.