Since you are already somewhat introduced to the way my Mother’s mind works, it might be appropriate to give you more information. After all, this is the woman who raised me, and at age 91 (hers, not mine) has more impact on my day to day existence than any other. Some days are much better than others.
One of the funniest books I’ve ever read was the bestseller by Justin Halpern titled “Sh*t my Dad Says.” Sadly for Justin, his hilarious stories bombed on t.v. and the sequel book was nonsense. His dad had only so much “sh*t.” My mother, on the other hand, had very little so I won’t be getting a best seller out of her. Yet I do think her axioms are all good enough to share for those of you who were not raised by a southern lady. Feel free to share mine.
- Always let the “little boy” win. – Clearly, she knew some little boys I didn’t know, and also had never heard of equality. Nevertheless, no matter what game we were going to play while I was growing up, Mother always sent me off with that cheery advice. I can honestly say it is advice I have never followed.
- Don’t drink rum and coke. – WOW! I was getting ready to leave for college and this was the only piece of advice I got from a woman who I had never seen take a drink. To this day, I wonder what precipitated that nugget of knowledge. However, to this day I’ve never had rum and coke so that shows you my level of trust.
- Anything you do three times in a row becomes a habit. – She finally hit it out of the park with this advice when I was raising my children. Those little minds have big memories. Ergo, night #3, you let them cry it out.
- Marry a poor boy with lots of ambition. – Truly easy to live by since I never knew any rich boys. I did date one that had a job stocking at Tom Thumb and he seemed rich at the time, but that didn’t last past high school.
- Don’t go out on a first date with someone who wouldn’t want to marry. You can’t help who you fall in love with. – I still can’t figure out how you know you wouldn’t want to marry someone if you didn’t go out with them but apparently, she had a secret list she never shared.
- S/he is so perfect in so many other ways. – This is unquestionably Dennis’s favorite. It beats the tar out of anything else you can say when someone screws up. After 40+ years of marriage, the other ways may be running out, but he will never know it with this admonition.
- A new broom sweeps clean. – Think about it. Every time you get a new boss, president, whoever, there are sweeping changes, right? It fits so much. So, this is my go-to excuse for anything I want to quit and pass on.
- And I close with our family favorite with full credit to my paternal grandmother: TAKE PIE WHILE IT’S PASSING. – I never go shopping without that forefront in my mind. If I see it, time to buy. After all, pie is passing and it may not be there when it goes around again. You would be amazed at how much “pie” there is in any given week.
And like my Mother’s advice, I encourage you to grab all the pie while it’s passing that you can, as long as you don’t drink it with rum and coke.
Writes of Passage 
Ha! Four and a half years your junior, and I never heard about the perils of rum and coke, and she became more lenient. I was told to give a guy three dates before deciding to continue seeing him or not – and I’ve stuck with that! (Although not always, often one date is enough to call it quits!) I never heard about that new broom, and I learned to drink screwdrivers at home!! I guess they were on the approved list.
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