Fallin' In Among 'Em by KimB

MrsB will be 95 soon. It's an amazing milestone. Hers is an amazing life.

Nearly 65 years ago I "fell in among 'em". At least that's what MrsB (my Mom) always said about family: you just "fell in among 'em". There were times that "being among 'em" was a trial but there were more times that "being among 'em" was more fun than anyone can imagine.

MrsB (aka my Mom) always had a knack for taking what some might call "bad" and turning it around to something "fun and good". We could make up the most imaginative games with all sorts of arcane rules and just have a go at making the best of things. Whenever anyone was glum or down in the dumps, she had a fix: a card game tournament, a guessing game, a look-it-up game (way before internet when you actually had to look things up in B O O K S), or doing art projects like: drawings, watercolors or papier-mâché.

Those who stop here to read her stories or see her art work, know she is very special lady. Not just to the family but to everyone that meets her. She makes everyone feel like they "fell in among 'em" and that they are right at home.

Our stories still make us laugh:

• The weekend at the beach when the park service decided that under an austerity program they would no longer buy minimal waxy toilet paper for the outhouse and supplied rolls of TP that had splinters in it.


• The time in Mexico when she found someone in the Mercado (open air market) selling peanuts and ordered 1 kilo of them.
  (You have no idea how many peanuts make up a kilo and we ate them for several years.)


• The time I came home with a wild opossum as a pet.
  (Which got turned loose in an orchard and at least avoided the stew pot a while longer.)


• The time my uncle pulled out a rifle and threatened to shoot her.


• The times she stood up to be counted and was noticed. The small Southern Town in the 1960s where she was noticed driving past a gathering near the local jail to see what was happening for herself. Our friends got a warning that a burning cross was going to be on their lawn if they didn't get "That Yankee Lady" out of town.


• The times she would not back down. Not for anyone. She did not tolerate discrimination, racism or sexism. She didn't tolerate those that took advantage of others.


• The time I applied for my first "big cook job" and was turned down because I was a woman and they didn't hire women for those positions. She made me to go back and DEMAND that job.
  I did. I got the job.


• The amazing dinners and family gatherings. Like the time we gave 7UP to Grandmother and told her it was champagne and she got all woozy-drunk.

MrsB has so many talents it's hard to grasp all the things she does. She rarely has time to "just do nothing". She works on a myriad of projects: finishing one and starting another. There is no time like "now".

There is something about everything she touches or does. It's hard to describe but there is a quality to her works the defies the plasticized, repetitive, stamped, sameness that flows around our modern lives; this sameness that we accept with few questions. The demands of oligarchs, mega-corporations and the self-centered-wealthy to: buy-this, use-that, do-this or else risk "not being IN".

Everything about her is unique. Everything she does is unique. Everything she does comes from an inner self that she pours into anything she touches: her family, her friends, her art works.

It's nearly 65 years now that I've "been among 'em". There were "good times" and "times made good". There were "better times" and "times made even better". MrsB and her life stories, the lives and stories of all our family and those of our friends both close and far are samples of "good times" and "good times made better".

I think it's a darn good thing I "fell in among 'em".

Happy Birthday Mom