Things my mom actually did in her adventurous life ...

• Sewed shirts from a pattern.

• Invented the dookie bar.

• Changed irrigation tubes from a Chevy station wagon.

• Shot a bull snake out of our treehouse with a .22 rifle.

• Learned to cut her children's hair herself.

• Drove a school bus full of noisy children.

• Operated a country store and café.

• Operated a concession stand at the local stock car races.

• Fried chicken every day for dinner (noon meal).

• Always had enough on the table no matter how many sat down.

• Figured her husband's fortunes by the ton on a one-arm bandit calculator.

• Lodged freezing newborn pigs in the mudroom of her house.

• Put up with nightly football in her front yard from August to

February.

• Read to her children when they were little.

• Showed up at more baseball games than any other irrigating momma.

• Laughed 'til she cried the night the Chihuahua ate me in Vetville.

• Raised three toe-headed kids that turned out alright.

Things for which I should thank my mom ...

• Only making my shirts until the third grade.

• Helping us recapture and adapt the dookie bar recipe years later.

• Having dad save me when all she could see was my hat floating in the ditch.

• Not shooting my dad when he finally arrived to shoot the snake.

• Teaching me to earn my own money and buy my own haircut.

• Letting us on and off at our bus stop instead of riding her whole route.

• Only operating a store and café for one summer.

• Getting us into the stock car races every week for free.

• Finally quitting the fried chicken lunches.

• Never getting excited when we brought a friend home for supper.

• Keeping track of her job and the family business bookkeeping.

• Not leaving any creature out in tough elements.

• Not running us off her mistreated lawn like other mothers.

• Inspiring me to read and eventually to write.

• Showing us she cared by being there for everything.

• A decade of running paper routes with her children.

• Being a very understanding and loving mother.

Karl Terry, a former publisher of the Quay County Sun, writes for Clovis Media Inc. Contact him at:

karlterry@yucca.net