After The Intermission: November 2020

The opening picture is a sunrise. A sunset would be more appropriate, but it was in the wee hours of the morning that I was driving from Austin to Houston to help mom close her office. Mom is finally retiring.

Mom has always worked. It does not seem remarkable now, but in the 1960’s, not many women had careers outside of nursing and teaching. My grade school friends had moms that volunteered as “room mothers”, bringing treats and decorations for holidays. Those moms where home when their kids got out of school. Our upbringing was different. Dad traveled extensively (also unusual for parents in those days, but this is about Mom). Daycare was non-existent back then, so Mom hired housekeepers fill in the gaps while she and Dad worked. We were rather feral, but didn’t die.

I can’t imagine what it must have been like in those days for a woman with children and personal aspirations. When she was pregnant with my brother, my dad would go get her paycheck so her boss would not see her. Once she really started to show, she had to quit. Pregnant women were not allowed in the workplace. Nothing like adding additional financial stress to a growing family.

Mom is a tax accountant. I say is because she kept a couple of clients. Our lives literally revolved around tax season. Brother Joe was born in May. I was born in August. I’ll bet my mom was super pissed to find out Elaine was going to be born in January. I can’t, or don’t ”its tax season” was ingrained in our DNA.

Memories:

· Mom was (is) super put together; professionally dressed at all times. I did not inherit this sense of style and dignity. It’s a pandemic and I’m happy to wear 2-day old “daytime pajamas”

· There used to be a television show in Houston where people could call in and ask tax questions. We would sit in front of the TV for hours hoping to catch a glimpse of our famous mom. I don’t recall the exact setup, but we could only see her skirt hem and legs occasionally walk by.

· During tax season, Mom worked late and 6 days a week. Somehow on Saturdays, she managed to work and get her hair done and get the grocery shopping done for the week. Those Saturdays, Dad was in charge. Typing this I can’t recall a time where he was out of the country on a tax season Saturday, but surely it must have happened. Gawd knows what we did if he was gone. When he was home, there was a fabulous rotation of easy food or take out to keep us fed; Jack in the box where the clown gave us balloons, Antone’s po-boys - we had to go with Dad here to make sure we didn’t end up with tuna sandwiches as all the different ones were color coded and he was color blind. BBQ of course and cooking at home meant kosher hot dogs.

· Our house had a formal living room but no formal dining table. Mom set up a desk there. I remember many a night going to sleep to the sound of that crank style adding machine as she ran tapes late into the night.

· Kids winning tax season – when Mom would bring home mainframe computer tape and punch cards for us to play with. Punch cards turned into play school flash cards or to attach like playing cards to bike spokes. I remember using the tape once to come out of a cardboard robot’s mouth with words written on it.

Fun memories of a career that I’m sure was not easy. To you mom. This April, do what ever you want! xo