Happy Birthday, Mom

It is a snowy day today in Lake Almanor and it is about 75 years since this picture was taken of my Mom with me standing close.  She would have been 110 today. We were standing in front of one of the two houses we lived in on the south side of Glendive, Montana.  I remember being very shy. The depression was still on and I was the baby in a family of five.  It didn't snow a lot of snow in Glendive like it does here but winter was long and it was very cold, much colder than it is here in northern California.  I do remember the sun shining in the winter though.

I remember sitting by one of the floor registers a lot as I played with my chalk board so I could be close to the warmth.  My first set of paper dolls was Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.  I would have been a little older than I was here.  I have only happy thoughts of my mom all the days of my life.  She never yelled or spanked and she smiled a lot.  I had a very happy childhood because of loving parents and fun brothers and sisters.

One thing I remember well from living on the south side is the root beer Mom would make in a large kettle and then put in bottles. I also loved the bread Mom would make and put butter and jam on for us. And the milk that was delivered in the winter would often have the lid pushed up by the frozen cream.  It was so good.  I had a big Tommy Cat that I loved or I least I treated him like he was mine, I was sure he belonged to all of us.

We moved from the south side just after my first grade.  It was a great time to move because we had a marvelous sledding hill right out the front door of our new home and I was old enough to learn to sled.  Happy Days.