Disco Momma

Found this picture of Jim's Mom. I think it is a favorite. Disco Momma is what is written on the back. Taken circa 1978 or so.

Jim's Mom was one of the sweetest women I have known. She opened her heart and her house to me when Jim brought me home. We stayed with her the first few months of our marriage till we could get money together for an apartment and to make sure she was alright. Lord, she was a hoot! She always had fun and was laughing as she grumbled. I think that is where Jim got his humor from.

She would give you the shirt off her back or the last piece of bread in the bag if you needed it, and she could cook up a storm. She would help any of the neighbors and they all knew her and loved her. Sitting on the stoop at night and chatting with them all. She had to have her coffee every morning and a cigarette to go with it. She spent years working in a fabric mill and worked hard. She and her husband raised five children and all of them turned out wonderful. There were good times and love in that family.

There is a favorite story of mine that Jim told me. Jim being a fun loving kid at age...well...4 or 5? not sure...but young, well, he locked her out of her own house. Apparantly he did or said something, got her going after him, and he skidaddled out the back door. She followed and chased him down the alley and around to the front of the house. Well, he beat her to the front door and slammed it and locked it. Being just a kid, he forgot about the backdoor though and Momma ran around to the back, ran in the house and then Jim heard her. He says he was trapped and did the only thing he could do, he hightailed it out the front door, slammed it again in her face and took off. As she pulled the door open she cussed a storm at him, shaking her fist and then realized....oh....there was the pastor standing at the bottom of her neighbors stoop. Hearing all of it. Jim by that time had disappeared around the corner. He snuck in the back door and went on upstairs.

Hearing Jim tell it is much better than reading it. But I can see him running circles around his Mom.

The following picture is at Jim's 40th birthday party. She is finally getting him back for that prank. I had to photoshop the pic to be a black and white do to the bad color in the original.