They Say You Become Your Mother,

but I have a hard time believing it.

Helen Callahan McDermott, my mother, who has been dead for over a quarter century, was about the obverse of me. Her preferred method of socializing was card playing, especially with people she didn't appreciate because the conversation centered on the cards and it was easier to steer away from dicey discussions. I dislike cards because there is more than enough we should discuss, and I feel if this is a free country, it purports to be we should be able to talk openly.

Put up or shut up—the kind of thing Helen would never say.

My mother's other outstanding characteristics were in the personal responsibility and constantcy categories. She wouldn't go to Bingo at the Legion to because it cost 50 cents and that was the price of a pound of hamburger then, and she worried we ate too little meat. For the same reason she did not buy cigarettes or liquor, though I never saw her turn down a smoke or a beer. Valuable lesson in values, moderation, toughness, self-discipline, and a variety of other characteristics. Of her five kids nobody is addicted to anything. . .

Casting a critical eye on the comparison, perhaps I am wrong. Only someone with a mentor like Helen would have the fiber to write what I write, say what I say. Happy Mother's Day and thanks Mom wherever you are this Mother Day 2014.