Hello Kittens & Dawgs, last Saturday (December 8) marked the anniversary of my late MIL’s birthday. I meant to share this with you then but a lot has been going on here, so it didn’t get done.
That being said, late is better than never so today I’m honoring my late MIL in remembering the anniversary of her 91st birthday. This is her 4th year to celebrate in heaven and this year she got to share it again with her husband of 60+ years. She’s always missed but the love she left remains with us. I thought it would be super to honor her on this day by sharing top hits from her birth year, 1927.
- Stardust Hoagy Carmichael
- My Blue Heaven Gene Austin
- Singin’ the Blues Bix Beiderbecke and Frankie Trumbauer
- Me And My Shadow Whispering Jack Smith
- In A Mist Bix Beiderbecke
- Someone To Watch Over Me Gertrude Lawrence
- Dark Was The Night (Cold Was the Ground) Blind Willie Johnson
- Some of These Days Sophie Tucker ft. Ted Lewis
- Ain’t She Sweet Ben Bernie
- Charmaine Guy Lombardo & His Royal Canadians
I used the top 10 songs from playback.fm Top 100 Songs (1927).
Fun Facts about my darling MIL…
Fact #1 She walked more than 4-miles one-way out of a little dirt hollow to the main road to catch the school bus every day in order to finish her education. Sometimes in the winter, she was lucky to get a ride in the back of her uncle’s truck. That sends shivers to my bones. She was the first person to receive her high school diploma off State Line Ridge Road.
Fact #2 This will come as a shock to you all but she didn’t like me when DH and I started dating. Honestly, tell me what mother likes her baby son’s girlfriend? I dare say there are few of them. The good mews is I won her over. 🙂
Fact #3 She was a worrier. I don’t think she would’ve been happy if she wasn’t fretting over a single one of us. She ran…okay walked briskly…after us carrying a coat if we went outdoors without one. If we sneezed, she asked if we were catching a cold or if we fell asleep on the sofa, she put a blanket over us. At Christmas, she always reminded us before we left ‘Don’t forget to unplug your Christmas lights.” and then we arrived at their place, she always asked, “Did you unplug your Christmas lights”? I’m not sure Every time if we had actually forgotten to unplug them, turn around drive another 4-hours to do it and then come back? I don’t think so. Every time we departed for home, she reminded us to call her as soon as we got there. She was a worrier but we let her because we knew this was her way of showing her love.
Fact #4 She had no hobbies to speak of unless you count work as a hobby. For most of her life, she was a school teacher. She cooked all the family’s meals, washed clothes for years on an old wringer style machine and line-dried the laundry, she gardened, canned, sewed most if not all of her clothes and some shirts for her sons and husband, and kept her home tidy all the time. At the time we married this woman was 53 years old. That’s close to my age now and she could run rings around me. She absolutely amazed me!
Fact #5 She was technically challenged. Electronics just wasn’t her forte and barely knew how to use their radio and stereo. You can forget about her working their plasma TV they bought in the early millennium. What often made us smile was her inability to leave a message on our answering machine and in the days before caller id, we knew who called every time. The answering machine would play dead silence before we heard the hang-up click. She would repeat this process two or three times before giving up. We always called her back so to not leave her worrying if we were left for dead somewhere. In her later years, she did progress from the dead silence to finally leaving a message which went something like this, “…(short pause)…Rrrr-ooo-bin, where you? This is mother, give me a call.” We were so proud that she finally caught on to leave a message. I’ll never forget when they got a new caller id. It had a built-in answering machine which she was totally clueless about it and didn’t know why it beeped at her. It was hard not to laugh, never to her face, but it was funny in a kinda cute way. Does that make sense? She was the kindest, sweetest soul on earth!
I invite you to join me on the dance floor tomorrow (or link up below now) for ‘All Things Christmas‘ with Monday’s Mewsic Moves Me!
X💋X💋, Cathy
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What a lovely tribute, she sounds like someone i would have loved to know.
Mimi,
You would’ve loved her every bit as I do!
Beautiful tribute to your Mother-In-Law. She sounds like an amazing woman.
Ellen,
I couldn’t have hand-picked a better mother-in-law had I tried.
She sounds like a wonderful lady, and a lot like my mother, who turned 90 this year. What a beautiful young woman, too!
Sue,
Your mother’s generation is a wonderful one filled with so many delightful people. I often wonder what will become of this world without these salt of the earth individuals. They are the ones who shaped many of our lives. Will we be able to pass the same qualities to future generations? I hope so. Thanks for dropping by!
Hugs to you both from all of us here.
Thank you, Brian!
♪♪Happy Birthday to you,♪♪
♪♪Happy Birthday to you,♪♪
♪♪Happy Birthday Dear Dotty,♪♪
♪♪Happy Birthday to you.♪♪
What a lovely tribute to your MIL. Some are very special and you were lucky to have a special one.
Have a fabulous day and week, Cathy. Love you. ♥
Sandee,
How sweet! Thank you. I sure do miss her a lot!
You were very fortunate to have a great mother-in-law. Not everyone does. 🙂
Sandee,
She was the absolute best and I miss her so much!
This is precious, Cathy. I’m sure she appreciates it.
Jacqui,
She certainly would never know about anything I do on the Internet if she were still alive but I know she’d like it all the same.
Hi, Cathy!
It was very sweet of you to remember your mother-in-law’s birthday and to honor her with a special post again this year. Dotty must have been a great person and a major influence on DH, on you, and on other family members and friends. It was educational to listen to songs that were on the Hit Parade the year Dotty was born. I recognized most of the songs right off the bat because they are oft recorded standards. Remember The Beatles version of “Ain’t She Sweet”?
Thank you for sharing those fun facts about your late MIL. I wonder how many young people today need to walk four miles one way to the school bus stop in all kinds of weather. It is inspiring that Dotty made the trek and became the first from her area to receive a high school diploma.
If your future MIL did not like you at first, it must have been because you were too darn pretty and she figured there’s no way you could also be a nice girl with a pleasing personality. I am happy to know that you won her over.
I tend to be a worrier like Dotty was. I sweat the details because I know the consequences of carelessness and forgetfulness. Perhaps Dotty’s reminders became implanted in your mind and saved you and other family members from great hardship on occasion, and you never even gave it a thought.
Your MIL reminds me of my mother. The only hobbies my mom had were work related – hooking rugs to use in our home, making and mending garments, cooking and cleaning – always dutifully doing for others. There was a work ethic that existed back then that many members of today’s younger generation do not posses.
Dotty also reminds me of my mother because she was technically challenged. My father called my other “helpless” because she relied on him to do or fix anything mechanical. She simply couldn’t get the knack.
Happy birthday in heaven to your wonderful mother-in-law, Cathy. I am sure she is smiling down and appreciating this loving tribute written by her daring DIL. Have a great week ahead, dear friend!
Tom,
My mother-in-law was a wonderful woman! Everyone loved her, too. Young people today have no clue how good they have it and they certainly would kill over if they had to walk to school. They think it’s their right to hop a ride with mom and dad or even ride the school bus when in fact, it’s a privilege and it shouldn’t be taken so lightly. I used to be more of a worrier than I am now. Over the years, I’ve learned to place my worries at the feet of Jesus. There’s nothing I can do especially when the circumstances are completely out of my hands and worrying only serves to make me old before my time. lol Yeah, this is easier said than done but when I turn things over to God then I truly am a happier person for it. That’s funny that your mother was also technical/mechanically challenged. My mother is where computers and cell phones go but that’s only because she doesn’t have a lot of time to learn about the new technology working all the time. She loves to learn new stuff! Thanks for visiting. I’m sorry I’ve been really slow on returns and comments.