Liver and Onions for Mom

  

jb blocker

 

 Liver and Onions? 

  There was no escape when mom made liver and onions for dad. No excuses and no substitutions. I could smell them cooking before I stepped into the house. Back then, we had the windows and screen doors open whenever possible. You eat what you get or you don't eat is just assumed. The only thing I could do is make sure there was ketchup, lots of ketchup!  

  As an adult, I no longer hate a lot of items I tried to avoid back them.

  I have made a habit...a ritual... of eating at Furr's Cafeteria in Plano on I-75 on Mother’s Day weekends. For Mom! 

  I fill my plate with things my mom would have made. It's kinda like going to a Sunday potluck dinner. I fill my plate with some of my childhood least favorites like lima beans, boiled cabbage, turnip greens, broccoli salad, jello salad, etc.. If they had Salmon Patties, it would be complete. 

  The meal is saved by slices of roast beef, baked fish, and an average meatloaf. My mom's meatloaf became average when a former secretary Sheila Williams McClellan blew my mind.
  I make a point to get a nice helping of liver and onions smothered in the gravy. Some times throughout the year I go to Furr's with a friend, but at this time of year, I make a point to go on my own and take my time talking to my mother...And remember.

  Nancy Lea Kitson Blocker was raised in Geary, Oklahoma where the family persevered through the Dust Bowl. She left her body about 20 years ago but she continually rides on my right shoulder. She still encourages and admonishes me. I can feel her flick my ear often.

  To those who knew her she was a rural small-town Martha Stewart and Barbara Walters rolled into a dust bowl Okie, WWII Wave, author, and so much more.

  I was her adopted Japanese, Irish, German, Korean, French personal project. No racism existed in her world. Cultures did. She embraced the world. We had friends from around the world from nearly 30 years as a Naval family. They returned to America with two adopted children, for most of my childhood the only other 1/2 Asian I would know was my baby sister Eri.

   Mom owned a pottery and craft shop in our tiny town of less than 2000. Because of the Handicraft Shop in Sunray, I have committed knitting, crocheting, sewing, cooking, baking, cleaning, pottery, pouring molds, firing them off, painting Roosters, Pitcher/Bowl sets, macramé, and every other art or craft known to man in the '70s. I have read the Bible thoroughly, many times, as well as the dictionary, and encyclopedia. She made me read Lord Byron, Thoreau, Shakespeare, and tested me on them. 

Mothers three favorite books.

  Nancy Blocker collected all her Bible notes, lessons, maps, and drawings to publish Pearls in the Sand. She also hand wrote three cookbooks. She was proud of her penmanship and calligraphy.  I can easily read a book in a day, and because she convinced me that my brain would not explode, I still have 3 or 4 books going at a time. 

  I am proudly OCD and a library reside in my head because of MOM.

  This morning I started with a coffee and reading The Untold Stories of Jesus while listening to classical music. 

  I was a stutterer in my youth, but not when we were singing at church. My mom was convinced that I sang like an angel and did everything in her power to encourage me.  Voice lesson began by the time I was 10 and continued until college days. As a teen, mom would drive us the 40-mile round trip from Sunray to Dumas twice a week for years to a voice teacher until I could drive it myself. 

  I learned to sing arias in German, Russian, and many in Italian. I sang for women's club meetings, county fairs, and was a regular weekend talent on The Farm and Ranch show with Royce Bodifer in Amarillo. For those performances, I was force-fed Pat Boone, Dean Martin, and other crooners of her generation. She and two moms with singing daughters decided we were a Tony Orlando and Dawn band in the making. I think the two girls hate me to this day!

  I can sing classics from the 16th Century and every Century thereafter because of Mom.

  Sometimes I feel her flick the back of my ear. This happened fairly often to show disapproval. On Sundays, she preferred that I sit in the row in front of her so she could keep an eye on me and flick me when she felt I needed it.   She didn't usually chastise me openly, but that flick was a signal that we would be talking about this later. And that I was probably going to have some new Bible verses to memorize...