Thanks, Mom
When I was about 13 my friend and I were in the car with my mom one night; she was dropping us off to see some G-Rated kid’s movie like King of the Grizzlies or something. We got there way too early since we didn't really know what time it started, because, well, being the 13-year-olds that we were, we really had no intention of going to the movie in the first place; we were planning to take off and go to a free concert at the Overton Park Shell in Memphis. Thus, we had to sit in the car with my mom waiting for a really long time for the movie time before she would let us out. For some reason we started singing the infamous “99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall” song all the way to 0 and then all the way back up to 99. My mom didn't flinch.
Thirty years later I was driving my kids from Memphis to Chicago for a summer visit. My two 9- and 11-year-old darlings decided to sing the latest hit from their latest favorite cartoon, South Park….“there’s no Canada like French Canada… there’s no Canada like French Canada… there’s no Canada like French Canada… there’s no Canada like French Canada… there’s no Canada like French Canada…there’s no Canada like French Canada… there’s no Canada like French Canada… there’s no Canada like French Canada… there’s no Canada like French Canada…cuz the other Canadas have no wine”…over and over and over for at least 6 or 7 hours. Remembering my mom…I did not flinch. Grateful I was still alive to be there for them.