ten from the jar

this is my mother when i was 16

What special things did you do with your mother?

• after all the boys and girls had gone to bed mother would let me get up and help her iron. i would iron my dad's handkerchiefs. we would watch elliot ness from the UNTOUCHABLES and share a coke she had put in the freezer ahead of time. there was only one catch...i had to outlast audree when we were put to bed and most of the time i fell asleep waiting, ... "audree are you awake?"

• i liked to go back to school shopping with my mother. we would drive to Salt Lake, buy shoes and clothes at Auerbach's and then eat lunch in the basement. i would order fish and chips, or a hamburger and always a hot fudge sundae. she would give me a coin to make a wish and throw in the fountain.

• after school i would usually find my mother ironing at the big white iron-rite in the basement. she would ask me what i had for lunch and what i learned that day...or what i did. i loved visiting with my mother and told her pretty much anything that was on my mind. 

• i liked to walk with my mother to 5 points shopping center. she would be pushing a stroller and we would pick up diet-rite cola and the kids would often get an ice cream cone.

• we went to the Valley Music Hall in Bountiful and watched Carousel, Liberace, and maybe something else. i loved live theater then and there.

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