Shoes - Snow Shoes

Somewhere in the 40’s, 50’s, or early sixties, there was a mom who got divorced with children. We, maybe you or me is the product that former union, with a single mother as head of the household – which was not socially acceptable. The mom had one of two professions; nurse or teacher. The mom worked full-time, and the kids ran wild. There was trouble to be had in those days and single moms were taken to task for it. The mom had enough or not enough money to feed, clothe, and heat the house. Usually it was less money, and if there was money, the mom bought her kids stuff like bikes, skateboards and more skis, with poles, warm clothes, and boots.
The mom just didn’t manage to get the new furnace, the new stove, the kitchen sink she needed and wanted in her home. It never came to pass. Now that the mom’s retirement kicked in along with social security, the mom still has the same house, now paid for in full. The stove was replaced but not the water heater, or the TV which was still on rabbit ears antennae, the floor furnace is original, and the fireplace seemed to work quite well, accept for the ash toting routing. Energy star appliances escaped the radar in this house.
The twenty-first century common luxuries such as cable TV, forced air heat, a non-leaking roof, dead bolt locks, a double well kitchen sink and tile over linoleum floors never seemed to have reached this mom’s house.
Still, on a winters day, this mom is splitting wood in the back yard for the fireplace. Same boots as twenty-five years ago, since they never seem to wear out. The wood basket is slightly worse for wear, but it will do these days. And no one ever got this mom an answering machine with a ring loud enough for her to hear, or buttons large enough for dialing the telephone that she could see. So she rarely answered the telephone, rarely put on the other pair of glasses for dialing the telephone numbers to her adult children, and just re-adjusted the rabbit ears to watch the world events on the five p.m. news not CNN or MSNBC.
When the kids came to visit in their new cars with all the bells and whistles. Making calls back to their homes on their cell phones. Taking notes on their PDA’s or connected their laptops in bakery coffee shop down the street did they ever think to speak to their mother about cable TV, a dishwasher, let alone central heat or air.
One day on a visit, they missed their cable news program. And they really put up a stink about it, that their mom didn’t have it. And so the story goes, the mom put up a fight for a moment and then told them, you buy it for me, and then I’ll have it.
By the next Christmas visit, there was cable TV, cordless telephones in three rooms, a new furnace, and not one of adult children had a newer car than before. The mom even got a new washer-dryer and very nice pair of winter boots.
I guess, all you have to do, is inconvenience them and they wake up.