If Mom Could See Me Now!

7 SHIFTS Remaining...Rick's ReFlections of his 32 years career in the Fire Service...

 Perhaps you remember the year...

    The Sears Tower was the world’s tallest building… 
    A couple popular movies were...‘The Sting’ and Herbie Rides Again’ 
    Number one songs were...‘I Shot The Sherriff’, ‘Time In A Bottle’ and ‘Cats In The Cradle’
    Watergate and gases prices at nearly 60 cents a gallon made the headlines…
    And offices started using a little known item called a ‘Word Processor’.

     How times have changed!

Modeling gift from mom...

But much more than these…I will forever remember ‘the blanket’. You see it was 1974, and I was packing my bags to leave home, when mom walked into my room and handed me this blanket as a parting gift. A gift that has sat atop my bunk at Station 80 for many years. It remains one of the most precious of many gifts that she imparted onto this soul. Her natural gifts of care…of determination…and of course the gift of gab are just a few others.

Though she was around during those early fire house years, she never knew that I would become a Paramedic a couple years after her death in 1989. I would have loved to share the joy that this profession has given me all these years.

Mom's graduation - 1968

Ain't she pretty?

So…what happens to the blanket now? Likely be packed away with other items of antiquity. Perhaps one day it will find its way back out and onto another bed. Surely when it comes upon these ole eyes once more…I will be reminded of one very special lady in my life. Thanks mom!

I can see mom today ... washing dishes and dancing to 'Chantilly Lace' by the Big Bopper. Jiles Perry, or JP Richardson introduced this song the very year that I was, in 1958. The 'Big Bopper' would sadly be one of three who died in a winter plane crash, for which Don McLean writes in his song, 'American Pie'.