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Round Back Out Front
Where?
My mother is 91. I spend a lot of time asking her to tell me stories about the simpler times when she was young. All I have to do is ask her a question and she goes into a story of remembering the past.
I don’t sit there and write everything down, although maybe I should. Instead, I bring those memories home and write about them as I sit alone with a computer on my lap.
My daughter constantly gets after me for the way I say “warsh.” I can’t help it, it’s the way I was taught to say it, by my mother. I think it’s an Ohio thing. Kind of like how I say “pop” instead of “soda.”
My mother, my daughter, and I had a fun conversation one day about warshing, and “how we used to could” do other things. My mother always says, “I used to could do that.” So, naturally, I say it to. It just doesn’t sound right to say, “I used to be able to do that.” First of all, that takes too long and sounds too proper.
The kids have teased me that when I die, my gravestone is going to say, “She used to could.” I think that would be totally awesome, don’t you?
As we were laughing, mom blurted out, “round back out front.” My daughter and I said, “huh?” And mom went into another story.
She said they always played in the back of the house. Makes sense to me, because we never…
