Mom, Post 1

February 15, 2019

Mom left this earth about 9:00am central time on January 31, 2019.

Mom entered this life on May 23, 1937. She joined her father, Guy Otis Dallas, her mother, Maxine Grimes Dallas, and her older brother, Guy Dallas Jr. She was born in Helena, AR. A couple years later her baby brother, Barclay Davidson Dallas was born.

The family moved to Tulsa about the time Mom started first grade. They moved onto Resevior Hill in Tulsa. It is a neighborhood of mid-sized brick homes, parks and winding streets high above downtown Tulsa just a bit to the northeast. Granddaddy Dallas worked for the Corps of Engineers. It wasn’t long before they moved to Brookside in Tulsa. All three kids graduated from Tulsa Central High School. Uncle Guy attended the University of Tulsa. Mom started at Oklahoma A&M, now Oklahoma State University, and finished one year.

Mom and Dad met at a roller skating rink in Tulsa. They were married on June 20, 1958. Magic happened on the honeymoon and I joined the family in February, 1959. Mom and Dad didn’t have much time for life before I came along. Mom and Dad were both 21 years old when I was born. So, we grew up together. First, living with Mom’s parents, then renting a horrid green shack on the bank of Joe Creek, which was prone to flooding. Then, to a duplex near Riverside Drive where my sister Melanie and not too long after, my brother Richard joined us.We moved to Horseshoe Hill in the summer of 1964 and Melissa joined the family. And the family was complete.

In those early days Dad worked at steel companies, then sheet metal companies. It was a near always broke experience. I used to tell people we were poor, but when we moved to Latimer Pl we had a mortgage. Lots of times an unpaid mortgage but our name was on a deed. If you own property you may be broke but it isn’t;t the same as being poor.Mom stayed at home and took care of the four of us. We were good kids but four kids in five and a half years is a handful. She had to take us everywhere she went. Grocery. Shopping. Laundromat — and that is a whole blog post in itself. Doctor. We always had four kids and a mom in the car. Her ability to handle us amazes me still.

She made cheerleading costumes for the girls. She cooked. She sewed. She did a tiny bit of housework. She watched soap operas. She took us to every practice, every game. She attended games, concerts, everything., And she loved us more than we could comprehend.

If she complained about anything I never heard it.

Dinners were on the cheap. We ate a lot of tunaroni. Peas. Mashed potatoes. We drank hot tea like the
British every morning.

When I graduated from high school and went on to college she sent me letters. She sent me care packages. She decided to be an LPN. She went back to school for a year and graduated with her Licensed Practical Nurse. Her kids were so proud of her. And it changed her fortunes, and Dad’s too. For the first time there was a bit of financial breathing room.

They loved to travel to see their kids, and so they did. They often came to Kentucky to see me or to North Carolina to visit Mel and Dave. They traveled to cemeteries in search of dead relatives. They went to see people. In the last thirty years of Mom’s life she and Dad fell in love all over again, and it showed.