We have five pecan trees in our yard. They produce fruit every three years and it’s a lot of nuts. Certainly more nuts than two people and one dog can hope to use.

The last time, we gave away bagsful of nuts, invited the church members to come pick them up and still had plenty left over until they started falling from the trees this year.

I’ve collected about a half a bucket of nuts so far this year. But they are plentiful and there are still a whole bunch left on the tops of the trees.

Usually every day, I pick up nuts around the edges of our property to keep the would be pecan poachers honest. Today, I read a book all day and didn’t pick up any nuts.

I just watched a man go along the alley, on the empty lots (of which there are now five highly populated with both pecan trees and nuts) picking up nuts and putting them in his pocket like he thought no one was watching.

BooBoo and I watched out the window as he came around the house and started looking at our grass. As he bent down to pick up the first nut, I opened the door and I asked him, “Did you plan to ask if you could have those nuts?”

He dropped what he had in his hands. “Oh.”

Me: “So let me ask you, would you just take my car?”

Him: “What?”

Me: “Would you just take my car because you wanted it?”

Him: “Oh no, I wouldn’t take your car.”

Me: “Then why would you just take my nuts without asking?”

Him. “Oh, I’m sorry. I won’t take any.” And he hurried off down the sidewalk.

If anyone came up to the door and asked if they could have some of our pecans, I would say sure, thanks for asking and help yourself. As I said above, there are a LOT. Way more than we can use.

But something that is a huge irritant to me every three years is the people who will just come along and try and help themselves to my property unless I stop them.

I’m a generous person but I don’t like thieves and I really, truly want to understand why someone thinks that it’s okay to take pecans when it’s not okay to take cars?

My mom was a nut. A year ago today, just before the sun rose, Mom went to be with the Lord.

Mom and Lorna cheering each other on

I miss her.

It’s so funny how things happen in life. When the kids were small, Mom lived in Sterling, Illinois. She was raising the Dudelette and his sister, Tori, at the time.

Me with the Dudelette

Mom always had music on in the kitchen. Being that Sterling is not the music mecca of America, the music was, well, lame.

We dubbed the kitchen “The Kitchen of Lame Music”.

I knew that Brandon and Geoff were well aware of this designation. When Brandon was in high school, he made The Kitchen of Lame Music volumes I and II for mom who had, by then, moved to Port Townsend, WA.  Songs you’d find on these CDs would be songs like Afternoon Delight, Billy Don’t Be a Hero and Rubber Band Man.

I didn’t know that the Dudelette remembered the Kitchen of Lame music, though, as he was pretty young at the time.

I was talking to him yesterday and he was telling me how he found a cool, custom pool cue at Goodwill, dirt cheap, that he bought for his fiance’, Scarlette, who is a good pool player.

Scarlette and the Dudelette with Mom

I told him it reminded me of the song You Don’t Mess Around with Jim. He said he didn’t think he knew that song so I dialed it up on Grooveshark and he said, “Oh yeah, I know that song. I heard it in the Kitchen of Lame Music.” He went on to say how, while he was at Goodwill that he was singing another old song and the man who worked there said he couldn’t believe someone the Dudelette’s age would know that song. He told the man about the KOLM. 🙂

Last October, when I went out to stay with Mom, we talked a lot about and played the songs of the KOLM. Many nights she would be falling asleep at the table and I would “threaten” her with playing The Night Chicago Died if she didn’t let me help her to bed.

Mom was a nut and she was loads of fun. I will always miss her and I know that every time I hear one of those lame songs, I will remember her and the fun that we had.

Jonny, Becky, Me and Julie with Mom

When we lived in Saudi, we would frequently see a sight like this when we were out shopping.

Often the ladies would be gathered in a group, with many children playing around their feet. We always wondered, how do the children know which one is their mother?

Last week, David’s students included a gentleman from Saudi and one from Qatar. He asked them if their mothers covered fully when they were little and, if so, how did they know which one was their mother.

The Qatari gentleman replied, “I would know my mother in 100.”

The Saudi gentleman replied, “It’s your wife that you’ve just met that you have to worry about. You need to remember what her handbag looks like.”

🙂