Happy 8oth Birthday to my Mum.

Ma turns 80 today. We are a long-lived lot on that side of the family (the good side)--my Gran was 100 when she died.
Ma was born in 1927. She was 2 when the stock market crashed in '29. She insists she was no where near it at the time.
She has a strong aversion to rodents, ever since she was a small child, and a rat ran down her arm as she was reaching for a lantern in the barn. Much like Aunt Ada Doom from Cold Comfort Farm--she saw something nasty in the woodshed. But she never used it as a control weapon. She even tolerated my guinea pigs and pet rats. She's always been a sport.
She also gained a strong aversion to fish in childhood. It was the depression, and people caught much of the meat they ate. Ma ate some alligator gar, which made her violently ill (probably e coli)--she's been "allergic" ever since. She likes shrimp, however.
I had my first ever paying job as a classroom aide when she was superintendent of Project Head Start in Nueces county. And when I was very young, she took me to school with her, where I tutored her special needs students (I was quite precocious, and worked for free).
She was quite a looker in her youth--she was a ringer for Elizabeth Montgomery. Everyone told me that my ma "looked like Samantha". My Gran was utterly resistant to all suggestion that she dress "like Endora". I would have loved that.
For someone with severely impaired judgement and no real coping skills, she was an important ally in facing the world. I see alot of my ma in myself. I look like her. We have the same hair. I get to use it on odd numbered days.
We are having a wee party. I got her everything I could worm out of her for gift ideas, plus some surprises. Then it's dinner (chicken fried steak, mashed white potatoes, cake) and a comedy--I haven't decided between School of Rock and Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. She has a great sense of humor. It helped her during my youth (punk rock).
Happy birthday Mother.