Friday, November 20, 2020
After coming home from a night out with friends or from a date and if I wasn't driving, there was always time spent sitting in the car in the driveway on Norman Ave. Sometimes we laughed about an earlier funny or embarrassing moment, sometimes we were saying 'goodnight' or sometimes I sipped Gatorade to get sober enough to walk, like a ninja, through the darkened house. Sometimes stories took longer to re-tell, sometimes 'goodnight' took longer and sometimes the Gatorade needed more time to do its magic.
Eventually, I would see the porch light flick on & off...on & off...on & off. That was Mom's signal that enough was enough. You said good-bye to the earlier fun and hello to a snack, big glass of water and a warm bed. It reminded me of the song, "Yes Ma-am!" performed by grandma Chisholm on the piano. In the song, the matriarch of a boarding house was trying to get one of her boarders upstairs after a date.
I like to believe, in her mind's eye, she saw the heavenly porch light flick on & off...on & off and decided it was time.
"Yes Ma'am"
