Wanna know what kind of woman my mother was?

Growing up, we weren’t rich at all and there were times when we simply didn’t have any money for anything beyond the basics. When I was in the 5th grade, my grandmother passed away and since I lived with her, I had to stay with my mother. I already had a room in her apartment so I moved all of my things into it. That summer, I still hadn’t made a lot of friends and was getting pretty sick and tired of staying in the apartment all the time. The cabin fever was thick and i begged her to go to the movies, or go somewhere. She felt bad because we simply didn’t have any money to spend on going anywhere.

She wouldn’t be deterred though. She and I corralled every bit of change we could find in the apartment as if it were a treasure hunt. Together, we managed to get a little under 3.00. We both searched the Goings On section of the newspaper for ideas and she saw a coupon for 3 strings of bowling + shoe rental for $2.65. Off we went.

I remember bowling my little heart out. We didn’t have enough for her to bowl with me, but she was quite happy to sit there and cheer me on. I wasn’t a very good bowler, never had been, and since this was my first time, there were a lot of gutter balls. She marked each one with a sad face.

I remember her carrying that score card in her purse for a short time later and would show it off to people as if I was the greatest bowler in the world.