The Reljac Files

When Mom was little she used to sit by the roadside with her friend and her black cat named, well lets just say the N word, back then it was slang not derogatory. They would watch the rich people go by in their cars and carriages. They would play with daisies and shoot the flower off and chant “a mother had a baby and it’s head popped off”. I like to imagine Mom like this. She also told us how Grandma would make them bread and mustard sandwiches for school because that was all they had in the house. They would tell the other kids it was peanut butter so no one would laugh. Imagine Mom starting work after 8th grade. Remember how we would ask her how to spell a word and she would say look it up in the dictionary? She was the best speller ever , but she wanted us to take advantage of our education. I just told Dad the other day she was one of the smartest people I ever met. She always wanted to be a fashion designer, that is probably why we had many homemade clothes, she loved to sew for us. The reason she had to quit school was to support the family. Uncle Sunce wanted to go to High School so Grandpap said Mom as the girl was not permitted to complete her education. Next time a story about the job she had next door to the brewery, the recently closed Penn Brewery.