I was sitting here playing with my computer. Somehow I managed to turn the sound off without knowing it. Don't know how I do this to myself. Fortunately, I fiddled around long enough to find out what I'd done.
We spent half the afternoon going through boxes and boxes of paperwork that I brought back from Mexico. We were looking for a couple of things, but mostly, we wanted to see how much of it we could round file. We managed to fill a whole black trash bag with "treasured memories" of the last 15 years. I don't think we will ever need a 10 year-old electric bill, a note from someone whose name I no longer recognize, or the gazillion photcopies we made to get our paperwork on the adoption finished. I image one copy will suffice.
Then I came here to my room to listen to music and play a game. As I said, I was fiddling with the sound. A man with a bicycle came to the open door to our room and said, "Ma'am? Is that Mark Brown's house next door?" I was dumb-struck. I don't know anyone here except our benefactor. But I kept hearing him say, "Ma'am?"
When I was a little girl, my mother taught me that this was how I was to address older women. Never by their first names, usually not by any name until told specifically to do so. And so I did. All those blue-hairs at church were "ma'am" to me. Couldn't ever think of them as "Miss" or "Susan" just "Ma'am" And now, I'm ma'am!
When did I get older? I don't spend much time in front of a mirror (my mom looks back at me from there!), so often don't think of myself at any age. I remember having a very young face for so many years . . .now I'm ma'am. Wow! Seems like yesterday that my babies were babies and my life was pretty new. I don't think of it too much until I see my son's picture or that of my 19 year-old granddaughter.
Now don't go thinking I'm depressed about all of this. I'm not. I wouldn't trade this age, this day, this hour of my life for any other. I wouldn't try on yesterday's problems again if I were offered a no-fault guarantee. All those times make me who I am today. I like that.
Just don't like "ma'am"
3 comments:
In the south, we have ma'am and sir drilled into our heads and chained there, so I first started getting ma'am-ed in my 20s. 20 some odd years later, I'm used to it -- just barely.
Boy, can I relate to that! In Alabama, the one thing I love about it is that from an early age, kids are taught to say "ma'am" and "sir". So needless to say, now that I live in the south, people don't get "the look" that I often gave back in Indiana. Ya know, that look that only us women can give..lol
Be blessed......Trina
Sounds like a productive day! Ma'am... ummm, I can't think of a single thing to say about this except that I hope to minimize the age process as much as possible. My bathroom is filled with all these beauty secrets and this n that but I don't know if any of it will help or not. I keep using the stuff but really, I think the only way to stay young is to read the Bible, exercise and eat light and eat healthy. And everyone has an opinion on what is healthy.
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