Thursday, April 19, 2007

Not a great week

here in Virginia
I won't belabor the topic
Suffice it to say i am grateful my son decided against transferring to Virginia Tech for this year.
God works in mysterious ways.
If you lived here in Virginia you would notice the great pride we take in our schools. Everyone has a bumper sticker or license plate holder for the school their child attends or they themselves have attended.
Particularly in the fall, I notice alot of UVA and Tech decals - flags for the schools when a big game is being played. Now I'm noticing those Tech banners and flags going up around the neighborhood but its for a much different reason.
It is heartbreaking and makes you want to hug your children or call them (like I did on Monday) so they know just how much you love them.
Anyway today I worked on a scrapbook page - see the Suzy link to your right.
And then I decided I'd go pick up a few
Frosty's from Wendy's and head over to my Mom's
When I was a kid we didn't have any McDonald's - seriously - there were none in the NY/NJ area until much later.
We did however, have Wetson's - a small chain of burger places and they had shakes. (They went out of business I believe in the late 60's)
Nowadays people do fast food without much thought - but back then - with a family of four kids - we didn't do fast food often. It was a big deal to go out to eat in the first place.
When we'd go we'd pick up the burgers and we'd go home and my Mom would make her own shakes - of course we'd want the ones from the Wetson's thinking they'd be so delicious, right? Well I remember we got the shakes once and they were pretty awful. My Mom's concoction, however, was dee-lish. (My mom is the best cook on the planet - just so you know. Everyone says it, so it's not just me.)
My Mom would make her shakes here and there over the years. I never found anything that tasted remotely like it until one day my husband and I decided to get a Wendy's Frosty.
Yum. Now they have a vanilla version but the original chocolate Frosty is what I'm talkin about. I think somehow Wendy's musta found out how my Mom made her shakes because they taste so much like hers its amazing. She used a lot of ice cream and chocolate syrup and milk and a blender. Totally, sinfully delicious.
So today I thought she and I could both use a Frosty.
Five years ago today my brother passed away.
He also loved her shakes and her cooking.
And I think he'd love it that we were just sitting around, talkin about the world, eating Frosty's.
We didn't even need to talk about him - it was an unsaid, given thing.
Kwim?

4 comments:

Will said...

Ok, now I want to fly to Virginia and give you a hug! Isn't there just something about being with someone you love and doing little, tiny things that stoke the fires of love even hotter? There is a long list of loved ones I miss almost everyday of my life and all I have to do is well...eat! Peanut Buster Parfaits, no peanuts please. Steak sandwiches (heavily breaded cube steak, fried crisp, on a hamburger bun with mayo and iceburg lettuce) all take me back to moments in time when I didn't have to worry about missing people, or longing for just one more minute to say, "I love you forever."
I'm glad you baby didn't transfer there, too. I'm glad you will have a lot more minutes to spend with the people you love. I'm having a Frosty TODAY!

BTW: I worked at Wendy's one ill-fated summer and woudl sneak into the walk-in freezer to drink a cup of frosty mix. They came in huge bladders with these spouts that you poured into the machine. We would sneak back there and get a cup of that stuff--OMG! So good, the best chocolate milk-EVER!

Donna Layton said...

I kwym. The amount of time doesn't increase the distance and it doesn't decrease the pain and I thank God for both those things.

Babsarella said...

Sending hugs your way.

Sue McGettigan said...

I'm so glad you and your Mom had that magic moment together, your brother's spirit would surely be smiling about that.