The Fabulous Baker Boys

I am the forever proud, albeit always exhausted, mother of four fabulous sons.  Yes, I can hear the giggles and some outright laughter, they are the original Fabulous Baker Boys.

No, I haven't seen the movie - yet.  However, it is on my list of things to do.  You know that list.  The one for when you have absolutely nothing else to do on any other list.  So far I've never actually been able to check anything off that list, but I'm not worried.  I'm sure if and/or when that day ever surfaces, there will be some type of electronic device (that's probably not even invented yet) available to play that movie for me.  A part of me always worried that the movie would be so horrible - think along the lines of the movie "Kung Pow! Enter the Fist" - that I would ever be able to address my sons or hear them called the fabulous Baker Boys again without cringing.

When you bring that beautiful, soft skinned, sweet smelling, baby home from the hospital, you think you have forever to teach and instill in them everything they will need to know.  (Oh my goodness that smell of a brand new baby is so ethereal!  I've decided God disburses that same incredibly fantastic smell, that no laboratory has ever been able to recreate, on every single baby born, because in a fraction of second that angelic bundle of joy can, and at some point does, turn into a screaming, stinking - literally, projectile puking, diaper blowing, life sucking - oh my goodness will I ever survive this - product of your love. Sorry, about that off-track tangent, but there isn't any mother on the face of this earth that hasn't experienced what I'm talking about.)

Well, maybe you were smart enough to know better, but I personally was living in disillusional happy land! You don't have forever.  Not even close.  You have what seems upon reflection to be more like three and a half weeks.  Be careful, you blink twice and they are out of college and making their own way down life's path.

Wow, and to think all of that was just to say - My son's read my first blog yesterday.  And while they found humor in it (and too long of paragraphs for #4's liking), they weren't really sure how it all tied in to Erma.  Because you see, I found - much to my dismay - another area that I had completely failed as a mother.  Given the time constraints I had to teach them EVERYTHING, I failed to introduce them to Erma Bombeck.  Yes, each and every one of the Baker Boys, said "Good blog mom, but who's Erma".  Seriously?!?!  Seriously?!?!  Are you freaking kidding me!!!

After reading their texts, I called each one of them and shared a condensed version of her life, accomplishments, and why I love this woman so much.  Their response, "Ah, okay.  That makes sense now."

LOL LOL LOL  Needless to say, last night I got online and ordered their Valentine's Day gift.  That's right, each Baker Boy will be receiving a book written by Erma Bombeck.

I think I'll hold off giving any of them..............

"Mother:  The Second Oldest Profession"

One small blog for mankind, one giant leap for me.......

I dedicate this blog to Erma Louise Bombeck

I turned around, obviously more than once, and found that I'm OLD.  I never thought I'd be one of those "old" people who looked back saying, "remember when", "back when I was young",  and the one I find myself doing more and more, "what happened to".  

What happened to common sense?  Yep, it's harder to find these days than a pair of panty hose.  But really who would even want or need to search for panty hose?  We used to be able to laugh at and with those who failed to show good common sense.  Now it's a trait that seems to be absent from birth.  As if it were a gene that someone thought needed to be removed.  Hmmmm, I can hear the conspiracy theorists gears grinding on that one.  It's the government.  They found a way to genetically alter our DNA to remove the common sense gene.  Wow, I think I might have just stumbled upon a great movie plot......

What happened to humor?  Back in the "olden" (I use this term tongue-in-cheek, as everyone knows the olden days was back when our parents were young!)  days, we could laugh at ourselves.  We could laugh with and at others (once again, usually they were the ones that weren't using the common sense factor).  Now it's a crime.  The old adage,  "Sticks and stones can break your bones, but names will never hurt you" has now morphed into, "Stick and stones can break your bones, but names can land you in court with a giant law suit against you".

April 22, 1996 is such a sad date in America history, it's not a national holiday (even though I think it should be), it's not spoken of in the papers, it's not listed in the history books.  It was the date that Erma Louise Fiste Bombeck's living, breathing, physicality left this earth, but her spirit, warmth, and humor will continue to live on.  There are so many things that have changed in the 19 years since she's passed.  I would love to read her witticisms on 1) The Kardashians, 2) Bruce Jenner, 3) Kanye, and 4) the Monica Lewinsky scandal, just to name a dust speck of the OMG's that have occurred since her death.  Where is Erma Bombeck for the masses in 2015?  I keep searching.  You'd think with the ever present internet, the ability to Google ANYTHING, Wikipedia, Bing, and the other bazillion search engines it wouldn't be a hard find, but alas it is.

Erma was for EVERYONE, the masses.  Men, women, teenagers, and tween's.  If you could read, you could love, enjoy, and bond with Erma.  She was my coming of age.  It was the awakening that my mother and I actually shared a commonality, our love and admiration for Erma.  What wisdom and insightfulness she shared with us.  How privileged we were to have had her.  There is hardly a day that goes by that I don't think of her.  Erma to me will forever live high upon a pedestal.  Well, Erma and Linda Bollman.  While I was never able to meet my famous hero in person, I do know and love Linda Bollman.  She is a little Erma personified.  I'll fill you in on Linda later.