As a young man, I remember her warnings to me when suddenly out of the thin air a wooden spoon appeared. Later in years as we discussed her methods of persuasion about something she called: "Gentle Persuasion" she said: "Always speak softly and carry a big stick!" It was her way of saying that it's no bother for her to reach for a wooden spoon and knock some sense into me. Teddy Roosevelt may have said it first, but Mom practiced it more often.
In college, I was designing a poster for a design class. I hadn't started the lettering yet but she saw the background, a yellow field with barbed wire running across the width of the poster and she said: "Tyranny like Hell, is not easily conquered!" That WAS what I was going to letter! Mom apparently was familiar with Thomas Paine!
Mom had a knack for recalling from her childhood, remembering things she learned in her education that took her up to her high school diploma, and the shame is she never had a college education. I would bet my bottom dollar she would have excelled.
Once when I was a teenager, she was issuing warnings and such about potential trouble if I were to stray and said: "The way you make your bed, is the way you sleep in it! This apparently came from her highest authority, her Mom, Grandma Mary. Grandma Mary raised three girls by herself during the hard times of the 20's and 30's without a husband.
Mom's most memorable statements were made for my benefit, usually, after I complained about something: "Wait! Just wait till you have children!" Her other wish was the most frightening: "When you have children, I hope they're just like you!"
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