Minutes to Memories

Okay, I know the picture is really dark, but if you look really close you can see my mom's face as I'm saying SURPRISE!!!!

My mom's seventieth birthday is tomorrow, so we pulled together this little plan for both my oldest sister (in Texas) and myself (in Mississippi) to make the 500-mile trip(s) to join our sister in Arkansas so my mom could spend the special day with all three of her kids.

I told several people that my mom was pretty hard to sneak ANYTHING by, and I was right. She had already pretty much figured out that we were coming, but at least she had NO idea I would be showing up today - so as you can tell from the poorly-lit picture that at least there was SOME surprise involved!

My mom & I enjoyed watching one of my favorite movies together tonight (Secondhand Lions), and we also enjoyed a great Arkansas catfish & hushpuppies dinner together.

But there was something special to me about the catfish dinner:

When I was a kid, I bought baseball cards thirty cents at a time down at Seibert's Grocery store. Along the way, my dad was laid off from the meat-packing company (his reward for loyalty = being laid off so someone younger would do his job for lesser pay). Since my dad was fifty years older than me, he took the best route in a bad situation and began drawing some Social Security while working part-time at Seibert's Grocery (after Mr. Seibert died). So I spent a LOT of time in that little neighborhood store, buying lots of candy (and baseball cards) from that old candy counter and lots of icy bottled sodas (Dr. Peppers, Nugrapes, and Frostie Root Beers in particular) from that old soda cooler with the bottle openers on the side.

Well, old Seibert's Grocery store is in the same location, but it is now Seventh Street Market. It doesn't look like much, but it serves some awesome fish dinners.

But best of all...

That same old candy counter is there. And that same old soda cooler.

Tonight could not have felt more nostalgic.