April 27, 2011

Guilty As Charged

Day 28:  A song that makes you feel guilty.  Most mother/daughter relationships don't need more guilt.  Moms learn early on that when all else fails guilt can be a powerful weapon.  Daughters (and sons) learn it, too.  Most use it sparingly to avoid resentment.  My mom?  Well, guilt is her medium.  She works in guilt like an artist works in oils so I try my best to avoid giving her anything to work with.

On December 26, 1985, I unwittingly handed my mom the cherry on the top of the guilt pile on a silver platter.  Tim and I were living in Orlando, Florida and my parents came to visit us for the holidays.  We took them to Disney World, Epcot Center, Sea World, Gatorland....everywhere good Orlando dwellers take visiting relatives.  While they enjoyed it all, for my mom it all paled and faded into the background when she heard on the news that her "teen idol" Ricky Nelson would be giving a free concert in the park the night of December 26.  It would be the Christmas "present" to end all presents if she could go.  My dad and Tim flat out refused.  I....I was a bit more subtle.  I went on and on about how crowded it would be and how miserable and said there would be plenty more opportunities to see him since he was touring again. 

Mom was not happy, but finally, after much whining on my part she dropped the subject saying we all owed her a trip to one of his concerts.  We were good with that.

Then on December 31, just five days later....Nelson's plane caught on fire and went down.  He did not survive.

Sheeesh.  What were the odds of that??

Pass me a big, freaking helping of guilt, please?





day 29 – a song from your childhood
day 30 – your favorite song at this time last year

2 comments:

Beth Zimmerman said...

OUCH! Has she brought it up? Repeatedly?

Stacy said...

Well, 26 years later she has tapered off a bit, but I hear about it at least once a year.

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...