MEMORIES OF MOTHER
Lucille Anderson Bauerle
May 21, 1918 – May 17, 2011
Mother’s college graduation picture — the one that made my Dad fall in love with her!
She was CREATIVE.
• We always had the best costumes on Halloween and in the Kids Day Parade. One year Bruce was “Peter, Peter Pumpkin Eater,” and she created a huge orange pumpkin around our wagon. Then she made me a princess costume to be his wife. They put a ladder in the wagon, and poor Bruce had to pull me all around the town square. I loved it!
• She was constantly doing art projects with us. I guess it took more on my sister, though, than it did on me!
She was GENEROUS.
• I remember so many times going with her to deliver food or flowers to people, and often she would do it anonymously. We would leave a plant on the front porch with a note that said someone was thinking about them, and then we would drive away. (Today it would probably get stolen!)
• About once a month, she would pack us all into the car (usually complaining all the way), and we would go to the Baptist Memorial Home. We would always take a treat to pass out to all the residents – homemade cookies or cupcakes, little cups of Dairy Queen (they were 5 cents in those days), or fresh fruit. All of us kids would be the deliverers and then I would have to play the piano, and sometimes the other kids sang. Today I know what a wonderful gift that was to them, but at the time all I wanted was to be with my friends.
She was a GREAT COOK.
• NO ONE was a better baker than Mother. She always had fresh cakes and cookies and pies available so that when any of her friends went by, they could always stop for coffee. I will never forget her strawberry rhubarb pie!
• And the freezer was always OVERFLOWING! In fact, for most of her married life, she had two freezers. One time when Charlie and I were there visiting with the kids, he went out to the freezer on the back porch and counted 22 half gallons of ice cream!
She was FUN.
• Two or three times a year she would pack a huge picnic, and each of us got to invite a friend. We would pile into our station wagon (there were no seat belts in those days), and we would drive to _______ Point in Mondamin, Iowa. Then she would send us on an adventure – to hunt for Indian mounds, to look for bitter sweet, or simply to explore the woods. Then we would come back and have all kinds of homemade things to eat. All our friends hoped we would choose them.
• When I was in junior high and high school, Mother would plan “Come As You Are” parties. We would get up early (which I HATED!), drive around to all my friend’s houses and pick them up. Usually they were sleeping and they would have to come “just as they were” (which THEY hated!). Then we would all go out on the back deck and Mother would make
homemade doughnuts and orange juice (and all our boy friends would sneak over and try to see us in all our glory!)
• I’ll never forget one Christmas when Bruce and Brian got a pogo stick. Mother could not wait to try it out, right in our living room. She lasted a few jumps but then took a huge crash. The boys yelled. “TIMBER…..!” which made us all laugh. Unfortunately, she ended up with some huge bruises.
She could be a SLAVE DRIVER! 😉
• We were all supposed to help with the cleanup each night after dinner. We rotated jobs – clearing the table, washing the dishes, and drying them. Beth was too young to help most of the time I was home, but the thing I especially remember was that Brian ALWAYS had to go to the bathroom just about the time we started the dishes. We would hear him singing in there, and he would stay just long enough until the work was all done. Bruce and I used to get really mad at him!
• We all had chores on Saturday mornings, and that really ticked me off because I was always the first one to have to leave the slumber parties and go home to work! My job was to dust the baseboards. (Does anyone even do that anymore????) However, I learned that I could make that one job last all morning long….so I guess I learned something from Brian! 😉
She LOVED LEARNING.
• She read to us for hours when we were growing up and continued reading herself until she lost her concentration. She gave all of us a love for books.
• She was constantly taking classes, trying new recipes, and experimenting with new ways of doing things which taught us a love for learning.
She was ACTIVE IN THE COMMUNITY.
• She was in a bridge club for years. One of the things I remember was that when we had a house with an upstairs, we would sneak down and sit on the stairs where they couldn’t see us and listen to all the gossip about everyone’s kids!
• She spent many hours helping with all kinds of events at the Methodist Church. Whenever they needed willing volunteers, Mother was always on the list.
• She was active for many years in Literary Club which she loved.
She LOVED TO SHOP.
• NO ONE loved a bargain more than Mother! Even to the end of her mobile days, her favorite thing to do was to go shopping – and she bought even when she didn’t need a thing. (I think I have inherited that gene myself…..and Beth, too!) I will always remember our full day shopping trips to Omaha. Dad was the most patient person I have ever known. He would sit in the car and read a book and wait, and we were ALWAYS late. Never did he say a crabby word. Charlie would have divorced me then and there! ?
• Mother also loved to give gifts, and I learned a lot from her about appreciating others and remembering them even when it wasn’t a special occasion.
She was always POSITIVE.
• She had some really tough times in her life –losing her only sister at age 23 to cancer and always having to live in her shadow, my almost dying from a dog bite when she was only 29 years old and then all the expense of two plastic surgeries at Mayo Clinic afterwards, her nearly dying when Brian was born, several major surgeries, and then losing her husband at age 52. Yet she always maintained a positive attitude and had a ready smile.
• We were all amazed at how flexible and accepting she was of all Brian’s weird phases, even when he became a Buddhist monk. I was tickled at Bruce’s gift to her when he went on his sabbatical to Tasmania — a beaded penis cover! She certainly learned to mellow as she aged!
She was ADVENTURESOME.
• When she was asked to teach at the college in Ames after Daddy died, it took a lot of courage to try something new at that stage of her life.
• She took an “around the world “ trip with Beth and Ted and their two little girls when she was in her 60’s and loved every minute of it.
She was a GREAT TEACHER.
• Just recently on the “Remembering Harlan” listserv, some of her students from years and years ago were still remembering her.
• When I became a teacher myself, I finally fully appreciated how she taught art from First grade through High School and the expertise and creativity that took. I remember her going out to her frozen car (we did not have a garage in the Durant Street house), scraping it all off, and then lugging huge amounts of art supplies from school to school.
She was PROUD OF HER FAMILY.
• No matter what we did – recitals, school events, sports things—she and Dad were always there. I did not fully appreciate that until I had children of my own.
• She also talked a lot – and anyone she was around heard a litany of how great we all were! I will never forget when I was at KU and one of the extra-curricular roles I was asked to take on was to host all the celebrities that came to give concerts at the University that year. One of them was Harry Belafonte, and it just happened that my folks had come down to visit that weekend, so they were thrilled to be able to meet him. Part of the job was to take the celeb out to dinner, so I asked Harry if he would mind if Mother and Dad joined us. OF course, he said yes. After the concert was over, and I was escorting him to his bus and I asked him if he had enjoyed the evening, he smiled and said to me, “I think I learned everything there was to know about each of the four Bauerle kids!” How humiliating! 😉
She was a GREAT ROLE MODEL.
• I learned so much from my Mother – good values, the importance of hard work and discipline, how to care for others, how to be a good homemaker, and most of all, self-confidence that I could do anything I set my mind to doing. She and Dad supported each of us in all the (sometimes crazy) endeavors we attempted, and she was a constant encourager. No one could have been more committed or prouder of her family! How very grateful I am that she was my mother.
As I read through this again, I wonder how many of these traits I have been blessed to inherit???? (Certainly not the one about cooking as I rarely do this anymore….;-)
To learn more about Barbara’s life and work, go to www.barbaraglanz.com
