For Year 9...A Story About Mom...

Before I get things started with today's story from long ago, I just wanted to take the opportunity to wish every single mother out there in the world a HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY! 

Whatever you do today, I hope you all have a great day filled with lots of love, joy, happiness - and hopefully sunshine!  I know here where I am, the sun is shining so brightly that I swear we skipped spring and have moved right into summer!

Anyway, we've come to a point in the retrospective where we have reached a bit of a milestone.

The end of the single digit years.

Yes, the single digit years were quite nice, but we have to end them eventually.  Year Nine begins now.

And, what a year nine was!  The nineties had just begun, and I remember so many details about my ninth year on this earth.  I had my birthday party at the movie theatre where we watched Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - which I have to admit that at the age of nearly 34 is STILL a guilty pleasure of mine.  I went into the fourth grade with eagerness, and ended up having a great year in school. 

For some reason, I also remember every girl in school having either a Beverly Hills 90210 or New Kids on the Block pencil case...but that was cool.  I would wear Simpsons T-shirts to school - even though my school was considering banning them because they saw The Simpsons as being a bad influence.

(And keep in mind we were still six years away from South Park!)

So, let's have a look at what was going on in the first year of the 1990s - as well as my last year of being a single digit kid.  First, the snapshot.

For some reason, I thought I wore a bright neon yellow sweatshirt for my class picture.  Apparently, it was green.  It was still bright enough to blind the camera man though.  As for my bedhead look?  Sigh...this was the year in which I was experimenting different looks.  Needless to say, this one did NOT make the cut. 

Now for the pop culture junk.

#1 SONG THE WEEK OF 5/18/1990

"Vogue" - MADONNA

Okay, so technically this song hit #1 the day after.  But six of the seven days of that week had this at the top of the charts, so I'm going with it.  It certainly puts you in a better mood to party than Sinead O'Connor's "Nothing Compares 2 U"!

#1 AT THE BOX OFFICE THE WEEK OF 5/18/1990

"Pretty Woman"

Now this is a movie that I did not see for several years after it came out - and on top of that, I was forced to see it.  Though, I'm not sorry that I did see it.  It was a great film, and the soundtrack to the film is probably one of the better ones available.

#1 TELEVISION SHOW FOR THE 1990/1991 SEASON

"Cheers"

Now, this is a show that took a long time to make it to the top of the Nielsen ratings (the 1990/91 season was the show's eighth).  Ultimately though, it was worth the wait.  In my opinion, Cheers actually got better as the show progressed.

So, now we get to the main subject of this blog post.  And, well...it's based on a memory that I have of my mother growing up.  And how 1990 marked the year that a very significant change took place in her life.

I should set up the story. 

As much as she's probably going to kill me for revealing this information, my mother turned 45 years old in 1990.  And, up until this point, my mom and dad somehow ended up following the one child per decade law.  They had a child in the 1960s, a child in the 1970s, and a child in the 1980s.  By the time 1990 rolled around, I think my mom was exhausted!

Way too exhausted to give me a little brother or a sister, even though I pointed out that it was the 1990s now and that it was technically time for her and dad to have another kid. 

Needless to say, I remained the baby of the family.  Much to my chagrin.

But anyway, my then 45-year-old mother was re-evaluating her looks and she decided that she wanted to make a drastic change.

She wanted to cut her hair short.

Looking back on it, I can see why she wanted to make that decision.  For the first 45 years of her life, my mother always had long hair.  In her childhood photos, her wedding photo, and any snapshots that were taken between her wedding day and 1990 had her hair styled in a variety of different ways from shoulder length to chin length to Marge Simpson bouffant.

(Ah...you thought I was kidding about the Marge Simpson hair, didn't you?  Only difference was that it was never dyed royal blue.  Dark brown, yes.  Royal blue, no.  And right now, I'm thinking that my family is rethinking their hiding spot for the family album!)

But I think somewhere along the way, my mother decided that long hair was too hard to keep maintained, so when 1990 arrived, she made the decision to cut her hair short.

Now, she didn't completely shave off the whole thing.  She left a little bit of length up on top so that she could take a curling iron to it if she so desired to.  But I have to say, it was quite a change for her, and quite a change for the rest of us in the family.

But, I think as you can see...it turned out beautifully.

But then, my mother is a very beautiful person.  Inside and out.

And, well...she's had quite a life.

As a young woman.

As a daughter.

As a mother.

As a grandmother.

She truly is one of the best.  Love you, Mom!  No matter how short your hair gets!

Which, in this recent picture, you have to admit...it's pretty short!  But hey.  She still looks fabulous no matter what!

We'll continue on with the 1990s with the tenth year of life...and I'll have to get back to you on what I'll be talking about during that time period, because honestly I haven't decided what to talk about yet.

Once again...Happy Mother's Day everybody!