On this mother’s day, I feel blessed to have worked with my
mom on her love project honoring her mother, “Model T Biscuits.” You can just
feel the love as you read about their cross country trip to find a little farm
of their own.
As I look back, it is really a miracle that I became a writer. When I was in kindergarten, I was so shy that I couldn't even raise my hand to go to the bathroom. I had great difficulty learning my ABC’s. So they held me back another year. Yes, I flunked Kindergarten. I was put in a special class for students with learning disabilities. I remember being taught to tell my right hand from my left by holding up the hand I used to salute the flag. In second grade, I struggled to learn to read by memorizing words, so I doodled on the handouts instead. The teacher complained that I was in my own dream world, put me down another grade and suggested that I be put on drugs. But my mom never gave up on me. She hired a nice young woman to write down my stories while I illustrated them (so I could see the connection between my imagination and words.) My mom was so ahead of her time. I’m still proud of the resulting picture books, “The Stinky Skunk” and “The Roadwalker.”
The thing I love most about my mom is how she always encouraged us kids to develop our talents. When I was little I spent all my time drawing people. Despite our limited income, mom always made sure
I had art supplies. (Seems like every birthday I got art sets.) Somehow she convinced a local artist, Jan, to
give me free art lessons. (Jan taught me a trick for drawing faces... Draw an oval with a curved line half way down it. That's where you put the eyes.) She had been commissioned to paint a portrait of our local
celebrities Roy Rogers and Dale Evans for their museum. Inspired by her
painting, I sketched a picture of them too. I remember mom driving me to Victorville
and waiting outside the bowling alley for Roy Rogers so I could give him my
little picture. He just looked at it and walked away.
Mom inspired me every day with her passion and dedication
to her own writing. On our birthdays, she
brought cupcakes to school and read her story picture books to the class. One
year she read a story about a little Mexican boy and brought a lopsided homemade piñata. I loved it!
When my passion shifted to theater, mom drove me to the next
town over to perform in Community Theater. I checked out plays and musical
records from the library. I listened
to show tunes on my little record player and belted out the songs. I believe it
was that love of plays that helped me to finally overcome my struggle with
reading. I started writing show tunes and musicals. My most cherished memory of my mom is
climbing into her bed and singing her my latest creation. Of course, she
thought they all were brilliant. On the last day of school before going off to college, I
somehow found the courage to sing one of those songs, “At Last” to my choir teacher.
He was inspired to write an accompaniment to it right there in the practice
room while the rest of the class enjoyed their Christmas party.
Whenever I came home from college, I crawled into bed and
sang mom my latest songs. After learning to critique in grad school, we would sprawl out on the couch as I critiqued her
latest children’s book. One of those books was, “Model T Biscuits” which I eventually
adapted into a screenplay.
 |
| directing a scene from "Model T Biscuits" |
Mom and I have shared many priceless memories. We attended
the Burbank Children's Film Festival and watched as Dee Wallace's acting students
performed a stage reading of, “Model T Biscuits.” During the awards dinner, mom
was so nervous that her stomach was gurgling. She kept escaping into the
bathroom. During one of those visits, she ran into Shelly Long ( from Cheers)! She babbled something about how nervous she was. Shelly admitted that she was nervous
too and gave my mom a comforting hug.
Finally, Dee Wallace (the mom from E.T.) announced that we had won the award for
best short screenplay. Mom nervously uttered a speech about how her mother had inspired, “Model
T Biscuits” with her sisu (Finnish for guts and determination.) I am so grateful that my mom always showed
sisu when it came to encouraging us kids.
That is the greatest gift anyone has ever given me.
