Flashback

My family has never had much money. In some points of my childhood and beyond, in fact, money has seemed a bit of an imaginary concept.

We lived in student housing pretty much until I was 10 1/2 years old. Five kids and two adults in one small two bedroom apartment is a wee bit crowded. My parents slept on a hide-a-bed in the living room, I shared a room with my sisters, and my brothers shared the smaller room.

The thing was, we kids didn't really know we were poor. Sure, we knew we couldn't afford new toys, that store bought clothes (that weren't hand me downs from other families) were rare things, and so on. But...life was good. Great, in fact. We never lacked for friends, the complex was teeming with them. Our parents always had time for us. We got to go on cool day long road trips around the state/area we lived in on a regular basis, whenever we cockroach bombed the apartment.

You see, living in an apartment building full of college students, in a warmer climate...cockroaches were inevitable. To this day, I can think of few things that gross me out more. 'Bombing' the apartment only abated the problem. The roaches would scatter to the other apartments, only to return when the pesticides wore off.

I know, this is a long story, but I just had a big flashback to one day. This particular day, my Mom decided we needed to decockroach the clothes stored in our closets, waiting for younger siblings to grow into them. As she shook out the shirts and dresses and pants, we ran around, stomping on the roaches. It became something of a little party. Mom pulled out her accordion and played 'La Cucaracha' while we smashed away.

As much as I despise cockroaches, I've never forgotten that day and am SO grateful I was blessed with such a fun Mom. Love ya Mom!