Published Thursday, December 10, 2009

Remembering mother and her impact on our lives

Sports Column by STUART CROSBY

stuart@newnan.com

Yesterday was December 7 which most of you are aware was the date in 1941 when the Japanese military invaded Pearl Harbor causing President Franklin D. Roosevelt to proclaim the date as a "Day of Infamy".

When the 50th anniversary of this historical event came to pass in 1991, our family was not thinking about the attack on Pearl Harbor.

On December 7, 1991 we buried my mother two days after she came home from work as an emergency department nurse and within 90 minutes had passed away from an aneurysm.

December was always her favorite month since Christmas comes in the month and there was also the bowl game that the Georgia Bulldogs appeared in.

Ironically it was announced the 2009 version of the Bulldogs would play in the Independence Bowl in Shreveport, Louisiana, the same bowl Georgia played in the year my mother died when they took on the Arkansas Razorbacks and beat them.

My mother was into football and learned about the game when she became a cheerleader at Jenkins High School in Savannah and my grandfather tapped her "tomboy" persona to teach her the basics of the game and defy the stereotypes of cheerleaders in the late 1950s.

To the cheerleaders at our area high schools, mama could be a reason for my coming to you prior to games and saying you need to run laps or something to that effect since I fear being struck by lightning.

She wouldn't know "a skinny post" to a fullback dive or the spread offense but she did have a general knowledge of the game which came in handy when her three offspring were attempting to play the sport at a young age.

My mother also had a little knowledge of basketball (maybe the shorts worn at the time played a part) especially since again she would have to do the mommy thing while her children were trying to master the art of the roundball.

At one of my games she gave the officials a little grief and along the way shouted to one of my teammates "When your daddy becomes commissioner of the league maybe you will get the calls".

That proclamation did not go over very well with a few people in the stands, but it was not derogatory and anyone who has played in a recreation league knows that their parent is likely to say something during a game, but my mother had an excuse.

She was raised by two very opinionated people.

Unfortunately the game of basketball would come into play and take a sad twist in the last week of her life as that week my youngest brother Jason played his first varsity high school game two days before her passing but she was unable to make it due to work, but we told her how the did and she was thrilled.

She would miss his second game two nights later as we held her funeral that morning and in limited duty that evening he missed a jumper, but got the rebound and converted a reverse layup that brought his schoolmates to their feet.

My mother also gets one more credit in my life where sports is concerned or the blame and that is her action that led to this column being published today.

When I registered to attend Windsor Forest High School in Savannah, she mentioned to the counselor that I had an interest in journalism and after a brief meeting with the newspaper advisor, I signed up for my first actual journalism class.

I also wrote a number of decent stories that year if I remember back in the day including one on teenage suicides that seemed to be interesting and the rest is history.

There are probably some of you who would say thanks mom in a less than complimentary manner. As for myself I can do it in a genuine manner.

Thanks mother, I would probably be doing something else if you hadn't said anything to a high school counselor.