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I had to laugh when I read about the mother, Madlyn Primoff, who put her arguing children out of the car on the side of the road. I can’t even begin to remember the number of times my mother told my brother and me that she would “leave us here” if we didn’t stop arguing with each other. So to hear that a mother did just that made me laugh out loud. It also brought back the time my mother put my father out of the car too. And this was for real!
We, as a family, had plans to go to the drive-in. Boy I miss being able to go to the drive-in! But that is another post. My father came home from hanging out on the corner, and really didn’t want to go with us. His surly demeanor was readily apparent. So within a mile of our home, after listening to my father grumble, my mother told my father that he could “get out if you want to.” My father responded by saying “then pull the car over” which is EXACTLY WHAT MY MOTHER DID. And thinking my mother was bluffing, my father got out and shut the door. My mother turned the car around, went back to the house to get some money, and we headed to the movies. On the way, we saw my father walking home. I guess he thought my mother was going to pull over and pick him up. NOT!!!! Moms keep driving right on past him. When the movies ended, “Apple Dumpling Gang” and “Freaky Friday“, (funny what you remember, LOL), we went home. Naturally Pops wasn’t home. He did what he had wanted to do all along. Go hang out on the corner. But when he returned there was nothing said about it! It was as if nothing ever happened.
But for me, it left a lasting impression. I can remember when we, my mother, brother, and I, would head out to the store and Moms would say as we were getting into the car, “Don’t look at shit, don’t touch shit, cause’ you ain’t getting shit.” Sometimes she meant it and other times she didn’t. It usually depended on how tired from work she was. I also remember being in J.J. Newberries, (yes I am that old!), and having my mother tell my brother and I “busta pagu diablos.” (Spelling of the first two words is probably incorrect). Roughly translated that means “stop it you devils!!!” That was pretty much all my brother and I needed to hear. When Moms started talking to us in another language, we knew it was about to be “on” if we didn’t stop. So we stopped! LOL And when we wanted something from the store and she said “no” and started out to the car, the refrain of “If you aren’t in the car when I get there, I’m leaving” meant something. Hell, if she would leave our father by the side of the road, and not give it a second thought, our little asses didn’t stand a chance!
It was also funny to watch the parents around us look and wonder “what the hell just happened here?” Because while my mother has been called every race in the world, Mexican, Filipino, Samoan, and Black, to name a few, my brother and I are dark skinned. So I’m sure people wondered how this Mexican/Filipino/Samoan mother could talk to those “black children” and have them listen and understand what she said.
So cut Madlyn Primoff some slack. She probably had had just about enough and her kids didn’t think the threat was real. I bet they do now. The next time they are arguing in the car and mom’s car veers a little to the right, those two children will straighten up and fly right. Who says that wasn’t a “teaching moment!”
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