Straight Gin

I realized that my Mom rarely makes an appearance in my blog.  I was thinking about that today.  My  writing is typically about things that happen to me in the present and my Mom died before I started blogging.  She was with me when I came into the world and I was with her when she left it.  While there is symmetry in this, it’s hardly a square deal.

I have written about my Dad here; how his habit for as long as I can remember has been to make a martini before dinner.  Mom would put two rocks glasses in the freezer before dinner and Dad would use them to serve the drinks he made from himself and for my Mom.  I think it was a rather lovely ritual.

I recently made mention to my dad that on the holidays when we visit my sister for dinner he doesn’t get his usual pre-dinner cocktail.  I suggested that we bring some gin and vermouth to my sister’s house and make his usual martini.  He tossed it around a bit in the way that someone does when they aren’t seriously considering the proposal.  He made a few comments about it being too much trouble and finally ended with “maybe to make it easier I’ll just make my drink the way your mother had it, straight gin.”

A throw away comment by Dad was a revelation to me.  I had no idea that Mom had her “martini” as straight gin.  My immediate thought was “how cool is that!”  What lingers though is how much I like women that enjoy their gin.  I had no idea that my Mom was doing just that for all those years.

Here is Mom in her youthful days.

And here is a toast to her with her favorite cocktail.

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~ by Tom on December 19, 2011.