Books Your Mama Read You

My friends tease me (a lot) about a number of things actually, but especially about my propensity for entering contests and filling out surveys. It's almost a sickness I have - if all I have to do is fill in my name, address, and email address and I could potentially win something, anything, I am filling that sucker out! Usually what I get is nothing but a lot of spam, but I did recently win a year's supply of Frosty Paws for Reggie and Lola and a Senseo coffee maker. So there!

So today when I got an email from Bookreporter.com about a Mother's Day Contest they are sponsoring I clicked right over to the contest entry form. The prize, should I happen to win it, is a floral-decorated keepsake trunk filled with one copy of each of 13 featured titles as well as a variety of gifts for Mom, including: a pink spatula from Williams-Sonoma; a large pink Stargazer Lily Scented Candle from Illuminations; a pink “Shower Flower” from Crabtree & Evelyn; Nantucket Briar lavender-scented drawer papers from Crabtree & Evelyn; and lemon cake mix from Canterbury Naturals.

The featured Mother's Day titles are all stories about love, family and friendship and most importantly I haven't read any of them. Awesome prize for a book loving fool like myself (note to reader - my mom passed away 13 years ago so I am not being selfish trying to win this for myself.) I quickly filled out the required info. Name - check. Address - check. Email address - check. Name your favorite book that your mother read to you - um, er, ah, wow - I can't remember my mom ever reading me a book. That immediately made me sad.

A little back story needed here. My mom was a World War II war bride. She met my father (a first generation American from an Italian family) when he knocked her off her bicycle while he was stationed near her home town of Pisa. She got up off her butt fighting mad, cursing and screaming and he asked her if she would do his laundry! And, she said yes! Apparently the Italians looked upon the American GIs as gods - after all they were there defending Italy from the threat of Hitler and the Germans so they were the good guys. So from that fairy tale beginning, they fell in love and were married in Italy, in the church in her home town. My dad had to leave her to keep on fighting the war but after the war ended he sent for her and she sailed to America. She was 22 year old and she did not see her family again for another 22 years. She spoke no English when she arrived in the states. They settled in the same small town as my father's parents who had also emigrated from Italy so they also spoke little English. When my sister, the oldest child, went to kindergarten, she didn't speak English either. My brother was next and by that time a little English was being spoken in my family's home. When I arrived 7 years later, we all spoke English even if my mom's was very heavily accented.

What does all this have to do with the contest you may be wondering? Well, when I came to the question about the favorite book my mom read to me, I had no memory of one. She told me stories; in her accented, broken English she told me many stories. But I truly have no recollection of her ever reading me one. When she died we found a very plain wooden trunk that she had brought with her on her long ocean voyage to America. It was filled with books. Mainly romance novels judging by the covers, all in her native language. She obviously loved to read - why else would she fill up so much of her precious cargo space with books? So I have to wonder - why she didn't read to me? I'm guessing it was the language issue. But sadly, I will never really know the answer.