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Sunday, May 09, 1999 Page: 1
It’s fun to imagine what moms of some prominent local people might have
said
They rattle through your brain like, well, like the nagging voice of your
mother”Someday your face will freeze like that!” “You’re going to put an eye
out with that thing!” “You won’t be happy until you break that, will you?”
Mothers hand down more than genes: They pass on platitudes that echo long
after you leave home. Absent-mindedly scratch a little wax out of your ear and
suddenly you’ll hear it: “There’s enough dirt in those ears to grow potatoes!”
Personal favorites from my mom include her opinion of winter backpacking
trips my oldest brother and I took: “Go ahead, freeze yourselves to death!” Or
her mantra whenever one of her grown children prepares to leave after a visit
full of home cooking: “Be sure you take some leftovers, I made plenty!”
And in a house full of nine kids, at one point each of us was summoned with
a series of names not our own: “Jay … Joe … Gregg … Tim … You know who
you are.”
Indeed I do. And sometimes it is alarmingly clear that I am my mother’s
son. The scary part, as anyone over 30 can attest, is how we unintentionally-
even against our will- adopt our parents’ habits. At home, and even at work, I
find myself stumbling through several names before attaching the right one to
the person I’m addressing.
Which, naturally enough on this Mother’s Day, made me wonder about the
mothers of our area newsmakers. What did our prominent local people hear from
mom that sticks with them today?
Of course, I kid them all. I’m confident all of them share the same
profound love and respect for their mothers that I have for mine:
Mike Marsicano’s mom, providing advice the mayor- frustrated by a
recalcitrant City Council- doesn’t seem to have fully grasped: “You don’t
always get what you want. It’s a hard lesson, but you might as well learn it
now.”
The mom of Geraldine Shepperson, offering a quote the superintendent surely
could have used when students booed her during graduation: “What have I done
to deserve such ungrateful children?”
Betsy Durso’s mom, expressing frustration that Durso must now feel every
time she tangles with Lou Rossi at School Board meetings: “Am I talking to a
brick wall?”
Donald Boyer’s mom, giving advice that the deadpan, rarely-smiles-in-public
School District business manager has clearly taken to heart at board meetings:
“I’m not here to entertain you.”
City Administrator Millie DeLorenzo’s mom, with a truism that could sadly
echo through her head every time she has to tell councilmen she doesn’t have
the information they want: “I don’t know is NOT an answer.”
The mom of School District Security Director Vince Zola, sensing his future
in selling the public on full-time security guards, secret surveillance
cameras, and clear plastic book bags: “It’s all fun and games until someone
gets hurt.”
The mom of talk show host Sam Lasante, who weathers frequent criticism that
he never asks guests the tough questions: “If you can’t say something nice,
don’t say anything at all.”
The mom of Gloria Pesock, inspiring her School Board campaign slogan:
“Enough is enough!”
The moms of Hazleton area voters, with a simple directive we all surely can
appreciate this coming election: “I don’t care WHO started it, I said stop!”
So today, at least, remember: “Don’t pick or it will get infected,” “clean
your plate, children in Europe are starving,” “don’t drink out of the milk
bottle,” “pick up your socks, they won’t pick themselves up” and “don’t go
outside with a wet head or you’ll catch cold.”
“You can be anything you want to be,” but above all be careful how you
treat mom, because someday, “you could have children just like you.”
An earnest Happy Mother’s Day to all.
Mark Guydish is Greater Hazleton Bureau Team Leader. Reach him at 459-2005
or e-mail at [email protected].