Vegas Voice 6-18 web

One Last Thought
By: Rana Goodman / On My Soapbox
Before we begin celebrating Father’s Day,
please allow me one final word about
Mother’s Day. It was another season of getting
past that day without the woman who was such an integral part of my
life - my mom who taught me so much.
A woman I wanted to emulate to the extent that I was constantly
in hot water each time I walked into my Home Economics class. I
couldn’t resist telling the teacher that “my mother said custom made
garments were not stitched that way.”
Or that, “I would prefer to cook dishes the way my mother
does.” Suffice to say, the teacher, Mrs. Schroeder, would have loved to
see me vanish from her sight each day.
My mother was a 4’10” power house. She was funny and smart;
smart enough to make my dad believe he was the head of our family
for the 50 years they were together.
However, when that one eyebrow of hers went higher than the other,
and when her jaw set firmly into a deadpan glare, my dad and I both
knew to shut up and give her whatever she wanted.
My mother was a dress maker to titled ladies in her younger days.
When she tired of that, she opened one small shop in the heart of
London. The shop grew over the years into a small chain of shops
across England.
She was an astute business woman with an uncanny knack for
picking the right location and making it work. I remember as a kid
watching her argue with my dad over a lease she signed for a shop in
the English town of Peckham without talking to him about it first.
I was with her the day she signed that lease. My mom kept raving
about the location being in front of a busy bus stop and how wonderful
that was.
I have a photograph of that shop in my bedroom. It turned out to
be a true money-maker because she created a window display that
revolved with one of her dress creations. Anyone waiting for the bus
couldn’t help but stare at what my mom made.
Inside the shop was a selection of affordable copies of “that gown”
that any working lady could purchase. My wonderful mom “knocked it
out of the ball park” with that shop.
Not much changed after they immigrated to the United States.
When my dad decided to open a Las Vegas shop in the late 50s, it
was my mother who picked the location - right across the street from
Woolworths.
It was 4 th and Fremont Street. They opened the first credit jewelry
shop in this city, Gee’s Jewelers. It thrived until the late 1990’s when
they both retired.
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June 2018
Gosh, how I miss them!
If you want to know what prompted me to get so involved with
guardianship, look no further than my parents. If anyone had tried to
touch either of them - well, I would most likely be sitting in jail now.
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