This is more a story told to me than a direct memory, less about Mom than Mom’s reaction.
My three younger siblings had not started school when Mom took her first job in the neighboring school district as a teacher’s aide in a learning disability classroom. Steve, their father and my step-father, stayed at home taking care of them
At lunch – or whenever they get hungry – they’d find Steve and ask Papa, can we have a sandwich?, sandwiches being their typical lunch. One day, Steve blurted out So you want a sammit, dammit? For ever more, whenever they were hungry, they’d say Papa, we want a sammit, dammit!
The first time Mom heard her very young children saying this, she desperately tried – and failed – to keep a straight face but struggled it was so funny and so damn cute. On weekends when she was home, I’m sure they’d ask Mom for their sammit in the same way. And though she tried to not encourage them, I don’t think it went away for a while.
I man not have all the details correct, but the phrase I want a sammit, dammit does get thrown out every once in a while!
