Jay, if I remeber correctly, the meatball mom is holding up were called Buffalo Balls, She thought that was a hoot!

Once I had my driver's license, I got a job and saved up $500 to buy a car.  Dad and I found a 1965 Red Mustang and it passed his inspection so dad put down some money to hold the car till the next day so I could get my money from the bank.  

I was so excited and told my mom all about it. My mom had yaken a year long course through the American Association of Astrologers and passed the tests necessary to become a certified Astrologer. So she asked me when I planned to actually pay and buy the car. Tomorrow, I said, and I can hardly wait!  Then she said something that all of us in the family had heard many times...

"Mercury is in retrograde. You can't buy that car tomorrow.  If you do anything that requires signing legal papers when Mercury is in Retrograde something will go wrong." 

"Mom", I said,  If I don't buy it tomorrow, someone else will. Dad checked it out too.  She had a slight smirk on her face when I said that. Then she said, "Well you still can't buy it tomorrow. You'll find something you like once Mercury is direct again."
"When is that?" I asked. "In two weeks" she said.

Now, I was just sixteen, and two weeks was an unbearable amount of time to wait to buy my first car. Besides, I didn't believe in that Mercury mumbo jumbo, so I gathered all my courage and told my mom that I was paying for the car with my own money and I WAS going to buy it tomorrow and that was that. 

Surprisingly, she just shrugged her shoulders and said, "Well, you are going to have nothing but trouble with that car" and walked away.  
 
I felt quite victorious when I pulled into into our driveway with my beautiful red mustang. Later that evening, I got to drive to the Birmingham Teen Center with my girlfriends and when we all got into the car to head home... the battery was dead. And yes, she was right. I had nothing but trouble with that car for as long as I owned it.  Arrrgh!

I was in 6th grade and it was my mom and dad's wedding anniversary.  Dad had bought some flowers and a romantic card for mom, and she told him she had a surprise gift for him. There was a small landing at our back door.  Two steps up to the kitchen and on the opposite side, two steps up to what we referred to as Dad's bathroom, for obvious reasons.  The door was always closed so when Eleanor led Nick to the landing she smiled and said, "your gift is in your bathroom, open the door!"

So Nick, probably thinking it must be something like a nice, padded toilet seat or maybe, just maybe a small tv so he wouldn't miss any action in a Tigers game, opened the door....

I should let you know that my dad, who looked like a mafia guy, was deathly afraid of dogs, large or small , so when the door opened and a baby goat immediately stuck his head out and bleated right into dad's face, causing him to fall back he yelled,  Jesues Christ Eleanor, are you trying to kill me?! 

Well I got to keep the goat for a while as my pet. However it had to sleep in the garage every night.  My dad left for work very early in the morning and every morning he would wake me up and say "would you please come and get your goat off of my car.  Seems she liked to curl up on the hood of his corvair to sleep.  

Mom got a big kick out of the whole situation, but after a week or two, she told me Thalia was getting a little too big and that she had found a nice farm where she could play with other goats. I was sad, but was happy that Thalia was having fun and had room to run.  It wasn't until I was in my early 30's that the goat story came up at a party and I told everyone about the happy ending for Thalia. Mom said, well, i didn't actually take her to a farm. I traded her for some moonshine to a girl at work who loved barbequed goat. All i could say was, Jesus Christ Eleanor!  

My apologies if the title of this story offends anyone, but it is essential to the story. Let me explain.  I swear that I thought my mom's full name was Jesus Christ Eleanor because it seemed that was what my dad called her most of the time. 

Here are a few examples:

"Jesus Christ Eleanor! I am not going to tear down this two story chimney I just finished, because you want it moved 2 inches to the right!" 

"Jesus Christ Eleanor! We are not keeping a full size pyramid set up in the living room so you can sit in there and think!" (It was for her meditation, but Dad was not into that stuff).

And, my personal favorite,

"Jesus Christ Eleanor! what is a goat doing in my bathroom! Are you tryimg to kill me?"

There are many, many more examples, but you get the point.  

 And in case you're wondering... yes there really was a baby goat in my dad's bathroom. Why, is another story.

She was a beautiful and fun lady. I will miss her wonderful dance moves.