Write Team: Did Your Mother Ever Tell You? 

Did your mother tell you to always wear clean underwear in case you get in an accident?

To be honest, neither did my mother. Every morning I change my underwear, so somehow, she did instill it in me even if not through the age-old reason. I was ready in those few accidents in my life though.

Here is one your mother probably did not tell you. Keep your car clean and organized in case it does not start in cold weather and you need someone to come and change your battery. My mother never had a driver’s license, so I really cannot blame her for not passing that one along. In January during the cold weather, my SUV would not start, we called and had the people who service our vehicle come out and they ended up installing a new battery.

My vehicle not starting was no major surprise, since it hadn’t been driven since Nov. 25 when my brother-in-law drove it, bringing me back from Rockford after my hip replacement surgery. More surprising to me was who came out for my Envision – Terry Bentz himself.

Two of their mechanics were on vacation, and though we told the person who we called at Bentz, we had another vehicle and could wait if needed; Terry still came out, jumped my vehicle and drove it back to Marseilles.

When we arranged after the battery was replaced to come out the next day and pick it up, who should show up later at our door with my Envision but Terry.

To answer the question he asked, ”Terry, everyone else is retired, but you are not because you are needed more.”

He did not mention it was totally filled from the back seats to the very back with items to recycle when he returned the vehicle.

I’m glad I had not put any in the front passenger seat. We never dreamed as I stored our recycling until I was cleared to drive again that the battery would die. Recycling really was not happening much when I was a child, so again my mother gets a pass. My mother was more of a person who raised her children by example than catch phrases.

I guess that is where I get it from. Some of my brothers really could have used the age-old sayings though.

That may not have helped them, since my childhood defied common wisdom of sayings. Sayings would need to have been stretched to apply to the situations we found ourselves in at the time. Our lives did give us brothers lots of things to remember and talk about in later years though, as we remembered fondly the strange situations we had encountered.

Living with my grandmother part of my childhood certainly contributed, as she seemed to find the most interesting characters to include in our lives. Generally, few can say their life growing up was very similar to my childhood. Maybe I will share more specifics in future columns.

• Rodney Verdine is retired as the assistant director at the La Salle County Detention Home, but also had been a probation officer. He can be reached at newsroom@mywebtimes.com