Blasts from the Past

For Mother's Day, Hawkeye Sarah posted a collage of photos of me from my early-mama years. The very first one was one I'd never seen before.

I recognize the chair I am sitting in but I am not sure which home that is - we had two in our Illinois days and I can't match it up with anything in either house that I can see in the photograph. Going by the manufacture dates on the models, the photo could not have been taken any earlier than 1988. And that isn't much help in determining which home that is - we moved from our first Illinois home into our second one in 1988! 

She also posted a photo of my Illinois horse, Indabab's Image, more commonly called Indy to note my Hoosier heritage. I was still a stay-at-home mom with only four kids then when I bought him, earning money to pay for him and for his monthly board bill by filling newspaper vending machines for The Chicago Tines, The Chicago Sun Times, The Wall Street Journal, and USA Today.

Photo from iS Stock and found on Google Images,

I'd get up at 4:00 AM and drive to the circulation warehouse, load my car with the newspapers, and then drive all over town, stopping at donut and coffee shops, restaurants, hotels, gas stations, university dorms, and more, filling the empty vending boxes. Sometimes I'd take one of our kids and we'd grab donuts at one of the donut shops I delivered to. I was done and home by 7:00 AM.

It was incredibly lucrative and I made enough money to support Indy and my hobby, with plenty left over to buy the kids clothes, pay sports fees and piano lessons, and more. It was the perfect job for a stay-at-home mom! 

Photo from Ultimate Classic Rock and found on Google Images.

Another bonus? I once met Def Leppard as they were checking out of their hotel. They'd performed at the University of Illinois the night before and were heading to the airport. As I popped into the hotel, I got a chance to say hello before I had to zip back out and resume my route. I got a lot of "cool Mom" bragging rights from my kids for that!