This Mother’s Day I am going to go against my norm and write a blog about the holiday. Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms reading this. Here is one of my favorite Mother’s Day memories.
The perfect Mother’s Day song is clearly “A Song For Mama” by Boyz II Men. The year it came out my extended family was all getting together to celebrate. I decided it would be nice to type up the lyrics for all the moms that would be there and then play the song for them. I even printed the lyrics on pastel colored paper instead of boring white. After lunch all the kids were playing in my cousin’s room and I got them together and told them the plan. We got the CD player ready and headed back to the dining room. All the moms were still sitting around the table talking. We walked out and passed out the lyrics and told them there was a song we wanted to play for them. As the song was playing, the tears began to flow. By the time the second chorus hit, there wasn’t a woman with a dry eye. The song wrapped up and all the moms got up and started giving hugs to everyone and telling us how special and nice it was.
At this point you might be wondering why this is one of my favorite Mother’s Day memories. I’m not usually this sweet, sentimental guy. Well that is because my story is not yet finished. After the Boyz II Men song finished, my cousin Chris came up to me and said, “There is another song that we could play. Do you think I should play ‘Dear Mama’ by 2pac?” I couldn’t remember all the lyrics to the song, but you don’t often hear 2pac and Mother’s Day in the same sentence. Not really wanting to burst his bubble, I replied, “If you want to, you can play it.” He ran to his room and got the CD (or maybe tape haha). He came back out and announced that he had another song for all the moms. He put it on and I was just worried about what the words were (after all 2pac’s lyrics are not the cleanest). Now the chorus of the song, where 2pac says, “You are appreciated,” was meaningful and appropriate. However, there were a couple of lines that caused all the moms to bust out laughing: “Hugging on my mama from a jail cell.” and “You always was a black queen.” Surprisingly, we made it through the whole song. I think my grandma was the most shocked by the whole situation; rap wasn’t something she was very familiar with. Our whole family was in tears (from laughing this time) when the moms asked us what we were trying to tell them with the jail cell line.
When Chris asked me about playing the song, I honestly thought it was a pretty terrible idea. But looking back now, it lightened the mood, gave us all a good laugh, and gave us all a great memory. So for that I say, well played Chris. Not many people can get away with playing a 2pac song for their mom on Mother’s Day, or really any day for that matter. Every time I think back to that memory it brings a smile to my face and makes me laugh.
What are some of your favorite Mother’s Day memories?
until next time…