Birthday Remembrances

Today's blog entry is offered as a remembrance to my mom, Jeanne, on what would have been her twenty-third birthday.

Mom had one of the best, most positive outlooks on life I have ever come across. For all of mom's faults, I remember he always having the view that today was the best day to be alive. The view of life that you should "live in the now" was her view. And this was long before the new age element seized this concept as their own.

Perhaps I am looking at mom through the rose-colored glasses of nostalgia, but mom seemed to be happy and enjoying life much more often that not. Sure, she occasionally had to punish my siblings and me. (Admittedly me more than my siblings…) She had a Joie de Vie that is enviable.

In this picture, Mom is Dancing with Toby the Robot, a popular character on the local television scene in the seventies.

Mom made an impression on everyone she ever met. (For good or not, you had to remember her!) This picture was taken in the early seventies some time. Back in 2000 I was on a consulting trip to Miami. On that trip, to Channel Seven, I met with Charlie Folds. The creator of Toby the Robot and the man behind (or rather within) the creation of a robot from a bucket, a trash can, some oven mitts, some dryer venting and ten dollars of parts from Radio Shack.

Charlie and I had never officially met before; at least I had never met him as Charlie Folds. We talked briefly of my memories of Toby the Robot when I was a child and of his role on Wayne Chandler and the Sunday Funnies (the show that Toby The Robot co-hosted). When we touched on the St. Kevin's Church Carnival, where I had met Toby in the seventies, he said that he remembered St. Kevin's for three reasons.

1) One of the ladies came up to him and asked if "Toby" needed a beverage to cool himself off. When Toby Beeped "Yes, he was thirsty" he was handed a plastic cup and a straw. He had thought that the cup would contain water or juice of some kind. The fact was that one of the church ladies had handed him a glass of Mrs. Mendoza's Sangria!

2) He remembered after the show being given a wonder Italian sausage sandwich. (Mrs. Riccinni used to make these every year on a huge outdoor grill; larger than the dining room table at our home.)

3) The woman who had run the carnival was a warm and outgoing person who made sure that he and Wayne were met and cared for from the time they arrived to the time they left. He liked her and remembered her even dancing with her at the carnival. Working with her had been a wonder.

Now, Charlie had no reason to know that she was my mom! (Not unless he had an amazing memory and remembered the name "Bergquist" after nearly thirty years and somehow made the connection to the consultant who had been introduced as being from Memphis.) But the fact that he remembered her was homage to mom and to the fact that nobody who knew her ever forgot her!

So, mom; Happy birthday! Thanks for the memories.

I hope wherever you are today, you have pleasant thoughts of those you love!

Don Bergquist - 25 January 2007 - Thames Ditton, Surrey, UK