Hats off to Mom!

Let’s celebrate our mother’s special day

Did you call your mother “Mom” when you were little? I never did. On the block where I grew up, each house had a different name for her. Matka. Mamaka. Mamma. Ma. Mutter. It depended on where they were from.

On our block in Queens, 25 two-story houses lined each side of the street, and the people who lived in them came from all over Europe. After World War II, New York was filled with “displaced persons,” as they were called, and immigrants. Our block was typical of a lot of New York, back then. Decades later, I would read in the N. Y. Times that Jackson Heights, the neighborhood I lived in, was the single most diverse neighborhood in any city in the U.S. To us, it was just home.

I grew up to be a teacher, among many other things (see my About page for details). During a career of 44 years, I’ve taught five different foreign languages, and that street is where I got started learning lots of them. Whenever I went to visit or play with a friend, I had to be polite and civil to the parents or grandparents who let me in. As Shakespeare put it, “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” Whatever you call her, she’s Mom.

In that neighborhood, though, I never heard the terms “Mom” or “Dad.” Those words were pure Hollywood. The only time I ever heard them was on “Leave it to Beaver” on TV, or in movies.

Whatever you used to call her — or still do, if you’re lucky — whether you are a mother, or have one, or had one you’d like to honor on this day, or hope to be one someday — I wish you a very

Happy Mother’s Day!