My parents belonged to several clubs and organizations as we were growing up. One of those was a Card Club. One Saturday night a each month they gathered with other couples for a light dinner before settling in for an evening of cards. The couples would take turns hosting in their homes. I enjoyed it when it was Mom and Dad’s turn as Mom would like to have “fun” dinners such as “Mystery Dinner”.
The concept was usually centered around a holiday or season. There was a printed menu of available options and it would be divided into three courses. A person would number in order how they wanted to receive the items. For example, a Halloween menu would have listed in no particular order:
Dracula’s Blood (tomato soup), Graveyard Grass (steamed green beans), Mummy toes (little sausages wrapped in crescent rolls), Bones (bread sticks), Pulverized Black Widows (root beer), Werewolf Brains (macaroni and cheese), Devil’s pitchforks (forks), Guillotine blades (knife), and Mummy wraps (napkins).
The real fun came if someone selected Werewolf Brains in their first course, but didn’t receive Devil’s pitchforks until the third course. As hilarious as Mystery Dinners were, they still were not the highlight of card club for my sister and me.
On the months we did not host, my sister and I would start the festivities with our choice of a Swanson TV dinner. Mmmmm…that greasy delicious fried chicken leg with the fake-buttered water-laden mashed potatoes nestled next to the golden mushy corn topped off with the diabetic apple crisp…we thought we were living high on the hog. As we finished eating, Dad was off securing Ringmaster for the night. The Master of Ceremonies would arrive in the form of an older, gray-haired, 4 foot 10 inches tall woman wearing glasses, a dress, and white tennis shoes carrying her supply for writing letters. This showman was affectionately known as our loyal babysitter – Mabel.
She was the best! How do I know? Because she was in high demand. Each month when the date of the card club was set, each set of parents would race to their phones to be the first to acquire Mabel for babysitting duties. She was funny, attentive, joyful, and had the best games to play! And, we listened to her, I mean really listened to her! When she said it was time for bed, we didn’t mess around. We went straight to bed because if we were “bad” she may not want to come back. After we were tucked in for the night, she would sit down and pull out her supplies and write her letters.
One of her beloved games was called “Grocery Store”. My sister, Mabel, and I would sit in a circle. We would all do a clap clap snap snap combo with our hands while the first person would start chanting “I’m on my way to the grocery store. I’m going to buy something that starts with the letter A…apples. The next person would say the same thing only with the next letter of the alphabet and so on. When it was your turn and you could not think of a food that began with that letter then you had to get up and run around the circle while Mabel chased you. Kids today probably would not appreciate the simplicity, creativity, and overall good time of this game.
We had several babysitters over the years, but none were as special as Mabel. She brought joy into our lives. She had a caring spirit, quiet strength, and endless kindness. As we grew older, we did not need Mabel to babysit us. That might have been one of the worst things to realize that dining on a “delectable” TV dinner and spending time with Mabel was forever gone. She is no longer with us, but I would like to think she is still gathering children know the children around her somewhere – singing, dancing, and teaching them a new game. If heaven has babysitters, I have no doubt Mabel was hired on the first day.
Until next time,
-Molly