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MyEagleNews.com
OFF THE BEATEN PATH
Perfect mothers, imperfect moms
W
hen my children were
young, I didn’t look
forward to Moth-
er’s Day with a sense of antici-
pation. It’s not that I didn’t love
and want each child. And the
children presented gifts of the
heart — homemade lumps of
clay they fashioned into “candy
dishes.” Sometimes I received
special art projects — drawings
of the family, the mother with
hair sticking in the air. Gifts
wrapped in school notebook
paper and taped shut with black
electrical tape. One year — a
special cake.
With ceremony, they handed
me a layered cake. The words
written on top with frosting said,
“HAPPY MOTH.” I looked
puzzled.
“We ran out of room with the
message,” said a child.
“So, we had to bake another
cake,” said another child.
They presented me with the
second cake. The rest of the mes-
sage in frosting read: “ER’S
DAY.”
My challenge about Moth-
er’s Day — listening to accolades
about Perfect Mothers.
You can always tell a Perfect
Mother. They sew cute animal
or swashbuckling pirate Hallow-
een costumes. Imperfect Moms
are at one with staplers and glue.
Perfect Mothers never raise their
voices and come to the breakfast
table well-groomed and cheerful.
Imperfect Moms holler, “What in
the world are doing?”
Jean Ann
Moultrie
“Shampoo-
ing the living
room carpet,”
said an Imper-
fect Mom’s
child.
Per-
fect Mothers
already have a
spotless living
room carpet.
Imperfect Moms fi nd a tot
shampooing the carpet with
a 3-pound can of shortening.
Imperfect Moms lack child-rais-
ing skills. Or so I thought.
A friend commented that
goals for mothering aren’t sitting
in a nearby box. “They are like
stars, the ideals that we work for,
we look for their light.”
I think back to my childhood.
I consider my mother a Perfect
Mother. She fi xed nutritious and
tasty meals with the food ready
on time. She kept our clothes
washed and mended. She encour-
aged us in our homework. And
she let us play in the mud.
One spring, the folks tilled up
the area behind the back lawn for
a garden. My brothers and I each
received a small land allotment at
one end. In time we determined
that rocks constituted most of
our garden area — even radishes
wouldn’t grow. Not to waste a
perfectly good piece of prop-
erty, my brothers and I devel-
oped the space into desirable kid
real estate complete with lakes
and canals. With a garden hose,
we fi lled the water features and
fl oated boats. With our skills, it’s
amazing in future years we didn’t
major in hydrology.
My brothers and I found it sat-
isfying to sit on the muddy bank,
dangle our feet in our lake and
squish mud between our toes.
Mother possessed the gift
of imperturbability. She rarely
got ruffl ed over our projects.
However, after an afternoon of
sloshing in muddy water and
dike repairs, my brothers and I
traipsed into the kitchen for a
snack. Mom’s voice carried sur-
prisingly clear.
“Get back outside and hose
off ! You’re dripping muddy
water all over my freshly waxed
fl oor.”
Even Perfect Mothers have
their challenges.
Many people look after chil-
dren: grandparents, aunts and
uncles, friends, neighbors, teach-
ers, foster and adoptive parents,
etc. The humor aside, can there
be anything more powerful, or
needed, than a mother or mother
fi gure providing kindness, love,
and encouragement to children?
Our heartfelt appreciation to each
one.
Jean Ann Moultrie is a Grant
Country writer. A compromise
on the subject of nutrition was
reached in the author’s house-
hold when children agreed that
carrot cake they bake is not con-
sidered one of the mealtime veg-
etables, and the author agreed
not to sprinkle garbanzo bean
sprouts on their pizza.
Wednesday, May 4, 2022
A7
Greenhouse
“We probably would’ve kept growing
had the pandemic not happened. At the
Continued from Page A1
end of the day we’re not worse off for it,”
he said.
“The greenhouse is absolutely not a
“It brought our timeline forward a bit,
failure,” Green insisted. “It did exactly but having a private operator who is less
what we intended it to do. I would do it constrained about what they can grow,
again. I think we should do it again, prob- where they can sell, who they employ and
ably with a private partner out of the gate at what prices — I don’t have much choice.
this time, but
I have to
we
didn’t
pay all gov-
have
that “WE PROBABLY WOULD’VE KEPT e r n m e n t
l u x u r y GROWING HAD THE PANDEMIC e m p l o y -
in
2017.
ees PERS
NOT HAPPENED. AT THE END and pub-
Nobody
was grow-
benefi ts.
OF THE DAY WE’RE NOT WORSE lic
ing anything
They don’t
hydroponi-
have
that
OFF FOR IT.”
restriction.”
cally in the
Nick Green, John Day city manager
Despite
valley four
the mone-
years ago.”
Green added that the plan was always tary loss, Green said it would have been
to take the greenhouse private or move to “highly unlikely” that the city would have
a co-op arrangement because the facility gotten as much grant funding as it did
wasn’t ever going to work with govern- for the wastewater treatment plant if the
greenhouse had not been tied to the pro-
ment labor.
“We knew that up front,” he said. posal. “What is the story without it? We’re
“What we didn’t know was COVID. So building a wastewater treatment plant, so
we lost time having to adapt to a very give us money?”
Green added that he thinks the new
dynamic marketplace with changing cus-
tomer preferences and needs as a result owners of the greenhouse will be success-
of that pandemic. That happened to every ful if the council approves the proposal to
transfer operations.
enterprise.”
“They’ve got a turnkey facility, the staff
The COVID-19 pandemic probably
accelerated the timeline for moving the is ready to roll, they’ve got the seeds,” he
greenhouse to private ownership, accord- said. “We’re going to partition the facility
ing to Green, but he added that things hap- off into its own lot, lease the lot with the
buildings and let them roll.”
pen for a reason.
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