She'd been a walking billboard on November's Election Day, 1960 (Jack Kennedy vs. Dick Nixon).

Her initial reaction: "That driver did give me The Finger!"

Then: "I'll moider that kid!"

Fortunately for me, at work she told her waitress pals about the incident. They laughed, she laughed, and by the time she returned from work that night Mom seemed almost proud that I'd shown signs of inheriting the humor that was one of her many gifts to three kids who realize, even now, how green was our valley.

***