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by Kelly Mattei

Am I Too Old For This?

It’s not often that I think I’m too old for something. Most of the time, I still think I’m young. I’m game for most fun stuff. I’ll ride any rollercoaster, go down any waterslide, climb a waterfall, do a canopy tour in a rainforest. And then I listen to my daughter’s music.

It happens with every generation. We all think we’re cool and have the best taste in music…till we have teenagers. Then, our teenagers let us know just how uncool we are. My daughter loves Post Malone and Kendrick Lamar, among others. In fact, when Kendrick Lamar was performing for the NCAA National Championship football game halftime show, my daughter saw it on TV and said, “I wish we were there.” He was performing in Centennial Olympic Park instead of inside the Mercedes Benz Dome. I said “He’s not even inside the stadium. I’m glad I’m not there.” She responded, “You have no idea who he is.” She’s right, and I’m OK with that.

This week, I’m going to a concert with my friend, Mary Ann. Even though she’s over 40, she has a mad crush on Harry Styles, so for her birthday, I gave her two tickets to see him perform in Atlanta. Originally, she was going to take her eight-yr-old daughter, saying the daughter wanted to see him. Yeah, right. The daughter has since decided she has “outgrown” Harry Styles, and Mary Ann still wants to go, so I volunteered to go with her. We will have fun, but I guess I should listen to some of his music on the drive down to Atlanta. Really, I’m too old for this. I think Mary Ann just wants me to get her backstage to hang out with Harry, and with my mad skills, it could happen. Kidding! I’m an old lady…old enough to be his mother. But I’m going to the concert, and we are going to have fun.

I love a good concert, but most of my friends know there aren’t many performers I’m actually willing to pay to see. I paid to see Prince in 1997 in Mobile, and my husband and I had great seats to the Eagles a few years ago…when Glenn Frey was still alive. We also had great seats to Sade, and John Legend opened…quite a show. I’ve taken my daughter and friends to Selena Gomez, Miranda Cosgrove, and Ariana Grande, and my daughter and I even saw One Direction open for Big Time Rush a few years ago in Durham, North Carolina. We had no idea who they were at the time, but we watched them from our front row seats, and then, they were on Saturday Night Live a couple weeks later.

The last concert I attended was in Charlotte last summer. I went to see New Kids on the Block, Boys to Men, and Paula Abdul…with Mary Ann…I think I see a theme here. When the New Kids were popular the first time, I was way too old to like them, but my friend, Angela, and I liked them anyway. We were in college. Most of their fans were tweens, but we secretly loved them. We would drive around in my car playing the New Kids cassette, but only when no one else was in the car. Mary Ann, on the other hand, was the right age for loving the New Kids, and her daddy got her front row seats.

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Mary Ann and I in our souvenir t-shirts at the New Kids on the Block concert, Charlotte, July 2017

I’ve never been invited backstage at a concert, but I have friends who have. One even went on the road with Poison in the 80s, and I have other friends who know some “rock stars.”

I did meet the GooGoo Dolls one time in Charlotte. My friend Lisa, and I went out for dinner at The Palm. This was probably 2002 or 2003. We were waiting in the bar for our table when she said, “That’s Johnny Rzeznik!” I turned around to look, and indeed, it was. In fact, it was all the members of the Goo Goo Dolls coming in for dinner. Lisa was a big fan. Lucky for her (and me too!), we were seated right next to them. I only knew them because my husband liked their music. Lisa knew their music, so once we were seated, she turned around and said something to one of them, and before I knew it, we were sitting with them. I called my husband from my flip phone (no camera!) and told him to come down there, but he refused. It was a memorable night. We had dinner and dessert. I was the designated driver, so I got us both home safely.

The Goo Goo Dolls are closer to my generation, but I’m still older than most of their fans, I think.

Two years ago, I was flying back from Los Angeles with my daughter. I got up to go to the bathroom, and on my way back to my seat, 2D, I saw Frankie Valli in 3C…one row back from me and across the aisle. I’m sure my eyes got big as saucers, but no one seemed to notice. In fact, no one seemed to notice it was Frankie Valli! I recognized him immediately. He was part of the soundtrack of my childhood!

I quickly sat down next to my then-12-yr-old daughter and said, “You won’t believe this! Frankie Valli is behind us!” Her response? “Who?” I went through some of his songs…My Eyes Adored You…Sherry…Can’t Take My Eyes Off You…Working My Way Back to You…Grease. We had a winner with Grease. She knew that one, but she still had no idea who he was. I explained to her Jersey Boys is about his life! He is a living legend! She was too young to appreciate it, just like I’m too old to appreciate Kendrick Lamar.

Now, if he had been in a window seat, I’d have left him alone, but I hated to pass up the opportunity to meet a living legend. Since he was on the aisle, I just turned around and quietly asked if I could come back and speak with him. He said yes! So, I squatted on the floor next to his seat and talked with him briefly about his music…and how my mother’s name was Sherry. I have no idea what was said between the two of us, because I had helicopters in my head. I ended our brief conversation by asking if I could get a photo with him, and he obliged. He was very sweet…and still quite dapper at 82 (he’s 84 now). In fact, he’s still performing regularly…and doing it very well! He was on his way to Savannah for a performance that day. I’d pay to see him perform…definitely.

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It’s a blurry selfie…but he was sweet to let me take a pic.

Later, when I went back to the bathroom, I stuck my head in the galley and said to the 25-yr-old flight attendant, “You know that’s Frankie Valli in 3C, right?” She looked like I had 14 eyes and said, “The agent said he was somebody famous, but I don’t know him.” Again, I went through his songs. Heck even my 12-yr-old was more knowledgeable than she was. She just gave me a blank stare. So I ended with, “Well, the man is a living legend. You take good care of him. And when the plane lands, you call your mom and tell her you had Frankie Valli on your flight, and she will know who he is, and she will be excited.” Ahhh…the ignorance of youth. To see one of my favorite Frankie Valli videos, click here.

So, when I’m at the Harry Styles concert, I will pretend I’m 21 again and live in the moment. Mary Ann and I won’t get invited backstage…unless he’s looking for a mother figure to darn his socks or do his laundry.

I’m getting too old for this.

by Kelly Mattei

The Bad News Bears Were Our Babysitters

Earlier this week, someone posted a video clip on Facebook. It was a clip from The Bad News Bears, a movie that was released in 1976. And oh, how that one short clip took me back in time. Not familiar with the movie? You can see the trailer here.

When I was a little girl between the ages of seven and ten, the movie theater was my babysitter. Many Saturday nights, our parents would drop off me and my younger brother at the local movie theater. Sometimes it was even a double feature. The local theater was a Mom and Pop operation with one screen. No megaplex. Just one screen, and they showed first run movies, usually a different one every week. The only one I remember showing for two weeks was Jaws in 1975, and yes, I was eight, and my brother was six when we saw it.

Our parents never did any “pre-screening” of any of the movies. As long as it wasn’t rated R, we went, and we loved Saturday nights at the movies!

In 1975, our favorite movie was Jaws, and our favorite in 1977 was Smokey and the Bandit, which was released on my tenth birthday…both rated PG, and both inappropriate by today’s standards. I saw Smokey and the Bandit again last year, and there is no way that movie could even be made today.

Between those great movies, there was The Bad News Bears, released in 1976. It was rated PG, and every kid wanted to see it. IMDb.com sums it up saying, “An aging, down-on-his-luck ex-minor leaguer coaches a team of misfits in an ultra-competitive California little league.” It starred Walter Matthau as the coach and Tatum O’Neal as Amanda, an 11-year old girl with mad pitching skills. The movie’s language is bad; it’s completely and utterly politically incorrect, and the coach is a drunk, but the team of misfits pulls together. If it were released today, lots of parents would freak out at the political incorrectness, language and mature content. Heck, there might even be an uproar, but it was a great movie from my childhood. I don’t remember anybody’s parents making a big deal about it. Back then, there wasn’t a PG-13 rating, so everything that wasn’t G or R fell into the middle category, PG. This movie would have been a PG-13 by today’s standards. We loved The Bad News Bears.

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Yet somehow, The Bad News Bears stands the test of time. There are lots of movies that just aren’t as good 40 years after they’re made, but this one is just as funny and heartwarming to me now as it was in 1976, because despite the political incorrectness, it’s a story of people coming together. I’m not sure how many times I’ve seen it over the years. I purchased the DVD a couple years ago and watched it with my daughter. Sure the language was inappropriate, but the rest of it…the beer cans, drunk Buttermaker (Walter Matthau’s coach character), the drinking/smoking/motorcycle riding guy named Kelly Leak who would become a part of the team…well, my daughter was as surprised as I was when I watched it in 1976, but she liked the movie. And Tatum O’Neal was so darn cute. The movie stands the test of time, though, because it wasn’t a glossed-over, Leave It To Beaver version of childhood. Somebody, somewhere was actually living that childhood.

While lots of people would think The Bad News Bears is a terrible movie for kids now, people didn’t worry so much about stuff like that in 1976. Heck, we could ride our bikes all over the neighborhood, as long as we were home when the streetlights came on. My parents were buying themselves some date time by dropping us at the movies, but we were also getting an education. The Bad News Bears is set in Southern California, a place I’d never visited at the time. It was about a little league baseball team of misfits that was sponsored by none other than Chico’s Bail Bonds. While those of us who lived in South Alabama could relate to a baseball league, I didn’t know anyone like Amanda (Tatum O’Neal’s character), who sat on the side of the road selling maps to stars’ homes. That seemed fun and exciting to me. Add in the fact that she was a female, 11-yr-old, pitching dynamo, and I thought she was awesome. She was still feminine, yet that team of boys needed her. There was a lesson of “girls can do anything boys can do” in there, and there was a big message about teamwork and friendship.

When I was a kid, we all talked about the characters and even had favorites. If I said something about Tanner from The Bad News Bears to someone my age today, most people would immediately know who that is. Same with Kelly Leak…someone my age would likely say, “smoking, motorcycle rider from The Bad News Bears.” Say the name Buttermaker today, and everybody my age knows who that is. I just tested that on my brother. I texted him and asked, “If I say the name Buttermaker, do you know who that is?” He immediately texted back, “Bad News Bears.” And any time one of us hears Bizet’s Carmen Overture, we think of The Bad News Bears, because an adaptation of it was used as the theme song.

So, while lots of parents would never watch The Bad News Bears with their children, I allowed my child to watch it, inappropriate or not. Truthfully, I had forgotten how terrible the language was, but we watched it anyway. Language aside, maybe she saw a glimpse of life outside her bubble. Sure, some of the characters were over the top, but the overall theme and message in the movie was a good one. I mean, really…who can forget the scene near the end of the movie where Tanner tells the Yankees, who have just defeated the Bears in the championship, what they can do with their apology and their trophy? And little, mousy Lupus tells them, “And another thing! Just wait till next year!”…as he pours a beer over his teammate’s head.

The Bad News Bears was well-received by audiences and critics when it was released, even winning a Writer’s Guild of America Award.

I never dropped our daughter at the theater when she was younger than 12. Times have changed since the 70s. Kids aren’t as free-ranging as they used to be. Now that she’s a teenager, she meets friends at movies occasionally. They check movie times on their phones and purchase their tickets in advance online. At some theaters, they reserve their seats in advance. I wish we could have done that in the 1970s. And I wish we’d had those big, reclining seats too.

Back then, we had to call a pre-recorded message line (from our landline phones!) to hear the title and movie times. It was along the lines of, “Thank you for calling the Eastern Shore Cinema. Today is June 1st. Our movie this week is Jaws. Showtimes are 4:00, 7:00 and 9:30. Admission is $1 for children under 12 and $2 for adults. Thank you again for calling the Eastern Shore Cinema.” Here’s how often we called that theater line…I still remember the telephone number…more than 40 years later. And the floors were sticky. Everyone drank sodas back then, and there were no cupholders at the seats, so when they spilled, the soda would run down the sloped floor of the theater, making a long, sticky, soda line. Y’all remember…

So, cheers to The Bad News Bears and all those great 70s movies that could never be made in 2018. They were great babysitters, and they were educators too. They don’t make ’em like they used to. We learned a lot about life from those “inappropriate” movies, and we haven’t become ax murderers…shocking, I know.

Wish my little brother and I could share a beer with Buttermaker.

***To see a clip of one of the best scenes from the movie, click here.***

***Want to see some of the oldies but goodies mentioned in this blog? Amazon Prime has lots of them! Go to Amazon here and in the search box, enter the name of the movie you’d like to see.***

by Kelly Mattei

School’s (Almost) Out For Summer!

Ahhh…summertime! It’s what kids live for…freedom, sunshine, swimming pools, beaches, friends, vacation!

And it’s what I live for too. Well, I don’t actually live for it, but I look forward to it every year. I start counting down the days till summer as soon as spring break is over. Between sports practices and camps for my daughter, her upcoming trip to Iceland, and a couple of vacations, summer is all planned…and I can hardly wait to get started!

This year, my daughter’s last day of school…last day of middle school, in fact…is June 1, and frankly, it can’t get here fast enough. Bring…it…on!

The first order of business at my house this summer is Driver’s Education! Woohoo! For the whole first week of summer, my daughter will be in Driver’s Ed with several of her closest friends. At her school, it’s not like it was when I was in school. Back in the day, our school owned a Driver’s Ed car, and there were designated teachers who actually taught the Driver’s Ed course. In tenth grade, each student took one semester of Driver’s Ed and one semester of Health. We even had driving simulators. I don’t even know if they exist anymore. Nothing about those simulators seemed realistic, but they were fun. I’m sure I ran over quite a few people and street signs on my simulated drives. In fact, I may or may not have done it intentionally (like that person stepping out of the truck on the simulator below!).

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Now, my daughter’s school doesn’t even have a Driver’s Ed class or a car. They take Driver’s Ed through private companies on their own time. If lots of her friends weren’t going to be in that same Driver’s Ed class this summer, my daughter would not want to go. There are a couple of different motivators at work here, though: friends in the class and Bojangle’s for lunch every day. In our world, Bojangle’s is motivation for just about anything.

It’s difficult to believe it’s time for her to take Driver’s Ed. I was talking with my friend, Kristi, who lives in Florida, yesterday, and she was telling me her 16-yr-old son just got his driver’s license. Her older daughter is in college, so her son is the only one at home. But since getting his license, he’s never home, she said. Her house seems too quiet. She isn’t complaining, because as she pointed out, it’s part of growing up.

And she’s right. Our children gradually become more independent throughout their lives. Things change.

As our daughter gets older, I’m finding summer is different every year. For most of her life, when she wanted to go to the pool, I had to be there too. Till she was about nine, she didn’t care where I sat at the pool. From nine to twelve, I had to be there, but she did not want to see me. And then, at twelve, she could start going by herself to meet friends, which worked out perfectly for me. While I enjoy going to the pool, I don’t need to go every day. In fact, at fourteen, she would prefer I wear a hoodie pulled low over my face while I drive slowly past the entrance and let her jump out of the car, so my face isn’t seen by any teenager in the area. I don’t mind. I remember 14.

When I was a little girl, Mother took us to the pool almost every morning. When we lived on the Alabama Gulf Coast, we would swim for a couple of hours before going home for a quick lunch, and then we would go crabbing in the afternoon. We’d hang our nets off the pier and check them every 20 to 30 minutes to see if there were any crabs in them.

Of course, in the preteen years, just like my daughter, I became more independent. I really do remember 14. A lot of our summers were filled up with baseball. My brother, who is 17 months younger, played baseball, and in summers, there were all star games all over the state. Once we became old enough to drive, there was a lot of time spent hanging with friends whenever we wanted. The pool, though, was always a mainstay in summer. I remember studying for my final exams my senior year of high school at the pool. My friend, Jill, and I took our books to the pool and sat out by the pool, studying.

Now, as my daughter gets ready to enter high school, she’s studying for a couple of exams in middle school.

Soon school will be out, and she will be able to enjoy the “lazy days of summer,” though they are anything but lazy. Between sports and trips, she will have a little downtime, and maybe then, she’ll get to enjoy some of the same things we used to enjoy in summer. I, certainly, plan to enjoy summer as much as I can doing some of my favorite things…

Here are my personal favorites:

PRETTY COCKTAILS Enjoy a Hungry Girl summer cocktail by the pool; for info, click here. Spritzers are good in the sun too. My favorite spritzer recipe (by Martha Stewart) is here.

LIGHTNING BUGS Also known as fireflies, lightning bugs are everywhere in summer.. When I was a little girl, we would catch them and put them in jars so we could watch them illuminate. Of course, it’s a catch and release program. Need some Mason jars? You can purchase them here. ***Do not run or walk with the jars. Put them on the ground or on a table. After catching your lightning bugs, walk over and put them in the jars.***

WATER ACTIVITIES Thank God for the “cement pond” in summertime! (That’s a Beverly Hillbillies reference.) Swimming pools…movie stars. Ok, so maybe not movie stars, but the pool is a great thing.  Of course, everybody loves the beach in summer, and in the Charlotte area, we are lucky to have two local lakes, Lake Norman and Lake Wiley.  As for water activities, I love stand-up paddleboarding and kayaking at the US National Whitewater Center. For info, click here.

VACATION Just get away! There’s nothing better than seeing new places! A couple of big trips and some little trip s….maybe even the Virginia Creeper Trail, a bike trail in Virginia. I’ve done it a few times, and every time is different. For info, click here.

Of course, the main thing I love about summer is getting to spend some extra time with my daughter. Time flies, and the way I see it, since she is starting high school next year, “Good Lord willing and the creek don’t rise,” we have a few more summers before she goes off to college. I want to make the most of this precious time. Sure, I try to cram a lot of activity into a couple months’ time, but we’re making memories. I’ve said before…people can steal stuff from you, but they can’t steal memories.

Happy Summer!

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by Kelly Mattei

Joe Namath Lived Here

My friend, Mary Ann, and I had been traveling in a Ford Expedition with her three kids and my daughter for ten days. We had spent the last fun night at the Great Wolf Lodge in Sandusky, Ohio (click here for info). We were headed home.

After driving to the shores of Lake Erie to get photos with another of the Great Lakes (we’d visited Lake Michigan in Chicago earlier in the trip), we plugged in my home address as our destination. I was driving, and Mary Ann was the navigator. Did I mention Mary Ann is a really good navigator? She had her phone and an atlas, and she would use the Roadside America app (highly recommend) to find fun things to do. We had a nine hour drive ahead of us. We were just getting started when Mary Ann said, “If we go 40 minutes out of our way, our kids can add Pennsylvania to their list of states they’ve visited.”

I looked at her and said, “If we do, will it take us anywhere near Beaver Falls?” Mary Ann looked at the map and said, “Yes. Why? What’s in Beaver Falls?” I got excited, because I’m a crazy Joe Namath fan.

Immediately, I said, “Joe Namath is from Beaver Falls! Look and see if they have any kind of monument to him anywhere in Beaver Falls!” She looked it up and learned there is a plaque honoring Joe Namath at the Carnegie Free Library in Beaver Falls.

We were on our way.

Of course, Mary Ann made fun of me for knowing Joe Namath is from Beaver Falls. “Only YOU!” she said. Any self-respecting football fan knows Joe Namath (aka Joe Willie, or Broadway Joe) is from Beaver Falls! He had played quarterback at The University of Alabama; of course I knew he was from Beaver Falls. Growing up in Alabama, I heard about Joe Namath my whole life, and I remember, as a child, getting to stay up to watch him as a guest on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. I’ve had a crush on Joe Willie my whole life. If you’d like to read more about Joe Namath, you should read his latest book, All the Way, My Life in Four Quarters. A friend gave it to me when it was first published, and I enjoyed every page. You can purchase it from Amazon here. It would be a great beach read.

Everybody remembers the story about Joe Namath being heckled at a Pre-Super Bowl III press conference. A Baltimore Colts fan yelled some smack about the New York Jets, Namath’s team, at him from the back of the room, and Joe responded, “We’re going to win the game. I guarantee it.” And he was right. The Jets won. During his football career, he famously wore a fur coat on the field, and he did pantyhose commercials. He owned a nightclub called Bachelors III in New York, much to the dismay of NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle. I spent some time with Rozelle in 1989, and we talked about Namath. Rozelle seemed to like him by that point. Namath had swagger as a player, and he has swagger now, at age 74.

While I love Joe Namath most of all football players, I just love football. I told Mary Ann a story recently about meeting another of my favorite football players…totally by chance…and I said to him, “You’re from *****! I worked for the newspaper there for a while when I was in college!” Mary Ann said he probably thought I was a stalker, because a 50-yr-old woman shouldn’t have such knowledge. Well, I do have the knowledge, and I’m not a stalker. It’s just the kind of useless information I tend to remember about people.

In fact, just this week, Mary Ann called me, saying, “Don’t fail me now. My son and I have a bet.” Then she put me on speaker phone and asked, “What town is John Mellencamp from?” I immediately responded, “John Mellencamp is from Seymour, Indiana.”I heard her son groan in the background. She had bet him I would remember, and that crazy kid doubted me. (We visited Seymour earlier in the same road trip.) Bahahaha! Again, I am a walking wealth of useless information.

It was raining when we arrived in downtown Beaver Falls (for more about Beaver Falls, click here). It was gray and dreary, and while a city doesn’t show as well in the rain, we could tell Beaver falls was a quaint, charming town. It’s a beautiful, historic town on the Beaver River. Lots of very nice people live there.

Joe Namath lived here.

It was easy to find the Carnegie Free Library (for info, click here). Mary Ann had put it into the navigation system, but it was right on what seemed to be the main street through town, Seventh Avenue.

We pulled up in front of the library, and the rain was not letting up. We parallel parked (I have mad parallel parking skills)right in front of the library, hoping the rain would pass over.

After  a while, we knew it wasn’t going to clear up. Mary Ann and I took turns getting out of the car to take selfies with the plaque honoring Joe Namath in the pouring rain… but we got the selfies! We had driven to Beaver Falls just for Broadway Joe! In case you don’t know this about me, Joe Namath is on my short list of people I want to meet. If you’ve met him, don’t tell me. If you meet him, you can tell him about the crazy lady who drove to Beaver Falls just to get a selfie with the plaque honoring him.

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In front of the Joe Namath plaque in downtown Beaver Falls, PA, at the end of a 10-day road trip, standing in the rain. Good times!

As for the photos, Mary Ann and I laughed at how terrible we looked and got ready to drive back to Charlotte. I don’t remember what Mary Ann looked like, but in my selfie, I look like a mom who has been on a ten day road trip with four kids…standing in the rain.

We turned around to go back through town, and as we drove, we noticed Oram’s Donuts. Mary Ann and I wanted to stop and get some donuts, but the children were ready to get home. To this day, we regret not going into Oram’s. As we drove past, we caught a glimpse of a woman ordering a doughnut…the same woman had asked me for bus fare a few minutes earlier. I guess she decided she didn’t need a ride more than she needed a doughnut. I regularly look at the Oram’s website just to torture myself. According to their website, they have been in business for 77 years, and they make their donuts “the old-fashioned way, concentrating on quality and taste.” You can see their website here. While you can’t order donuts for shipping, you can torture yourself with the pictures. You can purchase Oram’s coffee mugs. Mary Ann and I have declared we will return to Oram’s in Beaver Falls.

I’m guessing Joe Namath knows all about Oram’s.

We stopped at Sheetz in downtown to fill up with gas, and according to the computer, we could drive 530 miles on that tank of gas. According to the navigation system, we had 490 miles to travel to Charlotte. I planned to make it without stopping again, unless someone needed a bathroom break.

We passed to the west of Pittsburgh and headed south. Darkness fell while we were in West Virginia, with hours to go. At some point, Mary Ann was getting sleepy, and we all sang a rousing rendition of “99 Bottles of Beer” from beginning to end…the kids thought it was hilarious to sing about beer…inappropriate, of course, but funny.

I was driving, and I wasn’t remotely tired. The kids dozed off while we were in Virginia, and Mary Ann made it to the North Carolina state line before nodding off.

We made it home on that tank of gas and pulled into the driveway at about 2:30am.

If I ever get to meet Joe Namath, I’ll have to tell him about the detour we made just to get selfies with his plaque beside the Carnegie Free Library in Beaver Falls. And who knows? Maybe one day, Mary Ann and I will make it to Oram’s. When we do, I’ll post lots of photos and reviews of every doughnut flavor they have!

Till then, we’ll have to keep torturing ourselves with the pictures on the website.

And Joe Namath…well, I’ll just have to keep crushing on him.

Safe travels!

Kelly

Eastvale Bridge over the Beaver River, Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania

To read about other parts of the road trip, see previous posts. 

by Kelly Mattei

Come Together, Right Now…Over Media

Back in December, we went to Los Angeles. My daughter took a friend, and my sister-in-law went too. We had a fabulous time, but most importantly, we did a good deed.

Now, I’m not boasting about the good deed to get props for it. My mother always said you cancel the value of your good deed if you boast about it. I’m telling the story, because it is a good example of how social media can be used for good.

So often, we hear people talk about how terrible social media can be. You’ve heard it all: Social media make people feel badly about themselves. Social media cause people to compare their lives to others. Social media provide a platform for bullying. Social media are a giant time suck. (Before you think I used those verbs incorrectly, you should know “media” is plural for “medium.”)

While all of that may be true, I love Facebook and Instagram for the good things they do.

I joined Facebook in 2008, because a friend from high school invited me. I didn’t use it much at first, because I didn’t “get” it. As other people started signing up, it became more interesting and a lot more fun. It became the perfect place to share photos and experiences with friends, and then, as my long-distance family started signing up, it became even more meaningful. I had a small child at the time, and it was a great way to keep up with family in other states, sharing photos.

To me, it’s fun, and I believe if it is used correctly, it can make us all feel more connected. I’m always amazed at how my “worlds collide”! I love to find that a friend from Charlotte knows one of my friends from college.

So, back to our trip to Los Angeles in December.

We had visited Dylan’s Candy Bar (one of our favorite places to visit!) and a few other stores at The Grove one afternoon. Afterward, we decided to go back to the hotel to freshen up before dinner. The Grove, like other shopping centers, has an Uber pickup location, so we made our way there and summoned an Uber car. We had a five minute wait.

While we were waiting, a family was getting into a car, and my sister-in-law, Suzanne, saw something on the ground next to the car. She pointed it out to me, and I walked over and picked it up. It was a wallet. I asked the gentleman getting in the car if it was his, and he said, “No. I saw it fall out of someone’s pocket as they were getting into the car that just drove away.”

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Here’s where you hear that sound in your mind like a record scratching or the sound of brakes locking up. What?!?!? You saw it fall out of someone’s pocket, and you didn’t let him know?!?!

Of course, I didn’t say that. I just gave him a confused look.

I walked back over to my sister-in-law and the girls, and we opened the wallet, hoping someone’s phone number would be in it. No luck. BUT there was an ID and a debit card. We decided to take a picture of the ID and turn in the wallet to the valet at the taxi stand. When I handed it to him, I got his name, and he said he would take it to security immediately.

We got into our Uber car and went to work searching for the owner of the wallet. Since we had a photo of the owner’s ID, we immediately started trying to find him on social media. He was a 17-yr-old from San Francisco, so not only had he lost his wallet with his ID and debit card, but he was away from home! I could only imagine how terrifying it had to be for him to be so far from home with no ID and no debit card. The good news: since he was 17, we were likely to find him on social media.

And we did.

We found him on Facebook, and first I tried to call him through Facebook. When he didn’t answer, I sent him a private message there, telling him, “You dropped your wallet outside The Grove. I turned it in to A*****o at the Valet, and he was taking it to security.”

Next, we found him on Instagram, and we sent him a private message there, saying the same thing.

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We arrived back at the hotel with extra time to relax before we had to start getting dressed for dinner. I was still worrying about the 17-yr-old who had lost his wallet. I’m not sure how much time passed, but an hour or two after we sent the messages, we received a message back!

When I received the message, I yelled to Suzanne and the girls, “He messaged back!” We all gasped with excitement, and they gathered ’round as we read the message.

The young man was on his way back to The Grove to pick up his wallet. He was most grateful, saying he was crying he was so happy. He had realized it was missing and felt sure he would never find it.

We all cheered, and I typed that we were so happy he had received our message.

He immediately messaged back, asking how he could repay us. Of course, we wanted no repayment. Just knowing he had his wallet made was payment enough.

By this point, of course, I was crying…yes, crying, and my daughter was making fun of me for it, but we were thrilled for him.

Not only is that story a good example of how to use social media for good. It’s also an example of how doing something nice for someone else also benefits the do-gooder. We all had smiles on our faces for the rest of that evening. In fact, I feel pretty sure we drank a toast to that young man at dinner that night.

Another example? Just last night, we were at dinner, and our server told us her cell phone had gone missing during a recent golf tournament. A few days later, she received a message on Facebook from a gentleman saying he had found her phone.

How many times have you reconnected with an old friend via social media? I’ve planned entire group reunions on social media. How many times have you actually become friends with someone because of social media? I have several friends I met through other friends on Facebook, simply because a mutual friend said to one of us that we should be friends. In fact, I ran into someone the other day with whom I became friends on facebook after we met once in Panera. We talked like we were old friends, because we feel like we know each other after seeing each other on Facebook.

This is my way of saying that most of the time, I’m thankful for social media. If it is used correctly, it can be a great tool for staying connected, networking, and yes, even reuniting people with their lost wallets and phones.

I still smile every time I think of that 17-yr-old boy’s excitement about getting his wallet back. And I laugh when I remember I actually cried tears of joy.

by Kelly Mattei

Alabama Theatre and Faye Dunaway

My daddy had a great sense of humor. He also loved wordplay. He was a great storyteller. He had vivid memories of his childhood, and we loved hearing his stories.

When I was a teenager, something came up in a family conversation about Faye Dunaway, the Academy Award-winning actress. Daddy said, “Faye Dunaway went to my school.” I must have looked at him like he had fourteen eyes, because he reiterated that she had gone to his elementary school in Florida.

Because he was a jokester, I thought, “Oh, I get it. He went to school with someone named Faye Dunaway, but not the real Faye Dunaway.” For YEARS, I thought it was a joke. I don’t remember talking about it a lot…just that once or maybe twice.

Years later, when I was in my late 20s, I was reading People Magazine one evening after work, and there was an article about Faye Dunaway. I started reading it, and there, in the second paragraph, it said she went to school in Bascom, Florida. That’s where Daddy went to elementary school! I picked up the phone and called him.

I said to him, “I’m reading an article about Faye Dunaway, and she really did go to school in Bascom!” He responded, “I’ve been saying that for years.” “Well, I know, Daddy, but I always thought you were kidding, saying someone NAMED Faye Dunaway went to your school.” We shared a good laugh at the confusion.

By the same token, I had some confusion with something Mother said for years too.

Mother grew up in the Birmingham, Alabama, area. When I was a little girl, she told me she used to go to the Alabama Theatre in downtown Birmingham for the Mickey Mouse Club on Saturdays. She made a big deal in telling me about the giant organ that would rise up out of the floor of the theatre.

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Interior of Alabama Theatre. Photo from Alabamatheatre.com. The theatre was home to the country’s largest Saturday morning Mickey Mouse Club at one time. It was also the first air-conditioned public building in Birmingham.

I didn’t tell Mother at the time, but when she said that about the organ rising from the floor, I thought she must have been mistaken. I honestly thought her memory must have been playing tricks on her, because who ever heard of an organ rising up out of the floor?

It just didn’t make sense to me, but I didn’t argue with her. I just thought her little girl brain had been tricked into thinking the organ came out of the floor…some sort of optical illusion or something.

Then, in my late 20s, I read Fannie Flagg’s Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Cafe. Well, since Fannie Flagg is from Alabama, I’m guessing she must have visited the Alabama Theatre, because in the book, she mentions the organ. She mentions how the organ rises up from the floor!

So Mother’s memory wasn’t playing tricks on her, after all! I promptly called her to tell her what I’d read. She said, “I’ve been telling you about that organ for years!” I confessed, “Well, I know, Mother, but I thought your memory was playing tricks on you!” We had a good laugh over it.

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Photo of Big Bertha, The Mighty Wurlitzer, from Alabamatheatre.com

To see more about the Alabama Theatre and the organ they call Big Bertha, The Mighty Wurlitzer, click here. The theatre has an interesting history, and the organ was one of only 25 of its type ever built.

It makes me wonder what I’ve told my daughter that she questions. Maybe she keeps it to herself that she thinks I’m talking out of my mind when I talk about a childhood memory.

Let’s take, for example, the time I caught a really big catfish in the neighborhood lake. When I was a little girl, we would go cane-pole fishing down at the lake at the bottom of the hill in our neighborhood. Sometimes we would catch catfish and take them home for Mother to clean them and fry them up, and sometimes, we had no luck at all. One time, I caught the record catfish…a record for us, anyway. It might have been five pounds. As soon as I caught it, we took it home. My brother and I had catfish for dinner that night.

Maybe my daughter thinks I was confused about how big that fish was.

Maybe she thinks I’m crazy when I tell her otters lived in that neighborhood pond. They did. I saw them from the school bus window one morning. Everybody had been talking about them for weeks, and finally, I saw them surface.

Maybe my daughter thinks I saw a dog swimming through the pond and thought it was an otter.

I didn’t go to school with anybody famous. None of my friends have become famous (yet), so I don’t have any stories to tell my child about “I knew him when.” I don’t remember anything like The Mighty Wurlitzer from my childhood, so all I have is the pond with the catfish and the otter.

I haven’t even been to see The Mighty Wurlitzer rise up out of the floor at the Alabama Theater. But in December, I plan to make a trip to Birmingham. Every year, the Alabama Theater shows classic holiday movies on the big screen. I’ll go, and when I see The Mighty Wurlitzer come up out of the floor, I’ll think of my mother and laugh about how I thought she was confused…just like I think of my daddy every time I think of that famous photo of Faye Dunaway (click here to see the iconic photo taken the morning after she won the Academy Award) at the Beverly Hills Hotel.

by Kelly Mattei

Chicken Necks Make Great Crab Bait (and other Life Lessons From My Mother)

 

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My mother and I, probably February 1974. (I look thrilled to take a picture with her, but she looks like she could use a martini.) One of my favorite pics.

It’s almost Mother’s Day weekend, and this is my first Mother’s Day without my Mother. She passed away in December.

I’ve lost a parent before. My daddy died in 2006. I know how difficult all these “firsts” are. They’re tough, but I also know it’s a good time to reflect on my life and what my parents taught me. In this case, since it’s Mother’s Day, I will reflect on what she taught me. Of course, there is no way to cover it all, but I will do what I can.

My mother wanted nothing more than she wanted to be a mother. She loved being a mother, and she loved mothering…neighbors, neighbors’ kids, classmates, friends…she took care of lots of us. She was an exceptional caretaker…it was what she did.

My earliest memories are from my early years in Brewton, Alabama. I remember wanting to go to school. I must have been almost or barely three. My mother called her preferred preschool, but there was no class for three-yr-olds. The owner/teacher relented after Mother called her several times, but she would only take me if I were potty-trained. I was, so I started preschool.

Other parents got wind of it and called her too. And it worked out well for the teacher, because she then had double the number of students…four-yr-olds for part of the day, and three-yr-olds for part of the day. Nobody loved that teacher or her preschool more than I did.

My mother was my advocate.  She taught me to advocate for my child.

A couple years later, she decided she wanted a Volkswagen microbus for us to take on road trips. After searching for the perfect one, my parents bought a beige and white one. Mother couldn’t drive a stick-shift, but she learned quickly as soon as we got the bus. I remember stalling at traffic lights in downtown Brewton as she learned to work the clutch, but she did it. She was determined. At 34, she learned a new skill…driving a stick. Daddy would always laugh that we chose to take the un-air-conditioned bus on road trips. “We have two perfectly good air-conditioned cars sitting in the driveway, yet we opt to travel in this!”

Mother taught us to try new things, and she taught us to be resilient.

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When I was seven, halfway through second grade, my family moved to Spanish Fort, Alabama, a community on the Eastern Shore of Mobile Bay. Some mothers would be nervous about a new place and new school, and the kids would feel that, but my mother approached the move as if it were an adventure. The transition was a smooth one at my new school and neighborhood.

Living near the water was a new adventure for all of us, and Mother took full advantage of that. Unafraid of a new challenge, she talked with locals and learned how she could take us out to the Fairhope Municipal Pier to catch crabs from Mobile Bay. She learned chicken necks are good crab bait, and she learned how to tie them into the nets and how to hang the nets from the pier. Back then, it was OK to hang the nets. She learned how to get the crabs out of the nets and cooked them up when we got home. She even made her own recipe for crab cakes.

She taught us to be adventurous.

For more information on Fairhope, click here.

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We spent almost every afternoon and many evenings at the pier. One day we were catching lots of crabs, so we stayed into the night, checking those nets regularly. At some point, I was stooped down, pulling up one of the nets to check it for crabs, and I looked up. I saw some men coming down the pier dressed all in white. I’d never seen anything like it.

I walked over to my mother and asked, “What are those clowns doing here?” It was actually members of the a white supremacist group. She said to me, “Just keep doing what you’re doing. They won’t mess with you. I need to go over here and sit with Miss Essie, so they think she’s with us.” She then got up and walked over to a bench to sit with a sweet, elderly African-American lady we had met months before, and with whom we often visited on the pier. Soon thereafter, we left the pier for the night, and Miss Essie left with us. Once we knew Miss Essie was OK, we got in the car, and it was then Mother explained everything to us.

Mother taught us compassion and that it’s important to help other people. She also taught us we are all created equal.

It’s important for me to tell you that most people I know who grew up in Alabama have NEVER seen the aforementioned white supremacist group. That sighting on the Fairhope Pier that night (I think it was 1976) was extremely rare, especially in quaint, upscale towns like Fairhope, which is why it is memorable. I don’t want readers to think it is/was a regular occurrence. In fact, I can’t name even one of my friends who has encountered the group anywhere. 

No matter where we lived, Mother volunteered. Sometimes she volunteered at the school, and often, she volunteered with the Red Cross. She was a Registered Nurse, and while I’m not sure what she did with the Red Cross, I know she went into underserved neighborhoods. She used to come home talking about what nice people she had met along the way.

She also seemed to always meet people who had elderly family members who needed care. In one place we lived, an elderly couple lived across the street, and Mother would check on them every day, helping them with tasks on a regular basis. After we moved, an elderly gentleman around the corner needed assistance a few times a week. Mother helped him. We received several late night calls over the years…people needing her assistance, and she was always willing to help. Not many people knew she did this, because she didn’t toot her own horn. She believed it diminished the deed if you went around boasting about it.

Mother taught us to help those who are less fortunate.

When I was a teenager, I learned a lot more from my mother. Just yesterday I was dress shopping with my 14-yr-old daughter, and I thought of my mother when I heard myself say to my daughter after she gave “thumbs down” to another dress I held up, “You don’t really know what it looks like till you try it on.” That was straight from my mother. That, and “Always put on lipstick before you leave home.”

While she taught me not to be superficial, she also taught me to try look “presentable.”

As we went through high school and college, my brother and I learned that our mother had a great sense of humor. That’s not to say we didn’t get in trouble, but she didn’t make a big deal out of things that weren’t a big deal. She also tried to approach situations with humor, and the good Lord knows, she loved to laugh. Even in the last year of her life, she loved when our now-adult friends from college came over to visit at her house. I think it reminded her of when we were younger. We would all sit around and laugh, and that was when she was her happiest.

She taught us not to take life too seriously, and she taught us about perspective.

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Mother and my daughter at dinner one night.

Mother was a tough chick, and we are who we are because of her and Daddy. I like to think I’m passing some of their wisdom and humor to my daughter.

When mother passed in December, we wrote her obituary with all the normal information about family, but we also included a list of things she had taught us. Because she did not want to have a funeral service, we thought it was important for people to know who she was. Here’s the list:

LESSONS FROM MY MOTHER:

Nobody goes hungry on Mama’s watch. It doesn’t cost anything to be kind. It’s OK to laugh at yourself. Save for a rainy day, and when it does rain, splash in the puddles. Take care of your brother/sister, your children, and other people’s children. Enjoy coffee with friends at Waffle House on a regular basis. Call your mama often. Raise your children to be independent, and encourage them to spread their wings. Spend time with your children and their friends (especially at Coaches Corner). Ladies never leave home without lipstick. It’s never too late to learn to drive a stick shift. If you break an arm, you can make your own sling till you get to the ER. Always say “I love you” at the end of a phone call or visit. What other people think is not important, because God knows what you are doing. Laughter cures a lot of ills. Doing something nice for someone else will make you happy. Never pay full price if you don’t have to. Children/teens sometimes think small things are big deals; remember they are big deals to them. Pizza will cure the Sunday night blues. Don’t schedule events during football season. Learn new skills your whole life. Be grateful. Turn it all over to God. You can’t tell what clothes look like till you try them on. Chicken necks are perfect bait for crab nets. Defend people who can’t defend themselves. It’s more important to get into Heaven than it is to get into Harvard. If you want to have good friends, you have to be a good friend. Life is not a dress rehearsal; make it good. All people are created equal.
We loved our mother, and we will make a toast to her on Mother’s Day. God Bless Mama.
by Kelly Mattei

Hooray for Low-Maintenance Friends!

A friend and I had some tentative plans for tonight. I texted her and asked if she was still up for it, and she explained something had come up with one of her children. She didn’t totally back out of our plans, but she knew I’d let her off the hook. I said, “I’m not going to hold your feet to the fire. You don’t have to go…no biggie.”  I’m a low-maintenance friend.

What does that mean? To me, that means that I love my friends exactly as you are. It means I don’t get mad if they have to change plans or choose to change plans.  I don’t have to talk to them every day. I don’t take it personally if they don’t return my calls, texts, or emails. I don’t “expect” them to be a certain way. I simply want them to be there for me when they can. I know real life gets in the way sometimes, and sometimes, you just want to sit on the sofa and watch some mindless television. Years ago, when we had our toddler playgroup, I told all my friends that I am a low-maintenance friend. I also told them I expect the same in return.

For example, if we have plans to go to dinner on a Tuesday night, and on Tuesday afternoon, I decide I just can’t pull it off…I call and say, “I just can’t pull it off.” And that is fine…no questions asked. My friends know they can do that with me, but I expect the same courtesy in return. If it’s an important event, it’s different…I WANT to attend important events. My friend of 20+ years, Mary Ann, uses our friendship as her example of “low-maintenance friendships.” We have the same views. It doesn’t mean one or the other of us is neglecting the friendship or taking advantage of the other. It means we can be honest and realistic. We don’t get bent out of shape about silly things. We don’t sweat the small stuff. There’s no pressure. We can be forgiving.

Here’s how I tend to look at it: we all mess up sometimes. There have been countless times I’ve messed up with friends…didn’t return calls, ran very late, accidentally didn’t show for something, or maybe I was just plain thoughtless or mean. I’m sure I’ve done worse things, and I have friends who have done all this too at some time. The great thing about low-maintenance friends? They don’t freak out. They don’t unfriend you on Facebook or give you the silent treatment. They forgive. After all, if we want to be forgiven by others, we have to be forgiving, right? You know…without sin/casting stones, right?

And frankly, it’s so much more fun to take the high road. In my younger days…meaning my teens and twenties…there were times I just couldn’t be forgiving. But I’ve learned.  There is no fun in that.  Staying angry just takes too much energy. It’s exhausting, and usually, it’s worse on the person who stays mad. It’s also simply the wrong thing to do. If I ever got mad at you in my teens or twenties, I’m no longer mad. Honestly, chances are I don’t even remember being mad.

Life is a lot more fun if you don’t take it too seriously.

One thing my mother always told me was that if I want to have good friends, I have to BE a good friend. Different people may have different ideas about what that is. But for me, being a good friend means giving your friends the benefit of the doubt. I might be able to remember the names of everyone in my kindergarten class, but I can’t always remember where I’m supposed to be on any given day. My friends know that, and they forgive me when I forget to do something.

This is a roundabout way of saying “thank you” to my friend who couldn’t keep our plans tonight. Thank you for reminding me how fortunate I am to have low maintenance friends. Thank you for being up front with me about tonight. Sounds crazy, right? It’s not. Right after she told me she couldn’t go, I texted her back and said, “I totally get it.” It turned into a love fest when she texted back saying, “I don’t deserve you.”  I texted back the same thing, and then she texted, “I enjoy having a low maintenance friend.”

And that was what prompted me to write this today.

In fact, THANK YOU to all my low maintenance friends out there. You know who you are. You’re the friend with whom I haven’t spoken in a few months, but you know I still love you. You’re the friend who didn’t return my call last week, but we’re cool. You’re the friend who didn’t care when I didn’t want to go to a concert with you. YOU ARE MY FRIEND.

Here’s one thing I know for sure about my low maintenance friends: you would drop everything to help me if I needed your help, and you wouldn’t complain. You would drive a long way to pick me up, or drive to New Orleans with me to get my passport renewed, or babysit my child in an emergency.  In fact, you’ve likely done it before.

My friends know I often say, “I do not do high maintenance friendships.” And it’s true. Too much drama? No thanks. There is nothing worse to me than a friendship that feels like work because we are always having to apologize to each other, or because the friend is too needy. I have been known to walk away from a friendship like that. While I love to think I can get along with virtually everyone, I can’t.

I can’t get along with complainers, whiners,  negative people, people who try to control me, or high maintenance friends. I don’t need that in my life, and at 50 (almost 51), I won’t even try anymore. It wears me out. It…is…exhausting.

Life is too short.

So, if you consider yourself a low maintenance friend, we would likely get along. Let’s hang out! But if I don’t return your call in a timely fashion, don’t freak out.

by Kelly Mattei

Mother/Daughter Traditions

This Mother’s Day will be my first without my mother. My sweet mother died in December, never getting to see 2018. As anyone knows, the “firsts” are tough. It has me thinking about things we used to do together.

One thing we used to do together was clean silver. Doesn’t sound like much of a tradition, right? I know, it sounds tedious, and it can be, but with Mother, it was fun. When I lived in Mobile as an adult, once a year, usually in December, we would clean silver. I would go to her house on a Sunday afternoon, and she would bring out all her silver and the silver polishing cream. We would sit for hours, polishing silver, talking, and laughing…always laughing. Our hands would ache, but we would keep working…and talking…and laughing…and working. After a few hours, everything was sparkling, and the holidays could begin. Every time I clean silver now, I think of her. I’m grateful for that memory.

I have found a much easier way to clean silver. I tried the aluminum foil dip method, but it didn’t work like I thought it would, and it created a sulfuric odor. I found Connoisseur Silver Wipes and tried those. They worked like a charm. With very little effort, my silver comes clean with these wipes. I highly recommend. You can purchase them at Walmart, Bed Bath & Beyond, or online at Amazon here.

When I was a little girl, she and I would make the traditional Easter Bunny cake together…you know, use one circular layer for the face, and use the other circular layer to make ears and a bowtie. At the holidays, we would make what we called a Marshmallow Cake, but I think some people call it a popcorn cake. Sounds weird, I know, but it’s very festive, and it’s what we did. Marshmallows, butter, peanuts/cashews, M&Ms….it makes a lovely treat, especially if you use red and green M&Ms. I’ve known people to throw in other things too…chocolate chips, pretzel pieces…you pick your favorites.img_85301.jpg

Once my daughter turned four or five, Mother would make biscuits with her every time we visited. I’m so glad they did, because it’s a good memory for my daughter. This year at school, her English class put together a cookbook of recipes, and my daughter’s contribution was the buttermilk biscuit recipe she learned from my mother. When I told Mother, she was thrilled, and now that she has passed, I’m even more glad my daughter chose that recipe and more glad they had that “tradition.”

After I was married and while Mother still lived near Mobile, for birthdays or other special occasions, we would have brunch at The Grand Hotel Resort in Point Clear, Alabama. She never wanted to go for holidays, because the crowd was crazy, but for birthdays, it was great. I remember going for several of her birthdays, for a few of my birthdays, and I remember meeting our family friend, Polly, for brunch there one Sunday. I specifically remember going for my 40th birthday. My daddy had died the previous fall, so it was a bittersweet celebration. My husband and daughter were there too, and we got some cute photos of our daughter playing on the hotel lawn by the bay.

 

It’s funny how these traditions start. Sometimes, you do something once, and you don’t realize it’s something you will continue.

Back in 2011, my friend, Leah, and I took our then-seven-year-old daughters to Los Angeles. It was a special trip. I had gotten passes for the girls to visit the set of the Nickelodeon show, iCarly, which was the hottest show on Nickelodeon at the time. Milly had fallen in love with the show when she was about four, so she was a long-time fan. The girls were excited, and frankly, so were the moms!

When we took that trip, it never occurred to me I would start taking Milly to LA every year, but I do. It has become a mother/daughter tradition. We have a favorite hotel, favorite restaurants, favorite foods, favorite shops, and now we have friends we love to visit. Every time we go, we make a point of seeing places we haven’t seen before, but we make sure to visit all our favorites too. Often, we take friends with us. Lots of times, she and I have talked about how it is our mother/daughter tradition, and I tell her I hope we will continue to do it till I’m really old. Maybe one day she will have her own daughter and continue the tradition with her. Don’t get me wrong. I plan to keep going as long as I can! We are making memories she can carry with her for a long time.

I wish I had started doing annual trips with my mother when I was younger. I wasn’t an only child, so sneaking off for mother-daughter trips wasn’t as easy. Plus, my brother always adds an element of humor whenever he’s around. We wouldn’t have wanted to leave him behind anyway. Daddy was funny too.

In 1997, though, I did take Mother on a trip we talked about for years afterward. We went to Mexico City, and it was a glorious, fun trip. I’ve loved Mexico City since 1982, when I visited with a group from high school. Mother and I covered as much of the city as we could in four or five days. The first day we were there, a Sunday, I decided we would go to Chapultepec Park like the locals do on Sundays. Chapultepec Park is Mexico City’s version of Central Park. It’s covers over 1600 acres, and it is the home of Chapultepec Castle, which sits atop a hill with a view overlooking the city. We walked all over that park that day, visiting the castle and the zoo, which was the first zoo outside of China to successfully breed giant pandas. It was a great memory for us that would have made a wonderful tradition.

As Mother’s Day approaches, it has me thinking of all sorts of things I used to do with Mother. Mostly, we laughed, and that’s a great memory. Her compassion and sense of humor were unmatchable. We miss her, but we are thankful to have great memories.

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by Kelly Mattei

Be A Tourist In Your Town

As a child, and later as an adult, I lived on the Alabama Gulf Coast, in Baldwin County and in Mobile County. I moved to Spanish Fort, on the Eastern Shore of Mobile Bay when I was seven, and my mother took us to all the local attractions. What she didn’t cover, the school did on field trips.

Interestingly, no matter where we live, most people rarely hit all the tourist spots in our own towns/cities. When my daughter was between the ages of three and ten, however, we visited a lot of the attractions in the Mobile area when we went to visit my parents. I was able to relive some of the fun, and I was able to learn even more about the area I had called home.

We visited the USS Alabama Battleship Memorial Park numerous times, and while my daughter was never interested in reading all the information about the ship, she was always interested in climbing all the way to the top. Often, while our friends were carefully reading every detail, she and I were feeling the wind in our hair from the crow’s nest on the ship. It has always been amazing to me that it’s so much more breezy up there. After climbing all those stairs/ladders, I needed that cool breeze!

If you have some time to be a tourist in your own city, it’s a lot of fun. I recommend going on a weekday instead of a weekend, as most tourist attractions are busier on weekends. To find out which attractions to visit in your own city, ask friends what they have done, or check out the local visitor center. Another great resource I love to use is TripAdvisor.com. It lists attractions in order of popularity, and you can read reviews to see if it’s something you and/or your kids might be interested in doing.

I have some friends coming to visit soon, and they have never been to Charlotte. They will be in town for a few days, so we can’t just sit around our house the whole time. Therefore, I’ve been doing some homework to find cool things to do with visitors…things that are unique to the Charlotte area.

Anyone who has ever traveled with me could tell you I do my homework. I visited a friend in another city a few years ago, and she said I knew more about her city than she did! That’s why I rarely write a bad review on TripAdvisor…I do my homework.

So, if you have friends coming to town this summer, here’s a list of family-oriented things to do in Charlotte.

CHARLOTTE KNIGHTS BASEBALL: Even if you don’t enjoy watching baseball, these games are fun. People of all ages enjoy going to these games, because there’s baseball, beer, and other entertainment. We are fortunate to have a great AAA minor league baseball park in Charlotte, and night games offer a beautiful view of the uptown skyline. This is fun for the whole family…even teenagers enjoy it! And it doesn’t get any more wholesome than a baseball game. The team plays at BB&T Ballpark, which is celebrating its 5th season this year, and there’s not a bad seat in the house. Regular season play runs through Labor Day,  and you can purchase individual game here. Make sure you check the schedule for special promotions. There are Fireworks Fridays and other special promotions through the season.

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Photo courtesy of Milb.com

BANK OF AMERICA STADIUM TOURS: Whenever I’m in different cities, I love to visit different sports facilities/arenas. I’ve visited stadiums and ballparks in cities all over the country. Bank of America Stadium, home of the Carolina Panthers, offers tours at the price of $6 per adult, $4 for children ages 5-17, and $5 for senior citizens. Children under five are free. See tour dates on the website here. According to the website, the stadium is a “working facility year-round,” so tours can adjusted due to safety or security concerns, but generally, the tours visit the stadium bowl, the Panthers locker room, the weight room, practice fields, PantherVision Control Room, the visitors’ locker room, a luxury suite, the various clubs, and of course, the team store. It’s an inexpensive way to entertain sports fans.

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Photo courtesy of panthers.com

CAROLINAS AVIATION MUSEUM This is a very popular attraction in Charlotte, and it became even more popular after they added the aircraft from Miracle on the Hudson, a USAirways jet. This is fun for all ages. The museum serves up some aviation history, as well. It’s not a huge museum, but it’s worth a visit. Kids seem to enjoy seeing the different aircraft displays and exhibits. The museum is located on the grounds of Charlotte-Douglas International Airport. You can see the website here. Admission is $12 for adults, $10 for seniors, and $8 for children and students. Children 3 and under are free. While you’re in the area, take the time to visit the Charlotte-Douglas Overlook, where you can watch planes land and take off. Info can be found here.

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Eastern Airlines DC-7 Photo Courtesy of Carolinas Aviation Museum

VARIOUS PARKS There are lots of great parks throughout the city. One of my favorites in Romare Bearden Park, located uptown on Church Street. This 5.4 acre park is great for families, and it hosts a weekly music series. You can get more info here. Ray’s Splash Planet is a water park funded by Mecklenburg County and operated by Mecklenburg County Park and Rec. With a lazy river, various water slides, and other water activities, it’s a great place to visit during the summer. It is currently undergoing maintenance and upgrades, planning to reopen mid-summer. Check the website frequently for more info here. Latta Park in the Dilworth area offers a great splash park for kids, basketball courts, tennis courts, a playground, and fitness trails. Fun for the whole family. See the website here. Freedom Park offers lots of festivals and activities throughout the year, and is a great place for a family picnic. Located adjacent to the park, on Sterling Road, is Discovery Place Nature. Kids love this place, as they can interact with some animals and see others they might not otherwise see. Worth a visit with children under 10. See the website here.

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Romare Bearden Park

US NATIONAL WHITEWATER CENTER If you live in the Charlotte area and have not visited this attraction, you need to go. We are very fortunate to have this in our area. With lots of outdoor activities, there is something for almost everyone. If you don’t enjoy outdoor activities, you might enjoy watching the rafting. If you like activity but aren’t into rafting or kayaking, you might enjoy the multiple bicycle trails, ziplines, ropes courses, the canopy tour, or some stand-up paddle boarding. I think lots of people are surprised to know they have more than just rafting and kayaking. My family has spent countless hours here. It’s not cheap, but if you think you will enjoy going more than once, get a season pass. You can see information about all activities and pricing here.

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Canopy Tour Photo Courtesy of US National Whitewater Center

CAROWINDS Even if you don’t enjoy amusement park rides, the people-watching at Carowinds is like nowhere else in Charlotte. Another attraction we are fortunate to have, Carowinds brings in people come from far and wide to ride the rollercoasters, watch the shows, and play in the water park. We have been going since our daughter was two years old. In fact, when she was between the ages of two and four, we went almost every day the park was open. Crazy, I know, but she loved the activity, and I loved being outdoors. Since we had a season pass, it was an inexpensive outing. She now goes with friends several times during the summer. Carowinds has some of the best, biggest, and fastest rollercoasters in the country. Lots of thrills! I highly recommend going on weekdays during the summer. Weekends are crazy. Or go without the kids and “be a kid again”! If you plan to visit more than once in a season, you should opt for the Season Pass. Check the website for daily rates, parking rates, and Season Passes. You can see the website here.

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Photo Courtesy of Carowinds

These are just a few of the “things to do” in Charlotte. We have lots of great museums and theaters, and countless fun things to do with families. We even have Segway tours of uptown and other types of tours as well. You can get more info from the Charlotte Visitors Center here. Or if you’d like to see some reviews of attractions, you can check TripAdvisor here.

Be a tourist in your own town! If that is somewhere besides Charlotte, see what TripAdvisor says are the top attractions in your area. And if you need to get away, Charlotte is a great place to visit! You can get a full dose of southern hospitality right here. The weather is great, and the people are friendly. It’s a beautiful city full of great things to do.