"MOM"...aka MARY ELIZABETH (Mayme) HOFFMAN CRANSTON

Why this God-fearing, sometimes obstinate, always level-headed, seldom wrong, Canasta-and-Bingo playing addict (there is that word again!) chose to keep "The Secret" for as long as she did has puzzled her family from 1925 until the day she passed away in 1981, at the rather remarkable age of 97 years, her reasoning still to be guessed.

What ulterior motive was behind her thinking...her secretiveness? Only Heaven knows. There was no apparent change in Mayme's daily schedule in late 1924 and early 1925. She ran her household of 11 kids (some on and some off the premises), she ran the Grant School PTA, the GAR, the American Legion and VFW Auxiliaries, she ran the Neighborhood Potlucks (winter and summer)...my sister, Trudy (one of those married and off the premises) years later agreed with me she could very well have coined the phrase: "Get out of my way or there will be "h - - l" to pay!" (I must mention here that she was also somewhat outspoken...but with a smile...when a project put in her trust was marked by someone's lack of ability or incompetence.)

Now, about her "Secret." Not even her closest confidants suspected, the neighborhood wives twenty-strong, nor did her kids, nor the Grant/Jackson/High School Teachers and Principals, UNTIL...the day that Trudy was about to present Mayme and George, husband and father, with their second grandchild. Usually expectant mothers are surrounded by family and friends, anxiously awaiting the results, collecting bets and offering congratulations to the new parents. Not Mom! George prodded and cajoled Mayme to go (next door!) to boil water, if necessary, and did not readily understand her reticence about playing a more active midwife role, assisting Dr. Greenleaf, family doctor and frequent caller at 210 Birch Street prior to this current call. All of the Cranston children had been born at home and so the birthing of this new babe was not, at all, of an unusual nature. What could possibly be more important than personally greeting this babe?

Well, 42-year-old Mayme gave 53-year-old George an answer that will stand with the years and be told over and over to future generations...much like I am doing now! "I am having a baby of our own in a couple of weeks!" I hear tell that little piece of news set George back on his heels in no time flat, and he promptly withdrew to his Haven of Peace, the Woodshed erected on the far side of the family home. I, also, hear tell that when he finally emerged from The Woodshed, he told a fellow fisherman, "Oh, heck, Vern, what is one more mouth to feed, and No. 13 has always been a good number for the Cranston family!" (These are tidbits one picks up in researching family genealogy.) (How true, I know naught!)

So, when the day of April 21st finally arrived, and Mayme's "Secret" became known to the townspeople of Atlantic, Iowa, via the Atlantic News Telegraph, everyone cheered for it was a good thing! BUT, be it known far and wide, there were NO MORE "Secrets" in our household from that day forward. Family folklore has it that George chopped kindling wood all the while Mayme was laboring, and there was enough stacked wood to last the following winter!

Oh, yes, Trudy and her hubby had their firstborn, a son named Edmund LeRoy (Bus) who was my nephew before I was born. I had as my Mom and Dad two of the most wonderful, giving and caring parents who doted but did not spoil, who loved but did not smother, and who gave me principles to live by for lo these many years. Soon you will meet George (Dad) ... a young man who buried the mother of his first three sons following the birth of their infant son, an "uncommon common" man. Something that makes me laugh, just a little bit: Mom kept my imminent birth a secret for the required gestation period. And, now, here I sit, ready and willing and happy, to share more about my family and me than you will care to know...but that is what "addiction" is all about, right? Recognizing the problem and doing something about it! 'Til the next time...