Mother’s Day Appreciation

Have you ever wondered what the world would be like without Mothers? I mean besides the obvious ways. When you look at the world on a global scale, everything bad that happens in the world can usually be traced back to lack of a mother’s love and everything good that happens in the world is credited to someone’s mother. This idea, while sappy on the surface, is true. Fathers have their own effect on children thus the world, but it is nothing like a mother’s. Who do we turn to in times of crisis? Our mother. Who did we turn to when we wanted something? Mom. Who do we still go to when we need something (usually money)? Mom. Who did we count on to feed us? Mom. Dad serves a different, but just as important, purpose in our lives and will be discussed next month for Father’s Day. Today, we are talking about Mom.

I got thinking about mother’s when I was sitting at my desk one day and reading over old blogs. I realized as I was reading, almost every blog has women, or moms as a central focus. This got me thinking, could the world survive without Mom’s being in it? There are times when we all wish it could, but when it comes down to it, we don’t want a world without Mom, because I world without Mom is just wrong. Taking my idea even further, as I look around my cluttered cubicle at Woodman’s, I begin to wonder what Woodman’s would be like without mothers. It is truly a nightmare scenario on so many levels.

Now, Chubby Woodman gets all the attention when it comes starting Woodman’s and inventing the fried clam. I am not arguing this at all, but I do think that the role Bessie played in giving birth to Woodman’s (pardon the pun) gets lost sometimes and the role women and mothers have played since  Bessie do not receive the attention they should. I think it is obvious to anyone who is familiar with Woodman’s of Essex, that Woodman’s would not exist without First Mom-Bessie, who had Dexter, who married Gini, who had Judi, Patti, Cyn, Larry, Geoffrey, Steve and Doug, who married Pete, John, Tommy, Nancy, Jane, Rhonda and Maureen, who then had Wendy, Timmy, Terri, Cindy, Michael, Tracey, Craig, Curt, Tara, Whitney, Nathan, Eian, Stephen, Jonathan, Vanessa and Erica and so on and so on…

On any given day you can walk around Woodman’s and see the effect women/mothers have on the family, the company, the restaurant THUS every single one of us who has walked through the glass doors to either buy something to eat, make others something to eat or just popping in to say hello to old friends. Those glass doors are a window into the soul of Woodman’s. When you first walk in you are immediately welcomed like a mother welcomes a hungry kid or grandkid. The kitchen is always buzzing with activity (even when it is slow in the middle of February). The only men in the kitchen are the ones in “the pit” doing the cooking. It has been this way for as long as I can remember, so far ahead of its time where society dictates who should do the cooking. The women came up with the recipes, the men can do the cooking. Claire has worked for Woodman’s since, well she would kill me if I told you, but it has been a long time. In the back of the kitchen, you have Cyn putting the fear of God into everyone, making sure things are just so. In sweeps, Maureen who makes her daily walk-thru to make sure she can “check it off the list”. She is likely on her way to the catering office or the Essex Room to do the same thing. In the catering office, there is Maureen, like a “perfect storm” ideas and energy, getting any and all updates from Wendy, who has so many things on her plate at any given time she looks like she has reached a Zen-like state. There is Anne Marie, who just started working at Woodman’s, trying to talk someone down from the ledge about their clambake and whether they need to bring their own plates to serve the food on. Not to be forgotten is Joanie, who quietly sits are her desk at the front of the office and just goes about her work with little to no fanfare. Upstairs you will find Bonnie on the phone with Rhonda who is busy with the cookbook, trying to get out of here early to see her son play baseball. Go Triton’s!

I have not even travelled out back to the Hall where you have Nancy busy getting food together for twelve clambakes and two functions. Or Carolyn, who is constantly watching over the entire company. And then there is the accounting office Jenn, Aimee and Sally…..need to catch my breath!

My point of all this is to say thank you to all the mothers and women in our lives that make every day possible. Woodman’s would not be here if it were not for the women I mentioned (and so many more that I did not). They go about their daily grind and don’t ask for any mention or thanks. Why? Because that is what5 Mom’s do. On a personal note, I want to tell all of the women I have mentioned THANK YOU for allowing me to be who I am and encouraging me to be who I am.  It is not easy, but you make it seem effortless.

Bessie, Gini and Helen-We Miss You but take comfort in the knowledge that your daughter’s became great mothers. To my Mom-I love you more than you probably want to hear!!!

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!