She was quite proud of two rather strange abilities. The first was (as she would tell anyone who seemed remotely interested) that she could fit her entire fist into her mouth. Remember, in the olden days this would never have prompted even the thought of an off-color remark. Eventually, as children never get tired of seeing their parents look ridiculous, we would say,
"Mom! Put your fist in your mouth!"
"Yeah, Mom! Do it! We wanna see you put your fist in your mouth!!"
It never took too much convincing. I believe the trick was the way she angled her wrist. . . but now I'm wondering how and when she became aware of this awesome talent. And who was the first person she excitedly accosted to witness that in fact, she really could put her entire fist in her mouth?
The second was, she claimed, "I can wiggle my ears." That wasn't nearly as impressive due to the fact that it appeared to me that she could wiggle some area of facial muscles and her ears went along for the ride, but no matter. Perhaps in the first glimmer of adult sensibilities such as tactfulness, I feigned enthusiasm and astonished impressededness.
And now my eyes fill with tears as I my mother at some point in time standing in front of a mirror and perfecting these two silly tricks to elicit the maximum wow factor from her projected audience, and not having the slightest idea that one day it would be her own children who tossed the bouquets.
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