Memories of Youth — 1.0 Louisville, Kentucky, May 1977
“Oh the sun shines bright
On my old Kentucky home…
Weep no more my lady
Weep no more today
For my old Kentucky home
So far away…”
For whatever reason we have these holidays it is always appropriate to think about your mom on Mother’s Day. My mom, Rose Tuzik Mosley, died peacefully in February of 1984. She was still relatively young and her death was very difficult for me then and still tends to plunge my heart toward sadness. This weekend was made slightly more bittersweet by the coincidence of the 148th running of the Kentucky Derby the day before.
Ever since I was small my mother and I watched the Kentucky Derby in television. I don’t know why but the Derby and the World Series of Baseball were the two things we always watched together (she was a Red Socks fan). Other than that I don’t remember watching television with her. But I do remember, very distinctly, two runnings of the Kentucky Derby.
The first was in 1973. It was May 5th. We sat in the living room of the old farmhouse at the end of Hickory Lane in Seymour, Connecticut drinking iced tea with mint leafs (approximating, I suppose, a mint julep) and watched on the color TV (we had only gotten one the year before) as a horse named Secretariat won the Derby in record time (1minute 59 and 2/5ths seconds…a record still standing). My mom was on her feet clapping as he came to the wire. She had made a $2 bet on him with our local grocer. It was thrilling to see her so happy. Secretariat won the Triple Crown that year and is now considered the greatest race horse ever.
The second Derby that sticks to my memory happened on May 7th, 1977. It is such a distinctive memory because I was there at Churchill Downs on the infield along with about 100,000 spectators and I clearly remember climbing up onto a chain link fence and watching Seattle Slew tear through the backstretch on her way to victory and later to become another triple crown winner (I was also at the Belmont when she finished the deed, but that’s a different story).
I called my mom twice on that day from a pay phone in the clubhouse. It was like I was living her dream. I remember describing the horses from earlier races that I had seen in the paddock. I never really got more than a fleeting glimpse of Seattle Slew, but I’m sure I made something up to tell her. In reality I had the cheapest seats you could buy (which weren’t actually seats at all just standing room in the vast muddy infield). I only got in the clubhouse to use the phone because one of my college friends was from Jefferson, Indiana (across the Ohio River from Louisville) and he had been sneaking around Churchill Downs since he was a kid. He got us into the back of the clubhouse until we got kicked out long before the race.
It all comes to mind because of yesterday and the 148th running of the Derby. For some reason (I am not at all into horse racing, or even into horses very much, I think they do some tortuous things to thoroughbreds) I still always watch the Kentucky Derby. Mostly I am by myself. Yesterday I couldn’t help but think about my Mom. Seriously I was on my feet cheering as the extreme long-shot horse Rich Strike came along the inside at the final turn (the rest of the pack seemed to swing wide) and squeezed his way up along the inside (the announcer didn’t even notice him till the end) sprinted and out kicked the favorites and won by half a length. Possibly the biggest upset in Derby history and certainly the first time a horse at 80 to 1 finished first.
That would have put a huge smile on my mom’s face. She always liked the underdog. Which is probably why she loved me so much.
Anyway a Happy Mothers Day to all and especially to Rose Tuzik Mosley wherever she is out there in the plain of non-existence. Maybe someday I’ll get back to Louisville, mom. And I’ll be sure to call.