BODY BUILDERS GYM

The Best Equipped Gym in L.A.

2516 HYPERION AVENUE LOS ANGELES, CA 90027 213/668-0802

SPECIAL OPPORTUNITY ONE MONTH FREE FREE T-SHIRT

with paid membership while supplies last

NOW $22987*

FULL MEMBERSHIP FOR 13 MONTHS (regularly $310. for 12 months)

NOW $20987*

GOLD CARD MEMBERSHIP FOR 13 MONTHS (regularly $275. for 12 months)

Gold Card Members may use the facilities all hours except between 4:00 and 7:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.

The Gym is open seven days a week, Monday Friday, 6:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Women's Affiliate Gym (213) 661-9456)

Visa and Mastercard are welcome. No extensions, No transfers, No refunds. Includes one month free when one year membership is fully paid at time of purchase. Instruction is not included. Bring in this ad for a complimentary workout (limit 1 per person).

Member Silver Lake Merchants Association CELEBRATING OUR 9th YEAR IN SILVER LAKE

SPECIAL OPPORTUNITY ENDS JULY 3, 1987

DON'T FORGET!

THE

MAY 10 MOTHERS DAY

ORIGINAL

RUBY BEGONIA

FLORAL SHOP

1433 N. Highland Avenue (In Giannelli Square) Hollywood, CA 90028

(213) 465-0439 465-4023

Most major credit cards accepted.

Lutherans Concerned

A Christian ministry for lesbian and gay understanding.

Worship, potluck held 2nd Sundays, 5 p.m. at St. Matthew's Lutheran Church, 11031 Camarillo St., No. Hollywood. For other info or counseling, contact LC/LA, P.O. Box 4276, L.A. 90051, or call (213) 660-6695

Remembering Mother

by Leo Goates

"Nothing is as American as mothers and apple pie!" At least that is what we used to hear. Now, maybe not so much... and that's why we need to reminisce a little, to pause and remember and to think. The way we as a nation revered mothers a hundred years ago or even forty years ago may seem rather trite today. Some modern mothers have not filled the American stereotype, the results have been varied, sometimes even devastating to us personally. But, when the chips were down... mothers were generally there when humanly possible. Let's reminisce!

It is amazing how much we expect of mothers, and how much they are all that we expect. Traditionally there is no career so demanding or filled with diverse duties. First of all, they offer themselves, their lives, to bring us into the world. We expect them then to nurse and nurture us, to be our first teacher, to tell us of life and its moral, spiritual and material truths. We expect them to clothe and feed us, to guide us and watch over us, to listen to our long childish stories, to keep our confidences, to fall in with our moods, to take on our troubles, to understand our sorrows; to be the buffer between us and our misunderstandings with others; to be the restrainers of our over-enthusiasm, and the encouragers of our days of despondence, and to have the answer to all our problems. We expect them to beautify our home, to welcome our friends, to be the gracious hostess, the lovely lady; to be cateress and shopping consultant, to know the price and the value of almost everything... and to be all this and to do all this on a limited allowance.

We expect them to be young and modern, yet wise with the wisdom of age; to set before us an example of patience and high qualities of character, and to live a life of unselfish service; to be doctor and nurse, the seamstress and the servant in the home; to do the menial and manual things and yet stay lovely and alert... to do all this with their hands and with all their hearts. All this and much more unmentioned we expect of mothers.

Sometimes we take them for granted. It seems that they have always been there, and we assume sometimes that they always will be. But for many of us, before we have lived through life, we see still hands that once were seldom still and listen for sounds that are silenced, for those sounds that softened every pain, and for the songs that once were sweetly sung. And then there comes upon us an awareness of how much we have expected of mothers.

The memories of mothers come before us on occasions like "Mothers Day." Many mothers are with us, to whom we may turn our grateful attention, but many are unreachably far from us, and when they are gone, somehow we seem to have a sense of things we wish we had done that we didn't do

We remember patient lessons taught to us and pride in lessons learned; we remember cupboards that always held some sustenance and satisfaction when we came home hungry; we remember nights when we returned too late when she was always awake and waiting; we remember picnics and tired returnings when she who had so much more reason to be weary than we would help us with knotted laces and stubborn buttons, and see us settled in sleep, and then attended to countless household chores before she thought of sleep for herself.

We remember things she afforded us which she wouldn't afford for herself and places she helped us go to which she didn't go, and we remember her pleasure in learning of our pleasure when we returned to tell what we had seen and done. We remember cool, clean sheets and the wearisome labor of washing that it took to make them so; and clean, fresh clothes, sometimes hung out in the heat of summer, sometimes in the cutting of winter wind when the hands that hung them out and brought them back would be blue and aching. Yes, that's before electric dryers and laundromats!

We remember arms held open for us when we were hurt, hopes held high for us when we were down and discouraged, and quiet comfort for our disappointments, and sustaining strength and faith for our future. We remember sorrows shared and confidences

They offer themselves,

their lives, to bring us into the world.

that were always kept. We remember cool, quieting hands and comforting encouragement in fever and in illness; and tempting foods fixed for us, sleep lost for us, and prayers said for us. All this and much more we remember of Mother. For those of you who have mothers with you yet .. do for them now and be to them now what you wish you had done and would wish you had been if they were not now with you in this life. Let's be thankful for mothers and for memories and even apple pie... a la mode!

P.S. Memories may not always apply to just mothers in many of our lives, especially today with so many broken homes and varying situations. But someone generally fits the mold... a grandmother, aunt, sister, stepmother, nurse or just a friend. It's nice to remember someone. Give it a try.

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• EDGE May 13, 1987