my mother
My mother was born in Mexico City on December 5, 1907. She was the first born to what would become a family of three girls and three boys. My mother’s name was Winnifred Hogg. My grandfather who died before I was born was part of the British bureaucracy and at that time the sun never set on a country that it didn’t have some sort of relationship with. I’m not sure if England had a full on embassy because my grandfather was sent by his government with the title of The British Councilor to Mexico. All of my mother’s siblings would also be born in Mexico City and would live a good share of their lives in Mexico, but British patriotism gave cause for my Uncle Fred to join the British Army in World War Two and give his life in that battle. In typical English tradition all those migrants would soon set up an enclave of British dominance where the motherland’s traditional language and values were number one. My mother for her time was quite adventurous when she applied for a job as a secretary in downtown Mexico City outside of her British enclave. This is where she became fluent in Spanish, learned to type, take shorthand and go out to dinner with friends.
Teddy Roosevelt’s foreign policy for Mexico, Central America, and South America was “to walk softly but carry a big stick” this policy was demonstrated clearly to still be in effect in 1928. Our U.S. government would from time to time send U.S. Navy warships on a goodwill tour to visit our neighbors to the south. I’ve forgotten the details but my mother was on a visit to Vera Cruz and had been invited to a very lavish dinner affair to celebrate the docking of our Navy and shake hands with officers of the Mexican Army. My father was now a captain flying for Pan American Airways and happened to be laying over for a day in Vera Cruz and was also invited to this dinner. Well wouldn’t you know it, as the story goes my father saw this very attractive young lady who glanced over at a very handsome man all dressed in his formal clothes and captain's hat. They were married a year later in Vera Cruz and thus was the start of a very loving lifetime relationship.
Those days the British recognize duel citizenship so my mother was both a Mexican citizen and a British citizen. In 1932 my father wanted his children to be born in America and flew my mother to Brownsville, Texas a border town where my sister Lorna was born. My parents were now living in Mexico City and the year was 1935. My mother informed my father that she would be having another baby in September. This would mean another trip to the U.S. but this time it would be different as my father would take a leave of absence from Pan American Airlines and move permanently to Halcyon, California where he was raised. I was born at the San Luis Obispo General Hospital on September 7, 1935 and thus would begin a lifelong loving relationship between my mother and I. Some said it was kind of one sided as she spoiled me rotten. My mother was 12 years old when women in 1919 first got the right to vote and bathing suits were one piece affairs almost to the neck. Men were the head of the household and my mother would never have a chance for fame or fortune as that was still the domain for men only. I think that suited my mother just fine as she adhered to a saying that my wife has hanging on our kitchen wall, it says: “Time is the best thing you can spend on a child.”
My mother was a little bit of an introvert who was content raising her two children, taking care of a loving husband, gardening and family camping trips. Together they taught Lorna and I about honesty, courtesy, giving, work, having convictions, and a host of others, and my mother single handedly taught Lorna and I British table manners.
The last couple of years of my mother’s life didn’t treat her very kindly. Lorna married in 1957 and started a family and I was going to live my life about 200 miles south of Palo Alto where I would seek fame and fortune. My mother lived in a now empty house with only memories as my father was killed while flying his airplane in stormy weather near Puerto Vallarta, Mexico in 1961. My mother in 1962 left a note to Lorna and I that said she had decided that her work here was done and was going to live with her husband Sigurd.
See Ya,
Jack
