by Peggy Rowe
First published 2018
Peggy Rowe examines her relationship with her mother Thelma Knobel, a woman who took charge of everything around her. Thelma wanted to raise two refined, ladylike daughters, but Peggy preferred horses to etiquette and spent her time pitching manure and galloping through the countryside. Their clash of personalities created constant tension between the horse-crazy tomboy and her genteel yet controlling mother. Everything changed when major league baseball arrived in town during the early 1950s. Sophisticated Thelma transformed into a crazed Baltimore Orioles fan who threw underwear at the television, shouted at umpires, and organized her life around the orange and black schedule on the refrigerator door. Peggy watched in surprise and embarrassment as her mother became the very opposite of the refined woman she had tried to be. The book explores how mothers and daughters navigate their differences, finding unexpected common ground despite their conflicting personalities and interests.
Genres: family, family-life, 20th-century, american, autobiography, biography-memoir, 21st-century, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, opposites-attract
Setting: Baltimore
Period: 1950s
222 pages · Kindle Edition · Forefront Books