SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
All the best sons and daughters know tomorrow is Mother's Day. The rest of you - consider yourself alerted. We've got a lot to be thankful for from our mothers and the mother figures in our lives. Our staff on WEEKEND EDITION would like to share some of what they're thankful for, like our senior editor Shannon Rhoades, who thanks her mother, Mary Ellen Giordano Rhoades, from the bottom of her stomach.
SHANNON RHOADES, BYLINE: For teaching me, lo these many years, how to make the most beautiful, delicious, massive pot of spaghetti sauce. My mom's from a big Italian American family. She feeds us all still to this day.
SIMON: Kathie Radcliffe's secret skill is writing poetry, so her son, producer Michael Radcliffe, came up with the appropriate thank-you.
MICHAEL RADCLIFFE, BYLINE: Another Mother's Day. Again, it's that time. They asked for my words, so I gave them a rhyme. It's one of your skills, providing laughter and thrills. It's slant, but you're so incredibly kind. Love you, Mom.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "RED RED WINE")
UB40: (Singing) Red, red wine, it's up to you.
SIMON: The first music we hear as children is often whatever our parents listen to, and sometimes we roll our eyes at the songs our parents have loved, maybe sang along to as well. But producer Eleana Tworek thanks her mother, Stephanie, for her love of ska music.
ELEANA TWOREK, BYLINE: Her favorite song is "Red Red Wine" by UB40, and my favorite band of all time is Vampire Weekend, and they would be considered ska. So, yeah, I think we share this love of music, and she would drive me, like, to elementary school and back, and she would play it and sing it in the car. I won't sing it for you now, but (laughter)...
SIMON: And I'm thankful to my mother for an awful lot, but in recent years, I have especially appreciated how she said only nice things about my father after their divorce so that I could grow up loving him. That took a lot of love and strength, of which my mother had plenty.
What do you thank your mother for? Let us know. Please send an e mail or a short audio clip to weekend@npr.org. Put mom in the subject line, and we just might put it on the air tomorrow. But even if your submission makes it to air, you better thank your mother personally.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "RED RED WINE")
UB40: (Rapping) Red, red, you make me feel so fine. You keep me rocking all of the time. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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