Mother’s Day – Always a bit of a non day for me but do the last minute gestures matter?

As I wandered into the newsagents at 10.55 PM last night for 20 Marlboro Light there was a long line of lads, fresh from the pub, clutching cheap bunches of flowers and a card. It must be Mother’s Day. It is not something I have ever paid much attention to since my mother died when I was eight. I am not sure we ever did much in the way of presents before then – our family was into self-sufficiency rather than worldly commercialism – to celebrate the day, I think we brought mum breakfast in bed.

At school each year all the boys were made to make a mother’s day card. The teacher’s used to find my situation a bit embarrassing. Make one for your Aunt or Grandmother then? You know it is not quite the same. And so this whole annual excuse for commercial vulgarity always passed me by.

I wonder what the mothers getting a cheap bunch of flowers and a tacky card all obviously bought at the last minute think? Thanks son: nice to know that you spared an afterthought for me after getting pissed with the lads. Gee..I'm touched.

It seems as if every day is either a World something day or a day which allows us all to engage in crass consumerism. I find myself pretty turned off by both.