So I got a text from Tommy the other day.
He said, "Cheech, Janna down at HQ sent us a new message from one of the cousins, man. You need to read it."
Now, the good Rock Stars down at HQ forward us a lot of things. Customer questions, messages you write in, the occasional complaint about shipping times. (We're always working on it, man). But every once in a while, they send something along that makes you put down whatever you're doing and just sit with it for a minute.
This was one of those.
It came in response to our MADRE sale kickoff email (the one where we shared the photos of our moms and talked a little about who they were).
And I have to be honest with you: when Tommy and I agreed to put our mothers on the internet, I wasn't sure how people were going to respond. It felt a little personal, man.
But then we got this note from cousin Robert:
Tio Cheech,
Hey thanks for celebrating the moms out there, both those that are with us as well as those who are not.
Interesting stories about the strong mothers you and Tio Tommy had. You are proud of them and what they did for you, sacrificed a lot I'm sure.
My mom had a very difficult childhood, growing up not knowing her father. That did a lot to her because society in the 1930's and 1940's was pretty harsh on kids without fathers. The nuns where she went to school were pretty hard on her. She let me know how lucky us kids were to have 2 parents.
When my father died in July of 1968 I was 10 years old, and my mother didn't even know how to drive a car and now she was alone raising 3 boys. We grew up without a lot of possessions and sometimes there wasn't much food in the house, but my mom did a fantastic job trying to keep us on a good path and not letting us go off the deep end. And let me tell you — we were a handful. My mom died 22 years ago of ALS.
Your MADRE Sale made me think of her when I saw the photos of your mom and Tio Tommy's mom. Thank you for celebrating the moms.
May God Bless our mothers, and God Bless you and Tio Tommy too.
Robert, North Port, FL
Robert, thank you for sending that in, man. And thank you to all of you other cousins who have been writing us notes about this sale and your moms as well.
This is exactly why Tommy and I do things like this (not the sale part, the other part).
Look, we could just send you an email that just says "25% off, use code MADRE, here's a button." And a lot of you cousins might even click it.
But that's never really been who we are. And we don't think it's who you are either, hey?
Tommy and I both feel so lucky to get to share our stories and thoughts with you cousins here, and get notes back from you just like Cousin Rob's. Thousands and thousands over the years.
Makes what we're doing here feel a whole lot bigger than just running sales, man.
So thanks again, Robert. And like you said, God Bless all of our mothers, man.
And thank you to everyone else who wrote in. The Rock Stars have been forwarding us your messages all week and we read every single one (even if we can't respond personally to everyone).
And if you haven't had a chance to stock up during the
MADRE sale yet, we've still got you covered. Use code
MADRE at checkout on
Cheechandchong.com for 25% off, or start a new subscription and the 25% comes off automatically.
But more importantly, if your mom is still around, call her this weekend. Tell her Tío Cheech put you up to it, man.
Be good,
