Summary of "Honor Thy Mother.". This story brings the reader back in time to the early sixties, where the main character tells her story about her earlier years and her promise over her mother's casket to go to college and become a teacher no matter what! Elise talks about college life in the town of New Paltz, New York, which becomes the focus of the story including the nostalgic event of when President Robert Kennedy was assassinated and the scenic beauty of the Shawangunk Mountains. Mohonk Mountain house is part of the dialogue and the trip through the notorious "lemon squeeze." After finishing her last classes as a senior, Elise goes on an adventure to Columbia, South America to either become an exchange teacher or a peace core worker, but finds she is drawn to the Amazon river and work as a gator hunter! After her return to the states and trip back to New Paltz, she finds her first teaching job in Newburgh, New York and begins to date the man who becomes her husband. This part fiction, and part reality book has fictionalized the characters, and left the environment real so that the reader can relate to the places mentioned and imagine themselves in the story.