 Mothers
and Grandmothers Home
. . . Rosa in a farm dress and apron, windblown, feeding chickens, alone, tall as a tree on the rolling prairie where she made a lasting home. - Barbara Jessing, from Leaning into the Wind: Women Writing From the Heart of the West  |
| These are our tributes
to our mothers, grandmothers and other female family members who influenced
us. Many of them were rural women. They traveled where there
were few people, started families and farms and small businesses.
They had the spirit of adventure. They weren't afraid of change.
They passed on generations of knowledge while learning to adapt to new
circumstances. They had internal resources they drew upon for sustenance.
They
planted gardens, raised chickens, milked cows and sold eggs, milk and butter.
They lived in woods, by roaring rivers, in mountains and on the arid plains.
They weathered the dust bowl, and walked
across open prairies to visit their neighbors.. They lived in log houses,
dugouts, sod houses, and houses made out of limestone. Some
had handsome brick or wooden houses built as they prospered. They cherished
their homesteads, their children and their good dishes
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| They got up early and made biscuits and gravy for breakfast, fried chicken and mashed potatoes and gravy for dinner, with green beans out of the garden and peaches for dessert. And after they fed the hired men and washed the dishes, they sat down for a moment to play the piano and be lost in thought. |
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| Some were a part of extended families -- grandmas, mamas, sisters, aunts and cousins who spent a lot of time together and when they were apart they sent postcards and letters. Others, like Minnie, raised children alone. They kept ledgers, recording milk and eggs sold, bushels of wheat harvested and the weather, marriages and birthings. |
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| Nellie lived with her
sister who kept a diary of their daily activities -- washing curtains
and fastening them to the stretchers to dry, moving the beds outside in
the summertime, walking to church services on Wednesday evening, how much
it rained, how cold it was, and how many pints of pears were put up that
day. Nellie compiled and had printed a book tracing her mother's family
back to its origins in Scotland and Ireland.
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