Mama was born on a farm in a tiny little town in Cleveland County, North Carolina on Monday, August 27, 2017. She was the third of seven children. Five girls and two boys. All were well loved and remained close all their lives. Two are still living! When my Mama passed away, a dozen years ago now, she was holding the hand of her baby sister, Jean. That says a lot.
When Mama was born, there were not many cars in her part of the world. Horses and mules were still used for transportation and plowing the good red clay dirt in the area. Mill towns were scattered all around, up and down the hill country where she lived, fed by the railroads and powered by the rivers. Mama was a weaver in one of those mills for a time when she was in her 30s, but Mama's family were farmers. She was never far from a garden until her arthritis prevented her from digging. Even then she had potted plants until the day she died.
Mama loved all living things, and would feed anything that crossed her path, cats, dogs, children, horses, chickens, goats, ducks...whatever...Mama's solution to most of the world's problems was to make sure everyone and everything in her path had plenty to eat.
Mama was born during the last year of World War I. She lived through the Roaring 20s, the Great Depression, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and all the Wars since, but she never really dwelt very much on those times. If asked about the Great Depression, she would simply say, "We were farmers. We were the lucky ones. We had plenty to eat."
Mama surrounded herself with plants and animals. While she was still able to live alone, she generally had inside plants, dogs, cats, birds, and fish and outside gardens, plants, dogs, cats, and horses in her pasture, although the horses belonged to someone else, Mama petted them like they were hers.
We never had any money, but we always had food. We usually ate vegetables only during the week. Mostly beans and potatoes or whatever we grew in the garden and canned, but we almost always had meat on Sundays.
Later in life Mama went to work at Wendell Plastics cutting cloth and plastic cloth because she had lost part of one of her fingers weaving in a cotton mill. She had a fear of weaving after that and would never do it again even though it would have been more money and less stressful on her body. Fear is a powerful thing. Cutting the cloth and tough plastic cloth ruined Mama's hands. She retired at 62 with several types of arthritis already limiting her movements.
The demon, arthritis, crippled her in the end.
Mama enjoyed her retirement. She took care of her youngest grandchildren for those first few years. She loved my younger sister's children so much. She loved all her grandchildren, but the very youngest was the only girl in the bunch. All the others were grandsons. Mama cherished that granddaughter most of all.
Mama's life spanned the time of booming technology. She went from candlelight to everyone having electricity. Indoor plumbing became popular even in the countryside during Mama's lifetime. Running water...right inside the house!! Imagine such a luxury! Hot water in the spigot! It was a time of miracles. Telephone lines were strung across America and the telephone finally made its way into Mama's life. What magic! Imagine! Radio. Television. Movie theaters were built even in the back-country towns of North Carolina. Electric stoves, refrigerators, air conditioning, all made their way to the North Carolina hills. Phonographs became popular even among the very poor. More and more people had cars and tractors suddenly did the plowing for you. Everything changed. People started carrying phones in their cars and then in their pockets. Personal computers became commonplace. People even used hand held calculators instead of doing their own arithmetic. Also arithmetic became math!
Just imagine these last 100 years!
The most important thing that happened for me was the birth of that baby girl on a Monday 100 years ago today on a farm in the hill country of North Carolina, my Mama. Without her, I would never had been at all.
Happy Birthday up in Heaven, Mama. I remember you.
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| Mama |
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| Monday's Child is Fair of Face - Mama's Many Faces |
