Typing the content of Mother's life story piece by piece has led me to the decision to sort through my memories of my own childhood and record them. The older I get, the fuzzier these old recollections will become, so there's no time like the present. I'm not doing it for the next generation (because who really cares), and I'm not doing it for my blog. It's strictly for myself.
I'm only two pages into it, and already see my tendency, at a very young age, toward being a loner. If I stick to this project, it may be an eye-opening experience. And cheaper than therapy!
Some items of interest related to my mom's life: Some of you reading her story might wonder why there was so little to eat at a time when everybody raised huge gardens; that's because all this took place during years of terrible drought. We've all seen pictures and read stories about the Dust Bowl.
Mother wore only long-sleeved dresses all her life, winter and summer, even in 100-degree heat. That's because she had a port-wine birthmark that covered most of her right arm.
This was on Mother's 91st birthday; you can see part of the birthmark in this picture.
Children would sometimes notice the reddish-purple color of the back of her hand and ask about it; adults who didn't know her took it for a recent burn.
There was a story about this birthmark: When Grandma was pregnant with my mother, she somehow scalded (or maybe steam-burned) her right breast while heating some water; she believed that was what "marked" the baby.
Family and friends never even thought about or noticed Mother's birthmark; in fact, we didn't even see it.
I still have several of the World War II Ration books Mother mentions in her story; I looked through them yesterday.
Quite some time back I shared in this blog the contents of a letter Mother's sister, Ruby, wrote to her in 1938 when her son, Gerald, was very sick. Since it fits in with what I've been posting, you might want to read it; you'll find it HERE. There's another entry in this blog about a letter written by Daddy's sister around the same time period HERE. These go well with what I've been posting, and help illustrate how hard the times really were. 
I don't think we could live on 30 dollars a day now let alone 30 a month.
ReplyDeleteSo interesting! It made me think of my mother's old Good Housekeeping cookbook. It had a chapter on ration books and substitutions. How I wish she had written out her story.
ReplyDeleteI've been following your Mom's story with huge interest.Amazing the details she remembered - the dates,the prices,etc. Did she keep a diary?
ReplyDeleteMeesha, she kept diaries from 1930 to 1932; she kept candy bar wrappers and cigarette papers that reminded her of the young men she was flirting with; she kept literally a bucketful of letters from friends and relatives. Even as a little girl, I loved to poke through her stuff in the attic.
ReplyDeleteDonna, I do believe your kids, grandkids, and future generations of your family would truly enjoy "your life story". Many things may change in this world of ours but I would hope years from now future generations would enjoy hearing & reading about the generations before them.
ReplyDeleteMama gave each of us kids one of our ration books and I still have mine. However she also gave us a lock of our hair. Think I threw mine away years ago. I'm not into saving every little thing but I do appreciate the ration book.
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