Anya just drank up Emma’s house as Emma showed her through. A bright oilcloth covered the kitchen table. Gingham curtains fluttered in the window. A cast-iron cook stove filled one corner of the kitchen and a few dish-lined shelves covered the walls over the cook table. A dishpan hung on one side of the stove and a few pots on the other. A can of flour and a bread board set on the cook table. Doors opened off either side of the kitchen and rough stairs climbed to the attic opposite the stove. An apron hung on a nail, next to an embroidered drying towel. A water bucket and dipper stood on a shelf next to the back door. A cracked mirror in a frame hung there also, along with a comb on a string, concession to vanity.
“We got bedrooms opening off both sides of the kitchen. When Melvin got old enough, he slept in the attic. He moved downstairs after Marthy married. He’s courtin’ Jenny Parker, now, so I reckon they could be a weddin’ before too long. I always hoped we’d have to build more rooms fer a passel of younguns, but I guess the Good Lord thought two was a’plenty. We ain’t always had it so nice. Twenty-four years ago we started digging out a sod house when I was first a’carrying Martha. We ain’t been married long an’ didn’t have nothin’ but a start of seed, Rufus’s old gun, the clothes we stood up in, a few quilts, some old pots and crockery my ma spared me, an ax, shovel, plow and a mule and wagon Joe’s pa set him up with. Our folks was mighty good to help us like that. They ain’t had much neither. We slept in the wagon fer a few weeks while we planted and Joe dug sod. By July, it had dried out enough so we could frame up with poles Joe cut down by the creek. By the time Rufus had a good-sized hole dug, the sod had dried enough to stack. We set corner poles and got to stacking them soddy bricks. After we got high as I could reach on the north side, Rufus stacked the rest of the way up and I started the next wall. We took the wagon apart to frame up the door and build a tight door. Joe sodded up a lean-to for the mule off the back wall of our soddy. I sure hated to see that old wagon go, but there weren’t no timber. We sodded the roof, and it was good enough to get us through a winter or two.
After our second crop come in, Joe come up with enough lumber to build a two-room cabin. I was sure proud. That soddy kept us out of the cold, but when it rained mud was always fallin’ in on us….and the bugs! We couldn’t keep them bugs out! A cabin is sure a comfort! He built the other bedroom I was carrying the still-born baby, but we didn’t need more room till Melvin come along.
That old soddy comes in handy as a root cellar now. Long as we keep plenty of dry straw on the floor and don’t let the taters, sweet taters, turnips, and apples from touchin’ they’ll keep till spring. I hang my onions and herbs on the rafters so they keep good. I make leather britches out of my green beans so we can have a taste of fresh all winter. A few years ago, Rufus brung me in some a’them canning jars an’ I been able to put up conserves when the fruit comes in. I was so proud, I ‘bout cried when I seen ‘em. Here, I want you to have this wild plum conserve I put up. It will go so good with your fine biscuits.” Emma was justly proud of her home and housekeeping.
Tears came to Anya’s eyes. “Oh Emma, this is the finest thing I’ve ever been given. I’ll make sure to git your jar safe back to you.”
“Oh no you won’t. It’s a weddin’ present. Every woman should have something fine from a friend. I am proud to be your first one here.” Emma hugged Anya to her with the warmth of a mother. “I’m sure praying you’ll carry this little one and be spared the sorrow I felt.”
“Emma, I am so worried about this baby.” Anya whispered.
There comes that moment when one thing conjures varying emotions from different people
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Oops, I’ve got out of order. It’s still good back to front!
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Oh, good.
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Good story, but I doubt any settler would tear apart their only wagon, they wouldn’t have been able to get their crop to town.
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Possibly, but at that moment they needed shelter. Could have hired or made deal with neighbor for having. Good point. Will revise.
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I’m not certain, but I believe that some settlers would have tacked a rug or quilt up for a door. I know for windows that they waxed pieces of paper, that way they let some light in while keeping bugs out.
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That is true. My own great -grandfather took the planks from his wagon to frame up and build a door to an abandoned cabin he was lucky enough to be stranded near when his wagon got stuck trying to ford a creek in Red River County Texas. There were a few wildcats and panthers about, so he really wanted a door. He moved his family in the cabin and finished out the crop a sharecropper had left after his wife and baby died. He didn’t destroy the wagon, just took sideboards and floor boards. The frame, wheels, and axles were intact. He borrowed the landowner’s wagon when he had hauling to do. He scavenged planks from an old barn a few miles away to put the wagon floor back on . My grandpa said he never got around to putting it all back together and used it like a flatbed truck, lashing his load down with ropes. Grandpa said the kids would go flying off if Pa hit a bump. Of course, it was mule-drawn, so they weren’t speeding along.
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Interesting, thank you for sharing so many family stories, I always joy them and tonight I learned something too.
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I come from a family of great storytellers.
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I agree with all the above but I do have one question. What on earth are leather britches out of green beans?! I’ve never heard of such a thing. ” ‘Splain Lucy”. Good reading.
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http://www.blindpigandtheacorn.com/blind_pig_the_acorn/2009/08/how-to-make-leather-breeches-dried-green-beans.html
Check out this link. Tells all about it.
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Cool playlist to accompany the reading. Too bad they couldn’t be saved. LOL They’d go well with your story.
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It would.
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So warm and so nice! I love this story so much!
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Aren’t friends wonderful
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oh yes! xxx
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Love the friendship blossoming between the women and your descriptions are fantastic. Put me inside that Soddy. 😀 ❤ ❤
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I should have thought to put a frog or snake in the bed. Is it too late?
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Ha ha ha. You do whatever you want. 😀
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Too late now.
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A lovely visit. I wish she knew to tell Joe. We’ll see. 🙂 — Suzanne
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Maybe it will work out.
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Great descriptions of a “Soddy.” Seems like you might have lived in one at one time. My grandmother was raised in a “Soddy” in eastern New Mexico/West Texas.
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I never even saw one, but I researched it. I’d love to know more of your grandmother’ s story.
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That’s great that you took the time to research it because you sounded very knowledgeable. I really don’t know the story about my grandmother during her girlhood days. She just told us she grew up living in a “Soddy.” That was back in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s.
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If someone drops a line like that, I was always all over it. I love frontier stories.
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I do too but I was probably too dumb to ask questions. I do know that she only went to school through the 8th grade because back then that is all girls went to school for when they were farm/ranch girls. She also told me they used slates in school and not paper and pencils.
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That was a while back. How old would she be now?
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If she was still alive she would be 116 years old. She was born in 1890.
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I think my grandma was born in 1894. She was from a fairly prosperous family and got to go all the way through school. She wanted to be a teacher and even had a teaching job lined up. Her dad was on the school board and put a stop to that. He was too proud to have someone think he couldn’t support his women-folk. Also, he had a husband picked out for her. Did you read my book, Everything Smells Just like Poke Salad. It tells all about it. She married my grandpa. He’d never been to school but about three months. He taught himself to read using the Sears and Roebuck Catalog after the company couldn’t decipher his terrible hand writing.
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My other grandmother (on my mother’s side) had 4 little ones to feed and clothe. My grandfather was an alcoholic so she kicked him out. She put herself through college and became a teacher. She taught many many years, until she retired. And then, she moved to the Indian reservation and taught the little Navajo children for several years. I admire her for having 4 little ones and putting herself through college.
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That was something to be proud of.
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Yes, it certainly was and she loved teaching.
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Thank God for teachers.
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Yes, absolutely! They don’t get paid much for what all they have to do.
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I have many teachers in my family. They knock themselves out.
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They must be really good teachers!
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They are good.
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A friend, a wedding gift, a good man. I hope it lasts. I know you are going to throw us a curve ball pretty soon. The anticipation is killing me. :o)
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But it might work.
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I love the blossoming friendship between these two 🙂
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I have two friends like this. I am lucky.
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Yes, you are blessed, Linda ::-)
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What we know to do is amazing… we are drawn to survival, however that appears to us. LOVE this
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I am so enjoying their lives.
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A friend to confide in – so good. Things are looking up for Anya
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Her world is expanding. When she landed there. She had boy one person to love. Now she has four, maybe five.
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Her heart is healing 🙂
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Yes, it is.
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A lovely relationship developing between the two women. It makes you think about the value we attach to things. Thanks, Linda. Beautiful writing.
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Thank you. I value your opinion.
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