This is a multi-part message in MIME format. --------------A9BF2F43D2710C9D3F274C5C Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit --------------A9BF2F43D2710C9D3F274C5C Content-Type: message/rfc822 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline Return-Path: <patsroar@htcomp.net> Delivered-To: nana321@txucom.net Received: (qmail 28958 invoked from network); 9 May 2002 23:51:39 -0000 Received: from ace.htcomp.net ([207.17.189.146]) (envelope-sender <patsroar@htcomp.net>) by mail1.txucom.net (qmail-ldap-1.03) with SMTP for <nana321@txucom.net>; 9 May 2002 23:51:39 -0000 Received: from patsroar (unverified [65.166.172.11]) by htcomp.net (Rockliffe SMTPRA 5.2.3) with SMTP id <B0021096580@ace.htcomp.net> for <nana321@txucom.net>; Thu, 9 May 2002 18:51:38 -0500 Message-ID: <012001c1f7b6$016fd7a0$0baca641@htcomp.net> From: "Pat Lyon" <patsroar@htcomp.net> To: "Bosque Lover" <nana321@txucom.net> References: <3CDABAA5.754E0B82@txucom.net> Subject: Re: [TXBOSQUE] Great Mothers, Grandmas, Aunts, & other precious Women Date: Thu, 9 May 2002 19:02:40 -0500 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2600.0000 Disposition-Notification-To: "Pat Lyon" <patsroar@htcomp.net> X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2600.0000 X-Mozilla-Status2: 00800000 Anna Urban Sommerfeld My parents married in the early years of the Great Depression, October 6, 1932. My sister was born about 10 months later, July 10, 1933. Then I didn't come along until 1946. I grew up feeling like I had two moms, with my mother & big sister. My mother was a typical farm wife, she worked at home, and in the fields, barns, garden, etc. It makes me angry to hear someone say, "do you work or stay at home?" Even in this day and time, a farm wife is a full partner in the "family business." Farm wives who work outside the farm hold down two jobs, and frequently support the farming since it has become so unprofitable in many cases. In the late 1950's my dad had to take an outside job to support us and my mom did the feeding and all care for the animals. Daddy would come home from his job and plow until 10 or 11 at night and then get up the next morning & go to work, while mom kept the farm running. I have great memories of our huge gardens and all the canning; jars and jars of beautiful food of all sorts lined up in the attic. I remember wash day, mom using a wringer washer, carrying out the tubs of water to the flower beds, lines of clothes flapping in the breeze. I remember watermelons and neighbors and herding cows with my bike. I remember picking & shelling black-eyed peas and digging potatoes. I remember homemade sausage & hog butchering. My mom always baked cakes, cookies and pies for everything. School fairs and fund raisers, Church bazaars and bereaved families. My dad prized her baking so highly he would ask which was hers and bid on it at the auctions and fundraisers, rather than take home an inferior product. Mom was a "room mother" who supplied treats and chaperoning for school field trips. She was a member of the Ladies Aid Society at Church. In those days, the Church Trustees kept up the wood supply for the Church heater and did repairs, and the Ladies Aid did the work of cleaning, altar preparation, and feeding the workers. My mom is 88. Men in their 60's come up to her and say "Do you still cook like you used to?". They were teenage field hands in the summers and would eat at our table. There was company every weekend we weren't going to someone else's house, and you had to feed them, or take food. Her fried chicken was special, too. I remember huge raised doughnuts on winter Saturdays. And I still love tapioca pudding, though it's much easier to make these days. There are many other facets to my mom. She worked hard to have beautiful flowers. I could never feel at home anywhere without plants. She helped raise her grandchildren. She loves animals, and passed that on to all of us. I look at the world in a different way because of my mom. Happy Mother's Day, Mom! --------------A9BF2F43D2710C9D3F274C5C--