My self portrait age 20

I never in my entire life had sense enough to stop working. I am going to relate to you, my good friends, a few samples of this crazy work-a-holic, ME.

In my freshman high school year every Monday morningmy sister Fannie and I set our alarm for 3:30AM to put a boiler of water on the stove to heat, collected everyone’s dirty laundry plus towels et cetera and did the family washing on a ringer MAYTAG washing machine. Most of you reading this probably never heard of such a thing but believe-you-me at that tender age of fourteen I had a good initiation to it.

Then before getting ready to go to school we hung everything on a clothes line strung up outside to dry through the day while we were at school. We also did all the ironing which included many of our brothers’ white shirts.

Oh yes and I almost forgot to mention we made starch to add to many of the clothes plus the collars and cuffs of those white dress shirts. There was no such thing back then of a steam iron or nylon clothes that you take out of the dryer and put on a hanger like I did with my little ones on my dairy farm.

We sprinkled each piece of clothing wound it up tight and stored it in a bushel basket, to later iron with I believe we had an electric iron. I remember my sister Mabel using the ones you heat on a stove and keep replacing on an iron holder that had a wood handle.

How am I doing so far? Are you beginning to get the idea? HEY, hang in there, I just got started.

When we got home from school in the afternoon the dishes from the big noon meal that my mother came over and prepared for everyone including married brothers who came in from the stone quarry work, were waiting for us to wash, dry and put back in the cupboard. Fanny and I also did what little house cleaning that was done.

In my sophomore and her senior year besides all this same work we decide to completely redo the upstairs bedrooms that were her’s, mine and my brother Bugs. We painted the walls, woodwork and floors made new sheer curtains and drapes, purchased new bed spreads and throw rugs. And did I forget to mention we painted the furniture?

That school year of 1937 and 1938 Fannie and I were the cheer leaders for the high school boys basketball team. We did that in our spare time.

My junior and senior years Fannie no longer lived at our home and little old me did all that by myself and still much to my surprise managed to be salutatorian of my senior class and gave that speech at my graduation which was held in the Methodist church. My faithful brother Bee, who had replaced my parents for some of my life, was my only family in attendance to hear my speech and see me graduate from high school.

And stupid work-a-holic that I was, during those two years before I graduated from high school I completely redid the downstairs of that house. It consisted of the kitchen, dining room , living room and one bedroom that was my brother Bee’s.

I painted all the walls a pretty very light green shade, did all the wood work and floors around room size rugs in the style that was available at that time to have the last coat be varnish that made it resemble real blond wood. I made new sheers and drapes and talked my dad into getting new room rugs. In the kitchen I painted the linoleum and when it was dry used a sponge to add a design and after that dried I added a coat of floor varnish.

NOW FOR THE FINALE. At the end of my senior year I invited my senior class of seventeen people along with all the teachers in the twelve grades to come on an evening for a buffet dinner and I prepared the entire meal. In our country schools one teacher had two grades so that was six teachers plus our superintendent.

For my table center piece I baked a jelly roll cake, rolling it up, sprinkling it with powdered sugar to make it white and tied a royal blue inch wide satin ribbon around and tied it in a bow. This resembled the diploma we would receive when graduating. EVERY ONE CAME. My dinner was enjoyed by every one and especially me.

I left out that when making my senior Prom dress I was still at the sewing machine (pedal operated) at 4:00 in the morning and sewed through my finger. As I quickly jerked my hand away the needle broke off and I was looking at the needle that was through the fingernail and sticking out each side of my finger.

Hey! Let me tell you as soon as I pulled that needle out with a pair of pliers and bandaged my sore finger I went to bed!!!!!!!!!!

I can’t close out this little story without telling you of this happening while on my farm.

My husband and I, beside our land we owned, the 143 acre farm plus 20 extra acres we purchased from the Ballinger family, plus 400 acres of my mother’s land and other land we rented, we were farming 800 acres.

One night I was planting soy beans with the drill in a large field on the Fox farm seven miles from my home and I had heard on the news it was going to rain the next day so I kept working until I finished the planting at 3:00 the next morning because after the rain I would have to pull the digger down that seven miles to work up the ground again before planting the remainder of that field to soy beans. Like, FORGET IT ALREADY!!!!!!!!!!!

At 3:00AM I climbed in our pickup truck with the windows down, no air conditioning, held my head as far out the window as I could and still drive, for the cool breeze to keep me from going to sleep. In our driveway I stopped the truck closest to the house in hopes I could get inside. I thought, if I can’t make it to the house I’ll just lay down on the grass and go to sleep.

I DID MAKE IT IN THE DOOR!!!! Can’t remember getting in bed or if I removed my clotheszzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

FRF ♥