How Did Mamma Keep Her Mind

The most precious and important thing to any parent is their child and that child’s safety.  It is unsettling when we can’t see or hear them.  It is difficult when we allow them to venture away from us and out of our immediate control.  When our children do venture out, we want to know where they are, who they are with, and when they will be home.  If we can’t answer those questions, we get frightened and we do not rest until that child or children’s whereabouts is known.  What about when they don’t respond or get home on time?  Today we can just call or text on their cell phone and ask questions.  In the 50s and 60s parents used a list of phone numbers.  Tthey would start down the list calling other parents and households to find out where the kid went.  If they didn’t find you, they got in the car and went looking for you.  What about the 1930s?  What if you did not have a phone or a car? What then if one of your children did not come home?

One night around midnight, Grandma came in and woke up Vala and Hazel.  Bruce Laverne had been sent to Clyde and Jessie’s earlier in the day to pick up a horse and did not return.  Clyde and Jessie lived about half way down Gum Springs road toward Parthenon and Laverne was sent down there to borrow a horse and bring it home to plow Grandma’s garden.  Grandpa was working away from home and was not there.  She was worried and needed the girls to go check on Bruce.  It was about three miles down the road to where Jessie and Clyde lived.  She told the girls if they got down there and everything was alright just spend the night and come home in the morning.  Mothers, you think you have it bad now when one of your kids don’t call or check in at curfew, imagine no phones and no help.  The only way to find out was either to leave all your children at home including babies Sue and George or send another search party to find out what was going on.  Even if the search party members were only twelve or fourteen years old. Grandma filled the kerosene lantern for them, lit it, and sent them down the road.  Hazel says it would have been much better if Vala had stayed home.

In case you don’t know it, Vala was a “scardey cat” of the greatest measure. When Hazel and Vala washed dishes, they used two dishpans. Vala would hurry to get done first and dump her water into Hazel’s pan.  She was afraid of the dark and did not want to go outside to dump her water.  Hazel said that however many times Vala had to get up during a night to go to the outhouse; that was how many times she had to get up as well because Vala would not go out there in the dark by herself.  This night, Vala did not have any better feeling about going down the road toward Parthenon in the dark.  She was so frightened that she kept stepping on Hazel’s heels trying to stay as close as possible, “She wore my heels out stepping on me and kicking them almost every step of the way.  She would not carry the lantern because she said if held the lantern then she could not see.”  Hazel tried to run away from her several times, but, Vala would scream and holler so much that Hazel thought certainly her screaming would attract wild animals or something.  Hazel said the Lantern was so big and heavy that it nearly dragged the ground.  She could hardly lift and hold it but, Vala just totally refused to take even a short turn. After the three mile walk, they found that Laverne was fine.  Clyde had been working with the horse when Laverne got there and wanted to finish before letting him take the horse back up the hill.  Clyde and Jessie decided Laverne should spend the night and take the horse back up the mountain in the morning.

So, all three children were safe and they walked back up the hill the next morning.  But can you imagine the sleepless prayer filled night that Grandma Velma must have had.  As Hazel shared this story she asked, “How did Mamma keep her mind?”  Think about it; twelve children; the great depression; World war II and the Korean Conflict with children in both; losing her husband with children still at home…What a marvelous example of strength, faith, and character.  Still we all wonder with Hazel, How did Mamma keep her mind?
And that's the way I heard it on the mountain,
Tony Peoples