the homesteaders daughter: girls with peaches

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

girls with peaches

Two little girls with peaches and a great-grandmother between them. It was a beautiful, sunny afternoon and there were only a few peaches left after Mama and Grandma put the rest of the bounty in glass jars. We were busy children with something usually hatching in our young minds. Some times it got us in trouble. One particular Sunday we nearly outdid ourselves. Actually, we thought we had embarked on a heroic enterprise. We were wrong. There was no indoor plumbing in our little house, or the grandparents either.

We were all forced to use the same old "two-holer" out at the end of the garden...way out at the end. Not a cool prospect day OR night. On top of that it was so old it had turned grey on the outside AND the inside...really yucky, dark and gloomy. We just thought we might be able to remedy that. Sooooo; Sunday morning Mama usually made pancakes. and sure enough , she didn't let us down...not that she had any idea what five-year-olds can cook up between themselves. When breakfast was over we snatched the bottle of syrup and ran for the outhouse.

Sure enough the supply of catalogue paper was abundant; just what we needed. We had seen our mother and father wallpaper a bedroom and the idea had given birth. Of course we didn't have any pretty paper, but the catalogue pages would do just fine. Well, we thought so anyway. Our unreasonable parents did not agree. Such a shame too, because the syrup was more than sticky enough to hold the catalogue pages onto the old grey walls.

Enough to say; the remainder of the day left two un-busy little girls waiting for Monday and a new start.

P.S. I'm the one in the dark red dress and that is my sister Elaine on the other side of Grandma, Allie Moore

4 comments:

DebbieSeptember 29, 2009 at 5:28 PM
What a start in the home improvement field. I think that was a pretty smart idea for two little girls. Bet your parents laughed secretly about that escapade!
Debbie
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AnonymousSeptember 29, 2009 at 6:20 PM
What imagination! Oh, I chuckled out loud at this one! Great photograph too.
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DeannaSeptember 30, 2009 at 9:36 AM
Oh how funny.
I just laughed out loud!!!

You were indeed very creative and practical if you ask me. So glad you have shared this.

I will be wallpapering in the near future, but think I had better use wallpaper glue instead.

God bless you and I hope you're feeling well,
d
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KathyB.October 1, 2009 at 3:00 AM
I think this is a great testimony to the creative decorating talent you have , in its' early beginnings. I have to ask, did the flies and ants become increasingly pesky after that?
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A Little bit about the grandparents

I consider myself blessed to have known my paternal great-grandparents. Allie and Knapp were a couple straight out of "Little House on the Prairie. They lost a child while still in Kansas and soon after traveled to Washington state where they homesteaded a goodly piece of land and proceeded to build a beautiful farm where the flowers bloomed with abundance to match the fruit of the orchard and the fields of grain.

Their second son, Glenn married Pearl, had a son by her but she gave her life to bring him forth. She died when her baby son, Lloyd, was born. The grandparents raised the boy while Glennn married a young woman named Beulah. They had two boys, but grandson, Lloyd stayed on with them . when he was 8 years-old his father, Glenn was killed by a truck load of logs that rolled off a train and crushed him to pieces.

Their lives seemed one long tragedy, yet love was more alive there than most any other place I have ever been. My father, Lloyd married Maudie Clark and I was their first child, born in our own little house on the Moore property. How could anything so right go so terribly wrong??

By the time I came along the grandparents were in their 80's and life happened. My parents divorced and though I stauyd mainly with my mother I spent a great deal of time with my dad and Grandpa and Grandma on the farm...or what was left of it by this time.

There never was running water in the, "big" house or an inside toilet and only limited electricity.

On most days Grandma sat in the parlor in her rocker in front of a standing radio and two windows where the honeysuckle smiled- in during the summer months; the Bible at her side.

The kitchen floor sank in a little and the oil-cloth on the big square table
was worn from the meals that had been served there. A kerosene lamp stood there also and somehow it always smelled like apple pie.

My grandma was just under 5 feet tall, with grey hair pulled back in a bun and little tiny feet. She could not see well and wore thick glasses, maybe not a pretty picture to anyone else but a matchless queen to me, and whenever she asked me to go to her closet and bring a certain box to her side I knew I was about to see wonderous things or to hear grand stories

My family's history was in those boxes and over the few years that I had my dear great-grandparents I learned who I was. Grandpa had his tales to tell also. One such story was the one about a horse kicking him in the chest and he DID seems to have a hoof print in that spot.

Grandpa chewed...tobacco that is... and watching him bite off a chunk of the rich chocolate colored stuff was very tempting. My mother told me that when she was expecting me she was so overcome with temptation that she snuck a piece of the tobacco when Grandpa wasn't looking and had her chew...and spent some time with her head hanging over the dandelion field behind the house.

Grandpa Knapp was an unusual fella. Once a year the grandparents house was scrubbed inside with calsomine, a white paint-like substance. He had to walk to the paint store which was a good 5 miles one way. His walks were going to become a problem later on after Grandma was gone but that will have to come later.