Now that may shock some of you. Seems that with all the talk today of the multiple rolls that the missus has to play, we forget that things haven't changed all that much. Let me explain.
We all remember that Dad liked to open a few jars of Mom's blackberry juice to let nature take its course. But do you remember that from time to time Mom would take a draught from a bottle of wine that she kept in the bedroom for "medicinal purposes". When you consider that her jints must have been most painful, she never complained, but just kept on trucking. And, she smoked an occasional cigarette. Not the lady-like long filter types, but Kools. Sometimes when she would get clogged up, the menthol seemed to help.
And she was educated! Of course with Dad as a tutor and mentor how could she have been otherwise. They read everything in sight. The Dallas Morning News was a fixture at the breakfast table. On the farm, they would get up at four in the morning. Get the paper; read it from front to back over their coffee (made in an aluminum pot to which egg-shells had been added). And then back to bed before sunrise.
Mom was also the bookkeeper, accountant and financial wizard. When dad brought home his weekly pay, she was the one who saw that it went to the bank. I'm sure that when Johnny cleared out her trunks of record, he discovered that she never threw anything away. Records, deeds, sales agreements, etc., in fact, she kept the receipt books from the depression where she and dad sold milk, meat, veggies, etc., to the Mexicans who worked in the mines in Malakoff. When the mines closed, they lost a bundle, and I am sure she had in mind somedays collecting.
There there's the working woman. During the war (for those who can't count- the Second World War), she got a job. Worked at Sanger's in Downtown Dallas. At the time, Aunt Lauric had encouraged her to go out and get a job. After about two weeks, Mom decided that her calling was not as a salesperson but as a housewife.
Probably the highlight of her years in Dallas was when Alyne, Kenneth and the boys stayed with us. One of her favorite stories was when she heard a disturbance in the back yard out by the pear tree. There was Richard talking to the tree, and what talk; he was practicing cuss words (probably picked up from me).
In fact Mom was ahead of here time. She even had breast cancer before it became the rage. And I suppose it returned to do her in, but she fought it the determination like everything else she undertook. I remember when Johnny called from the hospital in Dallas and said she wanted to talk to me. Asked about the family, talked about everyone else and at the end, she said simply, "I don't feel good".
I'm sure everyone remembers slightly different things about mom, and probably if I rewrote this I would come up with something entirely different.
But all in all, I guess Dad did alright in picking out the prettiest of the Shelton girls for his bride.
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