Wednesday, July 14, 2010

My Mom's Memories

My Mom grew up in The Valley, a small coal mining village in Pennsylvania.    Mom was born the sixth girl in a family of ten.  It was back in the day when people worked very hard for very little pay.

This past weekend Mom and her siblings gathered together at a party.  It was remarkable in that getting ten kids in the same place at the same time can be nearly impossible.  Yet there they were, all together, celebrating the graduation of my Aunt Patty's grandson.

In recognition of this remarkable event, I thought I'd share some memories that my Mom wrote a few years back.  Here they are: 


Dad’s hands were bluish under the skin from coal dirt embedded in his hands.  To me, Dad was the most handsome man in the world.  When I was a little girl, I thought he looked like “Errol Flynn.” 

On our back porch, we always had a swing.  Mom loved to sit on the swing.  We would fight to sit beside her.  The porch was very large - about fifteen feet long and six feet wide.  When the newspaper came, we would kneel on the porch and read the funnies (the comic pages).

Our yard was huge.  We had an apple tree with a swing set under it.  I would get on the swing, close my eyes, and swing for the sky. 

Dad had a large garden which he planted every year.  In the Spring, “Shelly” the farmer came with his horse and plow and plowed the garden for Dad.  We always had plenty of fresh vegetables.  I loved to pick the ripe tomatoes and sit on the boardwalk and eat them warm.  And I would wander through the pole beans and pretend it was a maze.

Mom paid the doctor bills with fresh vegetables from the garden.  Every day from March on, Dad was working in his garden.  This after working all day in the mines. 

We had two pigs - Tom and Peg (named for my parents).  They lived in a pig pen at the end of the yard.  Dad built the pen.  There were troughs where the pig’s food was placed for them to eat.  There was also a fence around the pen. 

I was told not to go near the pen by myself.  One day, I took a sandwich down by the pig pen and was sitting on the fence.  The pigs knocked me down to the floor of the pen.  I screamed because the pigs were all over me trying to get my sandwich.  Dad had to save me.

Eventually, one of the pigs died.  And then the farmer came and took the other away to be butchered.  But Mom gave all the meat away.  No one could eat Tom or Peg.

For a time we had a store - a Mom-n-Pop place.  At night the men would sit in the store and shoot the breeze.  Us kids weren’t allowed to be in the store - except Jimmy.  He was the baby and spoiled rotten.

Jimmy was the second boy after six girls.  When Mom was delivering Jimmy, Dad’s sisters, Aunt Ella and Aunt Marie where there.  I remember that Mom was screaming or crying and that there were a lot of neighbors around.  The doctor came and someone took us down the road to Brennan’s.  I remember being scared.  That evening, someone took us home and there was a baby boy there. 

When Shelly was born, Mom had her at home.  She delivered her in the boys room during the night.  I woke up and there was a new baby in the next room. 

Michael was born in the hospital.  I didn’t know that Mom was pregnant.  I told the nun at school that her legs were swollen and that the doctor put her in the hospital.  The doctor induced labor while the baby was in its eighth month.  When he was born, Michael weighed over eleven pounds. 

One day a State Police man came to our house.  He brought shoes from a factory in Orwigsburg.  The little kids had loads of shoes.  Getting new shoes was a big event.  Mom always made us get “sturdy” shoes.  She didn’t care what the fashion was and we wore the shoes until the holes in the soles were too big to cover with cardboard.

We always had enough food at our house and we never went hungry.  Not like some people in the valley.  We always had one or two extra kids at the table for meals. 

For breakfast, Mom would make hot cereal.  When we got up in the morning, we would have either oatmeal or corn meal.  A big pot of coffee was always brewing on the stove and we were all allowed to drink coffee if we were over ten years old.  The reason we drank the coffee was so that we could save the milk for the younger kids.  On the weekends, Mom would fry scrapple and we would pour molasses over it.

There were seldom any sweets for snacks in our house. Mom would make a “goodie” for the little kids.  It was bread soaked in milk with sugar sprinkled on top.  We would also get surplus peanut butter and Mom would buy marshmallows and we would make sandwiches!

I remember how special Mom would treat us when we were sick.  When we were little, we were allowed to wear the “sick robe.”  It was a bathrobe that was white and pink chenille.  Whenever I was sick, Mom would put the robe on me, comb my hair and bring me a “goodie.”  I always felt warm and special when I got to wear the sick robe.

When Dad worked in the mines, he carried a lunch.  He always saved part of it for the little kids.  When he came home, we would run down the road to meet him and carry his lunch pail home.  

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