MY GRAND MOTHER

My granddad married her when he boarded at her home in northern Wisconsin.  She followed him to Central New York and faithfully stood by his side during the Great Depression where they lost their small farm.   Again, after granddad bought another small farm outside of Groton, New York, my grand mother took a job of her own.

Back then Doctors would hire women to stay with women after giving birth; and in those times that meant days of bed rest for the mother who just gave birth.  That's what my grand mother did; she took care of those women and tended their new infants for even as long as a full week.  She was paid very little....maybe a dollar for a whole week of that kind of actually 24 hour a day with the baby and the mother.  Not much, but better than nothing.

She also assumed a different way she acted around my grand father; I think he didn't like her to be away for that long, and of course she would be seeing the doctor once in awhile during the time she was away.  I don't think my grand father thought she would be unfaithful to him, just that she was working for a professional person kinda got under his skin just a little bit.

I never heard them have words over this and Granddad and I did as we always did when Grand mother would visit the Murphy's every summer for a week.  He would cook our breakfast with my oatmeal and one slice of toast.  His was usually hot black coffee and the ends of the home made bread that grand mother had made.  Of course our chores in the barn were always there, and I would sleep in grand mother's spot while see was away.

It was then I learned something I had never know about my grand father, after he woke up, he would kneel by his side of the bed and pray....not out loud, but sometimes I could hear him moaning and then praising God....not too long before he pulled on his old coveralls, boots, and then would shake me gently and tell me it was time for me to "roll out" as he always said. 

Those days of her being away were kind of tough on both of us....after all she usually had breakfast ready when we came in from the barn and there was a little radio on a small shelf in one corner of our kitchen...it would be tuned into a station in Ithaca where there was a man who took calls from people who wanted to swap something for something else.  That's how granddad learned about many of the animals he swapped with other farmers; or sometimes there would be old foundations that farmers just wanted someone to haul away.  So often I could see farmers driving their team of horses from one farm to another and swapping one thing for another....making a good deal for both of them.

Now we live in an age where computers are owned by almost everyone; and there are apps where a person can do nothing else but bid on certain items and then sell them again...making money while just doing that all day long.

To me, I like to remember how it was back then; life was pretty simple and I often wonder what my grand parents grand parents did when they were farming and pushing their way further and further west....I guess they traded with American Indians....and you know the rest of that story.....