She fascinated me because she and many women of her time did so much. They married young, had children young, cook and cleaned and did laundry when there no short cuts. Modern conveniences didn't exist, keeping a house was hard work from sun up til sun down. They didn't have time or money to have manicures, pedicures, massages, girls night out. They didn't didn't have "me time". They didn't belong to the gym to stay fit, they didn't need to. Working day in and day out was enough exercise. They didn't talk about being stressed out the way young mothers do today.
Think of the time and effort alone it took to do laundry for a family of 5. Wringing out the laundry, 1 piece at a time in the wringer washer operating the crank by hand. Then lugging heavy wet cloths outside to hang them on the line...back inside to start the next load, back outside to take the clothes down etc. The process had to be repeated many times over. And because everything came off the line stiff, wrinkled then the long process of ironing, hanging, folding and putting things away.
There were no microwaves to heat something up quick, nor fast food joints around the corner, no frozen meals for convenience. Every meal had to planned out, things removed from the freezer and cooked. There were no dishwashers beyond ones pair of hands. Garbage disposals came along much later, so wrapping up and taking out the trash was a constant thing.
She sewed most of my clothes, she went fishing with my Dad on his day off, she made things come together with her creativity. When I think about her, aside from missing her since she's passed 4 years ago; I am fascinated at what she accomplished in a day. Makes me think that perhaps kids who's relationship wasn't what they wanted with their mothers, might not have realized what all they went through. I'm fascinated that she did these things every day and still had time to jump rope with me, teach me to knit, play jax sometimes. Parents weren't kids best friends back in those day, how could they be...there wasn't time for that. There was work to be done, those light hearted moments of play were very special.
