Life

    Several years ago, my oldest sister Shirley, who was born in 1929, wrote:

 I have no memory of the Great Depression and didn't know we had one until I read about it in school.  In my hometown, we were all equally poor or rich, whichever way you wanted to look at it.  At any rate, there wasn't great suffering.  People farmed their small farms as they always had.  The sheepmen must have had some hard times but I was oblivious to it.  It took something bigger than a worldwide depression to dampen Mama's spirits.

As I listened to Toni Morrison book “Home” on my trike ride this morning, I found the answer to why Shirley, or any of us, never knew about The Great Depression even as we lived through it.  The story in the book takes place in Georgia.  A group of older black women have been nursing a younger woman back to health.

Quoting from the book:

As she healed, the women brought their crocheting and their embroidering.  They used Ethel Fordam’s house as their quilting center, ignoring those who preferred new soft blankets.  They practiced what they had been taught by their mothers during the period that rich people called the Depression and they called life.

There was no excess in their gardens

because they shared everything.

There was no trash or garbage in their homes

because they had a use for everything.

They took responsibility for their lives

and for whatever whoever else needed them.

The absence of common sense irritated

but did not surprise them.

Laziness was more than intolerable to them;

it was inhuman.

Whether you were in the field, the house, your own back yard;

you had to be busy.

Sleep was not for dreaming;

it was for gathering strength for the coming day.

Conversation was accompanied by tasks:

ironing, peeling, shucking, sorting, sewing, mending, washing, or nursing.

You couldn’t learn age

but adulthood was there for all.

Mourning was helpful

but God was better.

And they did not want to meet their Maker

and have to explain a wasteful life.

They knew He would ask each of them one question:

“What have you done?”  

Black or white;

Georgia or Orderville;

We were taught by our mothers

during the period that rich people

called The Depression

and we called Life.

Right, Shirley?