Memory… is the diary that we all carry about with us.
[Oscar Wilde]
I was born September the 7th, 1906, at Cherryvale, Kansas. My father was fireman for the steam boilers in a brick yard about two or three miles south of the city. A little village grew up around the brick yard called Corbin City. But we soon moved closer to town on 10 acres and had several cows, a team of horses, pigs, chickens and a huge garden. My grandfather, my mother’s father, lived with us and he had to have a garden. One morning, as my father came from work, he asked me to put my hand down in his overcoat pocket. I did that and felt something warm and fuzzy. He brought it out of the pocket and it was a yellow kitty. There were some kitties at the brick yard and he noticed that this one looked so hungry, and was in need of TLC, so he brought it home to me. I had a book that was The Three Kittens, and one of the kittens was yellow and named Mouser so of course that became my kitty’s name. Well we had Mouser sixteen years before he died.
[The photo below is our home in Corbin City, Kansas, c. 1908.]
The following is an MP3 audio file of Mama telling the same story as quoted above:
Thank you for letting me know mama’s blog is up, love the old photos :^)
Katherine,
What a great tribute to Rachel this is!
I was honored to help transcribe Rachel’s audio recordings and what a pleasure it was to hear each and every one of her stories. She lived during a wonderful time in history, when families and communities worked hard together and didn’t lead the complicated lives we often do now. I’ll never forget some of those great stories and hearing her special voice.
Laura
Laura, It is so good to hear from you. I certainly appreciate the work you did on Mama’s transcriptions. I plan to put a brief excerpt on the blog at least weekly as a gift to those who loved her. Thank you so much.
Marianne, Mama grew up in your neck of the woods. Also, she was a dedicated knitter (especially lace) and would have enjoyed seeing Bobby’s Big Blankie.
Aunt Rachel was a wonderful storyteller. The only problem was when I started hearing her voice, I wanted to cry.