My father's mother grew up in Altus, Arkansas, the daughter to a prosperous merchant. He may have been a blacksmith. He may have owned a store. Like I said, we are speculating.
When she neared her sixteenth birthday, her father was killed an unfortunate accident which would have significant ramifications to herself and her family. In the short term, it meant the end of her comfortable way of life. Though her father's business was doing well, it still had an unpaid mortgage owing to the bank. The death of her father meant the end of the business and a foreclosure by the bank. The home my Grandmother grew up in was repossessed. Any thought of my Grandma Ces continuing school were quickly abandoned as her mother (my father's grandmother) made contingency plans for the family to continue. Ces, would stay and help her mother get by. In the long term, Ces would need to support herself, which meant getting a job.
In several years, Ces and her family learned that one of her cousins had found a job as a housekeeper in Kansas City. It was decided that Ces would join her cousin and use the money earned to support herself and her family--including her mother whose distraught over the death of her husband ineluctably accumulated to the point where she needed assistance.
Thus, Ces spent several relatively happy and carefree years in Kansas City. However, in that era, it was expected that young women were to marry young. No suitable suitor emerged from the Kansas City scene. Indeed, to her recollection only one boy, a quiet, steady, hardworking man of very few words named John back home in Altus had ever shown an interest. So, the next vacation that Ces was permitted she took a long bus ride back to Altus to see her mother. She made inquiries about John to some friends, and before the week was over John had made plans to see her in Kansas City.
Of course, this was the time of the Great Depression and John and the other young men in Altus were hard pressed to find employment. Many left Arkansas to head to the coal mines out in the American West. John left with some friends and became established in a company mining town near what is now Helper, Utah. Soon, after a brief engagement, Ces joined him in Utah and they were married.
When she neared her sixteenth birthday, her father was killed an unfortunate accident which would have significant ramifications to herself and her family. In the short term, it meant the end of her comfortable way of life. Though her father's business was doing well, it still had an unpaid mortgage owing to the bank. The death of her father meant the end of the business and a foreclosure by the bank. The home my Grandmother grew up in was repossessed. Any thought of my Grandma Ces continuing school were quickly abandoned as her mother (my father's grandmother) made contingency plans for the family to continue. Ces, would stay and help her mother get by. In the long term, Ces would need to support herself, which meant getting a job.
In several years, Ces and her family learned that one of her cousins had found a job as a housekeeper in Kansas City. It was decided that Ces would join her cousin and use the money earned to support herself and her family--including her mother whose distraught over the death of her husband ineluctably accumulated to the point where she needed assistance.
Thus, Ces spent several relatively happy and carefree years in Kansas City. However, in that era, it was expected that young women were to marry young. No suitable suitor emerged from the Kansas City scene. Indeed, to her recollection only one boy, a quiet, steady, hardworking man of very few words named John back home in Altus had ever shown an interest. So, the next vacation that Ces was permitted she took a long bus ride back to Altus to see her mother. She made inquiries about John to some friends, and before the week was over John had made plans to see her in Kansas City.
Of course, this was the time of the Great Depression and John and the other young men in Altus were hard pressed to find employment. Many left Arkansas to head to the coal mines out in the American West. John left with some friends and became established in a company mining town near what is now Helper, Utah. Soon, after a brief engagement, Ces joined him in Utah and they were married.
No comments:
Post a Comment