The Ggma Chronicles, Part 17: Mama Works for Children’s Education
Raises chickens, hogs, and calves to help buy school clothes and books.
This was written by my maternal grandmother, Alice Green-Kollenborn (1911-2005).
Each of us children must have new books because “I always had to study old books shared with my sisters and brothers,” she said. I remember she thought new pencil boxes filled with pencils and erasers were a must for each of us, and oh, the joy she brought to us with these beautiful pencil boxes smelling of cedar and pencils—such lovely colors—and the new books that defy description.
I loved the smell of these school items and Mama enjoyed them as much as we did. Mama rubbed her work-worn hands across the books with loving caresses and read aloud the beautiful words printed there. I’ve watched her at night poring over the pages of history that she had never had the privilege to study before. She traveled through our geographies to faraway places, and read poems from our language books.
Each of us girls were prepared with new gingham dresses and matching bloomers to start to school the first day. The boys had handmade overalls and new cotton shirts, and she always managed to afford each of us a shiny new pair of shoes for school. These we kept wiped clean with a cloth for that purpose.
The first day of school was a proud day for Mama. She saw that we were up early, scrubbed fresh and clean, hair combed to a finish, and new books, pencil boxes, and always a folding aluminum drinking cup to complete our accessories.
She served us hot oatmeal with cold thick cream from our cellar, hot biscuits with fresh churned butter oozing over them, and eggs from our flock of hens and country sausage or tenderloin from our own smokehouse.
She made living a joy for all of us.