My Hardworking Mother

When I loaned my book - Tales from Old Soddy - to a friend, she wrote a thank you note, “I enjoyed reading about your hardworking mother and your fun loving dad.”

On our farm Dad took care of the “big” stuff: driving the tractor, planting the crops, overseeing the harvest crew, trucking grain to the elevator, taking eggs and cans of cream to sell in Colorado Springs, transporting cattle or hogs to be sold in Denver. He also paid the bills and kept an account of all proceeds. (I still have one of his record books.)

Meanwhile, Mother was in charge of all the details of raising a family of nine children. She was the general and my five sisters, three brothers and I were the privates. She drove herself and us to milk the cows, feed the chickens, slop the hogs, gather the eggs, herd the cows, clean the house, do the laundry, iron the clothes, etc.

Mother also did all the cooking. We girls would help by peeling potatoes, snapping string beans, taking peas out of the pods. But she baked the bread and cinnamon rolls, fried the chicken, made the hamburger gravy and all the other delicious dishes we enjoyed. We were responsible for setting the table and then “riding” the table after we had gobbled the meal, and, of course washing and drying the dishes three times a day, 7 days a week. (No male member could ever do this?)

During our childhood Mother’s one indulgence was a thirty minute nap after the noon meal. After all of us were married, she finally had time to enjoy playing the piano, a skill she had learned in childhood.

She. had the grit and gumption to be the engine that drove our family’s success.

Wilma Gundy

Photo: Lloyd Gundy

I intended to write this tribute for Mother’s Day. I hope to write about my fun loving dad for Father’s Day