No. 85
I had never traveled outside of Clinton since I arrived in America as a child, since grieving my lost mother, why, I hardly remember any town we passed along the way, and it was colorless, but I’m pretty sure it was the fall and so I should have remembered the trees turning red. Were they red in the background? Was it all farm? All production?
No. 84
Your father had just returned from a long trip with new shoes, several pairs in fact, from Mexico or where the mines were. He was very tired, but we all saw how excited he was to have new shoes. Your mother was even more tired, though, tired of his being gone, and letting out the gas she had saved for his return.
No. 82
In a few moments the ladies began to arrive for the meeting, and I served them according to the script that your mother and I ran through earlier in the day.
As I was attending to the fire, poking at the pieces from the bottom, engaging for stronger flames, I felt your mother's love on my back as she placed her hand there, I turned and smiled at her.
No. 81
Every woman whose place it is at the head of the house should know, at least, where the different cuts come from, both tender and tough, what proportion of bone there is to meat, why the quality varies in different sections of the animal, what treatment the different cuts should receive, etc. Once having learned this, the housekeeper will order intelligently and get most satisfactory results....
No. 80
My mother and I had to stay behind in Holland and let my father and older siblings move to America because my mother's parents were sick. The plan was for them to join us, but they got sick on purpose, someone said, and this separated my parents on purpose. When her father died, my mother got on the ship with tormented spirits, because leaving her grieving mother to live with relatives that were of limited means was too much.
No. 78
Esther’s youngest babe was of course not trained to use the facilities. Your mother said that she was finally done with you, in the bathroom training department, and said, “Stewart took so very long to get the trick of it, so trying on my patience it was. He kept wanting to be picked up, right when he was wet, and always right when I was leaving to showcase the clothing for the store. When he needed help, I needed to get into the merchandise.”
No. 77
The napkins I had pulled in from the line were not ready for ironing, but I was folding them for the ironing, that would come later in the day or even tomorrow. First, I had to fold all the laundry from the line in a certain way so that the ironing would go more quickly, more smoothly.
No. 76
Dear Stewart,
Merry Christmas! Red and white against the snow is bright, but we burst and proclaim Christ is born. As I wanted to attach this candy cane to this box, as I promised and started off just so, as your mother would like things to be just so, I instead have unwrapped it and it is in my mouth.
No. 75
As I darned socks for your father, I prayed for your father and for Charles to have dry feet. Same with securing a button. It was the like the roundness of the rosary bead, rounding the world, eternally transporting me in time through our Blessed Lady, who is that astringent, who scrubs and polishes and removes deception. For a better gloss, even if my sweat again was added to it. Glory be to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit: World without end, Amen.
No. 74
The rubbings I applied to the cloth, first with such fear of ruination. But I believed Maria: chemicals must not be used in such quantities that they do away with the work of rubbing...the chemicals loosen the dirt, but I still must apply arms, twist my hands with the cloth, and rinse the fabrics, to near joy and with song. Now, Maria didn't say I had to sing, but it was moving along better and I noticed that I was using less and less chemicals as I was getting to the stains more quickly, and even finding myself spitting on top of the stain and chemical zest to let the awful ugly thing know that I was going to win.
No. 73
Next in line is Father's recovery. Send only good news to him, Sister. But I now have an entirely new cross. In the end, E—moody. Father at last saw it in her. She wandered off, looking for two waif children, claiming to be her set of twins. Tried to convince Father that it was temporary. Failed at that.
No. 71
There was a call for these men to be of a certain weight and height, so as to fit the equipment, of course, but they had to dismiss those men who had bad eyes, heart, lungs, limbs, nervous systems, and no intellectual ability for top performance when on a moving train in poor weather and with bad lighting.
No. 70
I imagined it to be possible, a place where there were fewer visitors, no mounds of laundry, no yelling through the hallways, lists of chores, and distractions, and where there could be open fields, slow conversations, and an occasional lazy swing to pass time on, to talk to Charles on, however he liked, and even to confess there, back and forth, back and forth, with some rhythm.
No. 69
“You just cannot imagine the snow and isolation when you are on a farm. Why, there is not one interesting person to talk to, no one with a brain or desire for travel, to lift one’s outlook. There is nothing to do or say when you are looking at rows and rows of wheat stumps. No access to the arts or pills. Drudgery! Mediocrity!”
No. 67
I imagined Cunningham's wife seeing how Val led away the neglected horse by the reins; at least the horse would eat and could recover as it was its nature to love himself, the horse, that is. And the wife must have been satisfied that the horse was going to be filled and brushed by Val as he waited for Cunningham to turn over.
No. 66
She said, “We are from noble Knickerbocker stock. The kind that can track the line to worth and character, the line of purity for not its race but its systems of prudence, temperance, and innovation that elevates entire villages from illiteracy and gambling." And she said something else, probably about how her new mansion was coming to shape and how it would improve or keep up this side of Clinton.