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There may be good deeds in the lives of many of my distant ancestors, but I don't know about them. So I'm blogging about my grandmother.
Grandma taught elementary school in a nearby small town that held the poorest of the Midwest's poor. Workers from the Ozarks came north to work in the gravel pits, a job I've heard described as the hardest, dustiest "mining" work from Hell. The only people who would work there were the desperate. They settled in the little town of Buffalo along the Mississippi. Their children came to school without shoes or coats and with bags of popcorn for their lunch. Grandma didn't want to embarrass any child by buying them a coat, but Iowa winters are brutal without one. She would shop assiduously at second-hand stores and buy children's coats. She would bring them to school, one at a time, and take a child aside, saying, "My daughter outgrew this coat so we have to throw it away. Would you like it?" My mom says at one time there were 50 or 60 old coats of hers being worn in Buffalo, Iowa. Another memory my mom had of her mother is when Mom decided she wanted piano lessons like all her friends were getting. Her friends all took lessons from one very good teacher in town, but Grandma set up lessons for her with another woman. This woman Grandma described as living in "genteel poverty." Her sister lived with her and Grandma didn't think they got enough to eat. On piano lesson nights, Grandma would cook a big dinner and when the woman said, "That smells good," Grandma would invite her to stay for dinner. Then she'd insist she take home all the leftovers. Grandma was pretty sure that was all they ate that day.
Anyway, I know many teachers take care of their students in similar ways, but I loved the story of all my mom's old coats.
Grandma taught elementary school in a nearby small town that held the poorest of the Midwest's poor. Workers from the Ozarks came north to work in the gravel pits, a job I've heard described as the hardest, dustiest "mining" work from Hell. The only people who would work there were the desperate. They settled in the little town of Buffalo along the Mississippi. Their children came to school without shoes or coats and with bags of popcorn for their lunch. Grandma didn't want to embarrass any child by buying them a coat, but Iowa winters are brutal without one. She would shop assiduously at second-hand stores and buy children's coats. She would bring them to school, one at a time, and take a child aside, saying, "My daughter outgrew this coat so we have to throw it away. Would you like it?" My mom says at one time there were 50 or 60 old coats of hers being worn in Buffalo, Iowa. Another memory my mom had of her mother is when Mom decided she wanted piano lessons like all her friends were getting. Her friends all took lessons from one very good teacher in town, but Grandma set up lessons for her with another woman. This woman Grandma described as living in "genteel poverty." Her sister lived with her and Grandma didn't think they got enough to eat. On piano lesson nights, Grandma would cook a big dinner and when the woman said, "That smells good," Grandma would invite her to stay for dinner. Then she'd insist she take home all the leftovers. Grandma was pretty sure that was all they ate that day.
Anyway, I know many teachers take care of their students in similar ways, but I loved the story of all my mom's old coats.
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