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Memories of Golde Dicks Markham (1996) Golde Markham Dicks 10/125

I often yelled, “Ma, that hurts!”
Then Ma swept the entire house—dust, sand and loose hair—into the fireplace. In the

winter, I can remember smelling that hair buril in the fireplace. To this day, if I smell hair
burning, I think back to my childhood.
Back then no one had dining room suites. Every piece of furniture was homemade out

of lumber. The top and legs of our dining room table were made out of two-by-fours that
had been dressed and planed until smooth and level. A long bench was on one side of the
table—as long as the table itself. I think Grandpa Tyre or our neighbor, Charlie Pearce, made
the table and bench. Ma always kept a pretty oilcloth on the dining table and on the smaller

cook table in the kitchen. The oilcloth was usually white. It was waterproof because the
fabric was treated with oil and clay pigments.

Every night after supper, Ma and Pa sat around the dining room table and talked. They
were so busy during the day that the evening was about the only time they had to talk. The
bench at the table wasn’t more than ten or twelve inches wide. While they talked, I liked to
balance myself lying down on that narrow bench and go to sleep. I have always been a

sleepyhead. Ma used to say that I was never any trouble when I was a little girl because I
slept all day and night.

I still have to fight that sleeping habit. Now that I have gotten old, I can’t hold out all
day, so I just sleep all I want!
At the table we always said a blessing. We thanked God for the blessings we had

received and asked for guidance and good health. Every member of our family sat around the
table three times a day. I still enjoy sitting at the table after a meal.
Families didn’t use highchairs for babies then. When the children grew old enough to

eat at the table, Ma or Pa would hold them on their lap. No jars of prepared'baby food back
then either. Ma mashed up soft cooked eggs and mixed in grits, boiled potatoes, garden
peas, field peas, butter beans, and sweet potatoes.

We didn’t have chicken, roast, steak, and pork very often on our table, but when we
did have those kinds of meat, everybody at the table chewed a piece of meat and then gave it

to the baby.
Nothing was easy during the early part of this century. Even so, I never heard people
say they were tired. Even with all the work, we took time to take care of neighbors. If they

got sick, sometimes we sat up all night with them then went home the next morning to work
in the field all day.

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