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Not long after her birthday
on the 8th of January Zona was surely introduced to the hard life in
Oklahoma.
“Zony Girl! I’m tellin’ you
one thing. Around here it’s not how smart you are, or how purty, or
anything else. The only thing that works is how well you set your mind to
a thing. If you do that you’ll get done what you have to do.” Zona’s new
mother-in-law advised her.
Zona was studying her new
mother-in-law and wondered if she could understand this frail looking
woman.. Her hands were rough and gnarled from hard work. She wore a long
white apron that covered her from waist down, almost to the bottom of her
dress. The skirt of this garment was far from fashionable and fell all the
way to her ankles and onto the floor. The fabric was of broad stripes that
ran up and down. It looked like she had run out of material and then sewed
a twelve-inch border of the stripes in a diagonal pattern around the
bottom edge. The woman’s stooped shoulders were covered with a shawl of a
plaid pattern. Her dark hair was parted in the middle and pulled severely
away from her face. It was slicked back tightly into a small, bun. There
was a look of neurotic anxiety on her face. Her daughter-in-law would find
out why this was so a little later on.
Zona was busy with some of
her sewing and hand work. Her nimble fingers worked rapidly with the
delicate, soft, sheer fabric. She was so skilled with the needle there was
an unbelievable amount of work turned out. As an adept seamstress Zona
folded and turned the fabric so that there was a circle of sharply pointed
little scallops creating a trim to go around an arm, neck or hem. Tiny
button hole stitches around eyelet holes in the soft white fabric added to
the decoration. All up the dress were folds and tucks.
“That is a-goin’ to be ah
beautiful dress,” the mother-in-law noted.Mary spoke to her new
daughter-in-law in her soft, southern drawl. She was like the women of the
south who put their family's lives and welfare parimont even before their
own. Songs and poetry would be written about them to say things like, "she
would have died for her sons," and it was true, These were the traits that
brought them through the heaviest days of war on their own ground during
the Civil War. Her daughter-in-law already had learned these values and
she was at one in unity with her mother-in-law. For as far back as the
days could be counted these deep set values were being inculcated into her
mind and she knew nothing of why or how it was being done. The son’s
mother, Zona’s mother-in-law, was subtle in teaching her daughter-in-law
the avenue to give the young woman an understanding of her husband’s
background. The history of his family and their struggle was the handle to
allow the girl a way to communicate with him.
Zona often answered a
person in no words but with only a gesture or a smile. Today she quietly
smiled while her fingers flew over her work. Her meek ways were brought to
her by the heavy discipline of her own mother through the arts of their
crafts. This discipline allowed her the self-control to quietly listen as
the older woman now easily wove one tale after another about this or that
event that had happened in their family. Zona was mentally absorbing
history that could have gone into the recesses of time beyond a point too
far back to number in years. The story-telling was lovingly sharing with
light-hearted events and it made the lessons easily learned. |
