She Told A Story Called The Dirty 30's

 After Grandma Lu had talked about a half hour about the Rondo church compared to her small church she said it was time for something cool to drink and some cookies. Those that know Grandma Lu know that she loves sweets. When she told stories at Marleewood they sometimes ran out of cookies. Grandma B was forever having to make cookies for her.

Folks sat at tables and visited with her and asked her questions about where she lived. She said that she had grown up in Iowa then lived in South Dakota her adult life until the last thirty some years in Missouri.

She heard others talking about the drought. It hadn't rained much in this area causing the grass to turn brown and crunchy. Some of the children didn't know what a drought was. Grandma Lu said, "Is it ok if I tell you a story about a drought that my mother told me about? It happened before I was born, but after my oldest sister was a baby. It was terrible. Do you all know what dishtowels are?" Of course, the grown ups did, but the children looked at the picture Grandma Lu showed them from her phone. "This is a picture of one of the dishtowels that my mother made over fifty years ago. I have kept some of them because I bake bread and while it is raising I cover the loaves with these soft towels. My mother did too as well as using them to dry her dishes. See the raveled material at the bottom? That's because it's so old and worn. Some of you aren't even that old!  This was a painted one. Before that she embroidered dozens of these soft cotton towels to dry her dishes with. She didn't have a dishwasher. If fact  my sister and I were her dishwashers!" Some of the older children nodded their heads as did the grownups. 

This is the year 2026 but in the years of the 1930's there was a terrible drought. There was no to little rain for years. Folks called it the dirty thirties. Instead of rain storms they had dust storms. The house that I grew up in was built by my great grandfather. So it was very old. Things like putty around the windows to keep the dirt out of the house wasn't heard of then. So when the wind blew the dirt it would come inside the house. I complain now about dust coming in the house from our gravel road. We also had screen doors. The storm doors were open because during the summer time when the dust storms would happen it was terribly hot outside. They had no air conditioning. However, after these happened the ladies got inventive and took their beautiful decorated dishtowels and soaked them in dishpans of water. Then they would wring the water out and somehow put them up against the screens on the windows and the doors to keep the dust out of their house. Then they would do that over and over again. Remember, there was no running water so all the water had to be brought into the house by the pail full. I can remember my mother going down the hill to the pump to get pails of water for the washing. In the old days in Iowa we called it warshing.  She chuckled and so did the people she was visiting with. Some of the people asked if she would come back and tell more stories. She said she would love to if the library would schedule a time and a room for her to visit. She said she loved just sitting at a table with coffee and cookies telling her stories and they all agreed. So did Joey's mother, Betty. She just knew that the more she listened the more she would figure out how she knew the connection between her and this Grandma Lu.