O' Pioneer...

 When I was a kid I use to love to read stories on the pioneers and read about the hardships they faced. I found it fascinating that they just packed up and moved westward to unforeseen territory and dangers to build new lives. It took guts, determination, and a strong will to forge that path. It seemed everything they endured, and life in general, was full of hardships with endless work just to survive and eke out a living.

They were tough, those pioneers...

I remember sitting at my grandmother's table and listening to stories of hard times, and what people did just to keep body and soul together. My grandmother would often tell stories of her own mom's life and all the work she did around the farm to keep it going. I knew my great grandmother, I grew up and always remembered seeing her sitting at my grandmother's, her daughter's, table. She was always dressed in a cobbler's apron over a cotton dress, hair in a bun,... and she would just sit. It was hard for me to visualize her as the woman my grandmother spoke of. My great grandmother would point at things she saw that needed to be done......swat that fly...sprinkle the paprika on the deviled eggs, ...and other small insignificant details she saw while sitting. She didn't seem so tough, she just seemed old. I guess she really was when I think of it.... no wonder she sat, she must have been tired.

My great grandmother was a school teacher for a year or two, eventually married great grandpa, and they then moved to one of their farms. Their folks were rich, and they were rich, until the great depression and they lost all but one small acreage. Great grandpa was a jack of all trades...a truck driver, a barber, he also broke horses, but if there was hard work to be done on the farm, one of the hired hands did it or great grandmother. Listening to my grandmother speak of her mom, it amazed me, ...she amazed me. Great grandpa would fell the trees and great grandmother worked the wood up by herself. She milked the cows, she grew a huge garden, planted trees, ..it sounded like she did most of everything, and I am sure she felt like she did too. She was to me, a pioneer...a strong pioneer woman like I read about in my books. She was strong, she was fearless, she was fascinating...

The other night I got to thinking about those pioneers in our past when my electricity went out and I was without those modern conveniences we have. It was storming, skies were brewing, rain was falling, there had been talk all day of monster storms that could erupt. Tornado watches had been issued, flood warnings, wind warnings,... all kinds of warnings ...

I watched the skies, and the layers and layers of angry clouds roll past. I watched them til it became too gray and rainy to see them any more. I wandered thru the house, hoping for the smallest glimmer that the electricity would flicker back on. I couldn't find a battery operated radio, I couldn't listen to the news, I was cut off...all alone from the outside world and I was.....bored.

How in the world did those pioneers do it? An oil lamp, lit, didn't give off enough of a glow to do any thing. How they managed not to go blind by using them to work by in the evenings is beyond me. How did they fill their evenings? Or did they? Did they just go to bed once it got dark? It was hard for this nightowl to comprehend. Usually I adore sleep... there is nothing better than curling up and taking a nap on rainy days, or staying in bed as late as you can on a week-end morning....but I wasn't tired... I was bored. The storm raged...and I fumed, peeved at my inconvenience of no conveniences.

So I did what all good pioneers would have done in my situation. I grabbed my tiny flashlight and made my way thru the house. I perched the flashlight carefully on the counter and I dug in the cold darkness til I found it. Moments later I was back perched by the window, peering into the darkness, the flashlight and two scoops of chocolate chip ice cream by my side.

I had saved the ice cream from certain melty oblivion... Okay maybe the carton didn't seem that squishy and I had to put a little more muscle into scooping out that first scoop, but it wouldn't go to waste. Everyone knows how fast ice cream melts...or would be melting soon in my powerless fridge. After awhile I finally just gave up and went to bed. Ten minutes later and the electricity came back on.

I had persevered. I even in fact felt a little pioneer-ish. I had kept my sanity, I had survived the storm, I had been totally powerless,....for an hour and fifty-five minutes...


This pioneering stuff ain't for sissies...