Skip to main content

A little hope from our ancestors


The weather is cloudy, cold and most of us are stuck at home due to COVID-19 with the children.  The boys and I are so sick of being around the house, or in the house all the time because it is cold.  I looked out the window of the house the other day into the foggy, grey exterior and it made me wonder how the pioneer women(homesteaders), my ancestors made it through.  The homesteaders also had to deal with pandemics, keeping a household going, homeschooling their kids old school (literally).


Miss Mary Longfellow holding down a claim west of Broken Bow, Nebraska, circa 1880s
Courtesy Nebraska State Historical Society, RG2608-1953-a
The homesteading women lived with death, plagues of sickness or insects, poor living conditions and sanitation, etc.  I could go on and on about how their life was different and worse than ours.  They didn't have anything compared to what we have, and I don't say that so we feel guilty for our feelings of frustration or anger at our current situation.  I say that so we can take pride in how far we have come, and hope that we can make it through this time.  We will get through this!

We need to pull up our big girl britches and walk one foot in front of the other Every. Day.  Will you have moments when you don't think you can make it another step? Yes!  Will you have moments when you lock yourself in a closet with a really unhealthy snack?  Definitely!  Will you have moments you question your sanity? Probably!

But each and everyone of us have an ancestor in our background that has gone through a time similar to this, no matter your background, and they survived and learned to laugh about it.  So will we.  And if you listen really close you will hear them whispering, "It will be ok sweet girl, keep going you will get through this and have the biggest laugh ever."  Write everything down, we need to share this with our grandkids so they will have hope in the future.  Because guess what life is going to throw them curve balls too, and they are going to need to have hope from their grandparents and great-grandparents about how rough we had it and survived to tell the story, and laugh. 
Uriah and Mattie Oblinger with daughter Ella, circa 1870s
Courtesy Nebraska State Historical Society, RG1346-1-2
So here is a laugh for you(hopefully), a letter written by Mattie Oblinger a Nebraska homesteader.  And I feel like I could have written this letter myself this week.

"My plants are looking nicely. I have not made a garden yet, will make some tomorrow if it does rain. It has the appearance of rain this evening. I would have made some this last week but the ground was not ready and Uriah wanted to finish his wheat. I feel like killing my old hens. They will not go to setting [laying eggs]. I expect when they do take a notion to set, they will all want to set at one time. I have made two table clothes & two shirts for Uriah &one for my self out of our wagon sheet. . . .

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Where is my Ruth Bader Ginsburg?

Where is my Ruth Bader Ginsburg? Warning : Politics and religion will be discussed, if this will offend you, please stop reading now.  If you are still with me, grab a cup of coffee and let’s go. I don’t know about you, but I really do not like this presidential campaign.  There are very few candidates that I like, depending on the poll that you look at, I don’t like the top three.  Social media has been on fire with this lately, of course, with people campaigning for their favorite candidate and their ideas to save the world. And this is perfectly fine, even though I strongly disagree with most of them. The world to me seems so divisive, and angry.  Even though I’m a news junkie I occasionally think about living in a cave until November.  But this is not an option.  I was really feeling down, when I heard the news of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s death, and the fight over his vacant seat didn’t help.   I almost got lost ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Volunteers Carry the Load, But the Weight is Getting Heavy

  I love volunteering. I have made amazing friendships and learned so much from volunteering. I volunteer in my community, I have volunteered to coach on occasion, and I volunteer in my church. I do it because it makes me feel good about helping others and bringing events to our small corner of the world. My personality has been made and molded to help others.  While volunteering I have learned how to best set up a serving line that maximizes efficiency.  I have learned how amazing and funny the kids in our community are.  I have learned planning and organizing skills that have continued to get better (I think). I have also learned the subtle art of give and take when working with a group of people.  Photo by Hanna Morris on Unsplash My journey of volunteering hasn't been easy in a small community. I have been stressed and irritated at someone or something that just didn't go the way I wanted it to or thought it would go. But along the way, I have gained such r...
Post a Comment
Read more

Being a Mom in a new war

In January of 2003, I was a 22-year-old college student who was looking forward to my last semester at college.  I had my plans lined up, and goals worked out.  But I got a call that changed my life forever! Oh! I was in the Army Reserve also; did I forget to mention that? Yes, so I got a call that said you have 24 hours to report to the reserve center with all your Army things and whatever else you think you might need for an indeterminate amount of time. What?  I cried all the way home, grieving the life I was leaving behind, having no idea if I would ever return or how life would be, if I returned. I dutifully packed my things and reported like a good soldier, and began my journey to Iraq.  A journey that would end up being a year and a half before returning home.  Life looked a lot different when I returned. A lot of my family and friends seemed very much the same, but I felt very different.  I was looking at life through a different lens, a lens s...
Post a Comment
Read more