On Sunday afternoons when my Dad took my sister and me on walks (we never called them hikes), my Mother never went along. It occurs to me that she probably hiked enough when she was young. One of 15 children, she walked at least two miles to the Stemlersville one-room school and at least four miles to Palmerton High School. I must drive those routes one of these days and find out just how far they are.
I am proud of my mother. She could be out in the truck patch picking strawberries, come in fifteen minutes before noon, and have a substantial dinner (we didn’t call it lunch; that was something city folks ate) by 12 o’clock that fed the hired hands as well as the family.
She was the first woman elected to the Palmerton Area School District, and she did it from rural Towamensing Township with a small population at that time. She accomplished it by getting votes in the West End of Palmerton where the Zinc Company workers lived.
She was a longtime Democratic Committeewoman, taught me to be tolerant of all races and religions, and stayed active until her death. She would have hated Trump, and it is good she isn’t here to see how American politics has deteriorated.
I know I sometimes disappointed her (she hated that I was an atheist), but I know she was also proud of me. I never received a letter from her that wasn’t addressed to Dr. Roy Christman. She died in 1991, and I still miss her.
No comments:
Post a Comment