Silver Strands

(This is the beginning of a new piece. It's nowhere near finished, but I want opinions. Kilroy- let me know what you think!)

Some would have called her a “tough old bird”. They didn’t know her too well. In many ways, that is exactly who she was, but she was so many other people as well. She was no stranger to adversity, which had made her self-reliant, but tenderness tempered the staid exterior.

When they were 13 and 6, Elsie and Hazel had a baby sister. They were entrusted to care for Lottie who was bright and watched all that went on around her with a careful eye. Hazel might not have been the most reliable of child care providers since she spent quite a bit of time seeing how far she could walk with her eyes closed and ended up sporting a scab on the bridge of her nose most of the time.

Lottie was the daughter of Samuel, a cabinetmaker and farmer, who brought his wife and three daughters to Indian Territory by covered wagon. A sickly man, his beloved wife, Jennie became the backbone of this family.

______________________________


Two years of business courses at Southwestern Oklahoma State were enough for Lottie. It was the Roaring Twenties- a time of decadence and newfound independence for American women. A job that was available in a local store tempted her away from school and brought her true love.

Tall, with a wavy black bob and twinkling blue eyes, her grace, strength and goodness won the heart of Charles, a fellow employee. He was 10 years her senior, a Belarussian immigrant and Jewish. It wasn’t a conventional match, but conventionality was not her strong point. The spinning of a thread had begun; a thread that would weave a family and stitch it together tightly.

Six months after their marriage the stock market crashed and the Depression was beginning; hardship would come into the lives of everyone.

______________________________


When it was time to take the eggs and produce to town to be sold Jennie dressed in her Sunday best, hitched the horse to the cart and off she went. Once, the horse had an explosive accident while trotting down the road. A lesser woman would have quit and called it a day, but Jennie went home, cleaned up and got back on her way.

While the other women of the town concentrated on selling their wares to the genteel townspeople, Jennie knew that the local bordello was full of women with money to spend and she could earn a better income there. The other farm wives talked about the disgrace of her behavior, but she knew that the money of the “working girls” spent just as well as anyone else’s.
______________________________

.
In the early 1930’s Charles and Lottie settled in Anadarko, a small town in Southwest Oklahoma where Charles had a job as a store clerk. They weathered the Depression with the dignity of two people who had already seen their share of difficult times; Charles having witnessed the persecution of Jews during the Russian pogroms when he was still young Chaim and Lottie growing up poor with a father whose health prevented him from being much of a provider.