As the years pass Speedy Perkins becomes more amazing to me. I'm not sure if anyone else called her Speedy beside my dad but it fit her very well. I can't seem to remember a time when she wasn't doing something. She crochet, embroidered and made patchwork quilts during her quite time. The rest of the time she was busy with housework. That meant cleaning up and scrubbing down a out house. Laundry being done just outside the kitchen door of their 3 room house. Grandma had a shed, near the back door were she kept things, I do remember the rinse tubs being in there, along with other household things but I don't know were her wash machine was kept.
In 1964/65 they added on a new living room and kitchen and brought the bathroom and laundry into the house by their new door. How grandma lived and worked in that tiny house fascinated me and still does.
Grandma was the baby of Great Grandpa's first family. Grandma W. died some time early in Speedy's life and she was taken in by her Uncle Jim and Aunt Lizzy. Speedy was the sunshine in Uncle Jim's life and he in hers. Aunt Lizzy set about raising Speedy to be a proper young woman in a proper house.
I can just see Aunt Lizzy reading her how to book for 1900's and following it, to the letter. Her nerves being worn to that place were unstable ladies nerves get worn to. Uncle Jim giving Speedy that look that says "it's OK we will get though this". They made it until Speedy was in her teens, then life changed. It may have been the death of Uncle Jim, whatever it was, it sent Speedy back to Grandpa W's and his second family.
Uncle Jim and Aunt Lizzy could not have lived to far away from Grandpa because I know that Speedy was close to her 4 siblings. I can't help but think that she must have been a pet to them. Their last connection to their Mama.
Grandpa W married Grandma Rosie in his first year of widowhood and lots of children followed, so Speedy's return to the house came in handy but maybe not so happy. I have heard that she was more a maid then a family member. I think her siblings were gone from the house by then, if not her sister were soon to be.
Time passed and a young man started showing up at the door in a courting mood. Byron was a tall good looking man, just one problem Byron's past. He too had been sent to live away from home. His dad had died and Byron was farmed out. Now, you may have heard that term before, I have and I have used it but I didn't really understand it, until I heard about grandpa's life.
He and his brothers were busy doing little boy things, sister was mom's helper, life was as it should be. Then one day it all comes to an end, Dad dies.
A couple, took in two of the boys and raise them as if they were their own. Making sure they were well schooled and able to work at a job they chose.
Bryon went to a farmer, he didn't finish school and he wasn't part of the family. He was the farmhand a little boy working like a man.
Speedy and Bryon fall in love and those silly kids married. OH, the joy, baby 1-2 still glowing in joy, 3-4 joy is fading 5-6 it's gone,7 and 8 not again. I must tell you, that, mom has said she thinks they were pretty dumb, when it came to how to stop having babies. I agree but if they hadn't been I wouldn't be here mom is #7.
Loving someone does not make life wonderful everyday of the year. Bryon, did what men do, when, they don't know what to do and are to" manly" to ask for help. He good timed it, on the stool at the corner bar. Times were so good that his wife and kids went hungry for days even weeks, just so everyone in the tavern would know that Bryon was a great guy.
Speedy did just what a well brought up young woman does. She put on her apron and takes care of life as best as she can. Cooking, cleaning, sewing, gardening, canning, raising livestock and paying bills when she can get the money. Raising children using the Aunt Lizzy method, all the time deep in her heart hoping the day will come when Bryon will really become a man instead of the scared little boy he is.
I'm not sure that day ever came. Bryon did give up his stool at the bar after something inside started bleeding and he was afraid he would die. By then Speedy had been broken so many times that she moved into the world of "No More I Won't Let You" but would, from time to time step out into Bryon's world. If you watched close you could see the unused love in her face, followed by questions of what happened and why did you leave me. Then she would turn and go back into that "No More World" and pick up a piece of hand work.
Some people say they fell out of love, I don't believe that. I witnessed both of them looking at the other, with a loving, that passed like a gentle summer breeze, so soft you would not have notice unless you were still. The sad thing was, that, I was the one who saw the love and not the one being looked at. Now I find myself wondering what would her life have been like if only...
