MEMORIES OF MY MAMA

by her Son Karl A. Webb

Wheal was a kid living in Pinedale, my older brother Ray and I had to cut logs for wood
with a crosscut saw. I would get tired and start bawling and Mama would come out and take
my end of the saw until I got rested. She would make us go without supper when we were
naughty. Ray would get her attention in the living room, and I would get a chunk of bread and
slip out of the kitchen. We would head out to the barn and take turns putting a piece of bread in
our mouths then squid some milk from the cows into our mouths and that was our bread and
milk supper.
I recall the black wash tub to heat water in and filling the rinse tub to help Mama scrub
clothes on the washboard. She was very fleet of foot, and I don't remember what I did to upset
her, but she took after me with the broom. I dashed around the well curb in from of the
house, just as she would swat at me, I ducked around the corner. Around and artamd we
went and finally she got to laughing. All's well that ends well!
Mama kept her speed and after moving to the Ranch in Lakeside, a coyote came out
of the cornfield next to the barn to get the chickens. One day she heard a hen squawking and
with full speed she ran, and the marauder dropped his prey and ran back into the corn patch.
The hen was saved and also the egg she laid while being rescued.
Each time a new baby arrived I seemed to have an ailment, so I became the chief
dishwasher and bread mixer. While living on the homestead below Pinedale, we used a horse and
buggy to go to town and visit Mama would get sleepy as we went along, and the reins would
slip in her hands. I would eagerly watch hoping to take them over, but she always woke up
before they fell.