What a Baby Does. . .

Excepts taken from "Just Thoughts of a Plain Country Woman" January 6, 1949

"What a Baby Does . . . .

A baby will make love stronger, days shorter, nights longer, bank roll smaller, home happier, clothes shabbier, the past forgotten, and the future worth living for."

Notes added by Dr. Kathleen Morrow, grand-daughter:  As I write this blog notation, I am in celebration of  the birth of my first grandchild, Clark Anderson Scott, son of Alisson-Leigh Morrow Anderson and Luke Anton Scott.  How delighted I was to see my child and her husband carry on the tradition of naming their child with old family names.  While it is certainly true that my nights have grown longer and my days and bank roll shorter, this young man has certainly made the future worth living.  I can hardly wait to see this boy take his place in our family heritage as he grows into his own as a loving, honest, compassionate and thinking and competent individual with much to contribute to society.  I wish him love and success and always a happy home.  God Speed and Welcome Clark!

What does Columbus Day represent in our society?

Excerpts taken from "Just Thoughts of a Plain Country Woman"  October 13, 1949

" . . . This is our great opportunity to "Sail On and On and On" even as Columbus instructed his terrified men.   Here in America each man is supposed to think for himself. The sum of the thoughts of all is what our way of life, our government, will be. 

Our American doctrine rests upon the belief that it is the individual himself, that counts. Our forefathers never lost faith in that great American word "freedom" and in particular freedom of thought, freedom of speech and freedom of assembly. 

It is our job -- our privilege -- our security -- to hold on to these words and ideals."
 

How Important IS Columbus Day?

Excepts taken from "Just Thoughts of a Plain Country Woman"  October 13, 1949

October 12 is Columbus Day and it is most fitting that we give more thought to its observation, for on that day started one of the greatest experiments in all world history.

 

I doubt that anything but the birth of Christ has had so great an effect upon civilization as the discovery of  America. 

 

Christ came to give the world a new way of life.  Columbus gave us a new place to work out this new way of life. 
 

Indian Summer - How Magical It Can Be

Excerpts from "Just Thoughts of a Plain Country Woman"  November 7, 1946.

"There comes a times in every autumn when the nights are chill and clear, the days still, crisp, and golden with purple mists and all nature seems to be resting or waiting. These are signs of "Indian Summer,"  not a season, but definitely a pause in nature called by

the American pioneers, "Indian Summer," because they thought the peculiar purple haze was caused by the Indians burning prairies.

Scientists scorn the lovely traditions and superstitions surrounding

Indian Summer both here and in England and France where it is called St. Martin's Summer; in Germany, where these serene days are known as Old Wives' Summer and in South America where it is named St. John's Summer.

These cold scholars who presented such explanations as "stagnated

high-pressure areas," "collected and suspended smoke" or "minute

floating particles of dead vegetation" are the same ones who say Jack Frost has nothing to do with leaves changing color, or set about scientifically telling how, when frost bites the leaves, it actually kills them instead of painting them. They tell what makes the aspens, hickory, birch, locust, pawpaw, and poplar turn to gold

while other chemicals, sugar, light and drought produce the gorgeous flags of summer. 

 

Nevertheless, "when all the homesick Injuns come back to play and their spirits march

along and dance in the sunlight, that's what makes that kind o' haze. That smoky smell is the campfires a-burnin' and their pipes a-goin'.

"Jever notice how the leaves turn red 'bout this time o' year? That's

.when an old Injun spirit gits tired dancin' an' goes up an' squats on a leaf to rest. An' ever once in a while a leaf gives way under some old fat Injun ghost an' comes floatin' down to the ground. 

 

See, here's one now.  See how red it is? That's war paint rubbed off'n Injun ghost sure's you're born!"  .

"Purty soon all the Injuns'll go marchin' away again, back to the

'happy huntin' ground, but next year you'll see 'em troopin' back -- the sky jest hazy with 'em and their campfires smolderin' away jest like they are now." "

 

Notes added by Dr. Kathleen Morrow - When I was very small and walked or drove with my grandmother the leaves fell and she would say, "See! Did you see that ol' Injun just fall down?"  I would rush to pick up particularly large leaf and examine it carefully for any signs of "an o' Injun".  Then she would say, "Well, he was too quick for you.  You'll have to catch the leaf next time before he gets away." 

 

I can only find one source for the piece quoted.  Published in the Enderby Press and Walker's Weekly, November 2, 1916  located in British Columbia, Canada.  I am assuming that she used the piece in literature classes with her students during her early teaching years following her graduation from The University of Chicago in 1917. 

 

 

 

The Glorious Time of Indian Summer

Excerpts taken from "Just Thoughts of a Plain Country Woman"  October 6, 1949


"During the time of Indian summer, all about us are beauty, resting fields, relaxation, gradual change."  We should take pause, for, "after all what do we ask of life, here, or indeed hereafter, but to live to serve, to live to commune with our fellow men and with ourselves;  and from the lap of earth to look up into the face of God?"

Note:  Italics added by Dr. Kathleen Morrow, grand-daughter to provide clarity.