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(Since
I had such a remarkable response to my February column about our farm
and the grandmother I never knew physically but how she still influences
my life, I hope you will all indulge me this month as I share a letter
my grandmother, Maud Smith Lowry, wrote to a national magazine on March
2, 1906, and the reply from the magazine columnist’s author,
"Uncle George."
The
valley and bluffs Maud refers to are in Blount County’s Murphrees
Valley behind the historic Lebanon Methodist Church and the bluffs
include the small cave, Ike’s Kitchen, where legend has it a Civil War
deserter hid throughout the war!
I
thank you all for prayers for my husband since his heart attack and ask
for your continued prayers. Hopefully I will be out doing interviews
about the "Simple Times" for next month’s newspaper!)
Here’s
my granny’s original letter to "Uncle George" at the Homefolks
newspaper or magazine back in 1906:
"Dear
Uncle George and Cousins, Will you give a little Alabama girl a seat in
your ring?
I
am sweet sixteen and haven’t been kissed yet. I am five feet two
inches in height and weigh 125 pounds. I have light brown hair and brown
eyes.
I
live on a farm in Sand Valley, nine miles from Oneonta. I think this is
the pleasantest place on earth.
I
know the cousins who live in the lowlands would delight in rambling on
the bluffs. Some of the rocks are over one hundred feet high. I have two
chums and we very often take strolls on the bluff and horseback rides.
They call us "tom boys" but we don’t care for that.
Now
Uncle, don’t take me to be rough for I am the best little girl of my
sex. I belong to the Baptist Church and attend services regularly.
I
will have my fun though; it makes no difference where I go.
Some
folks think you are not a Christian unless you sit with your hands
folded and bite your lips to keep from cracking a smile. I don’t think
a Christian is required to go with their heads down, casting gloom
everywhere. I don’t think a Christian should do that.
Uncle
George, hitch up a yoke of mules and bring a load of the cousins and
come to see us sometimes. We will give you a fine time, but before I go
any farther, let the biggest part of the load be BOYS. The Valley is
running over with girls and there is not but just a few boys. You see we
cannot have "nose" socials like Hettie had without ordering
the boys.
My
nose is like Uncle George’s; all the girls would have to get out of
the house to give me a chance to move it. And, oh me, it would take a
sheet ten-foot square for me to poke my nose through.
Well,
I must leave before you run me out.
You
will find enclosed 25 cents to pay for one year’s subscription to
Homefolks paper.
If
there is anyone who would like to correspond with a really ugly girl,
crack away and your letters will be answered. Goodbye to all! Sincerely,
Maud Smith."
To
which the columnist Uncle George replied:
"Maud
Smith! It seems to me Maud I’ve heard the name of Smith before, but
where I can’t tell…
You’re
a jolly girl, Maud and I like jolly girls. If your nose, Maud, is as big
as mine, I don’t wonder you’ve never been kissed!
I
have to stand on my head before anyone can get near enough to osculate
me.
Don’t
you ramble on the bluff, Maud. I know a town that was built on a bluff
and it never made good. Bluffing shows lack of character and is vulgar.
Keep off the bluff Maud.
You
are quite right, Maud, in thinking a Christian should smile and have
fun.
There
is no sweeter music in the Heavenly Father’s ears than the innocent
laughter of His children on earth. A religion that gives people long
faces and gloomy looks savors more of the regions of darkness below than
the realms of light and love and good things of this world.
You’ve
only to look at the beautiful world God gave us to know how He intended
us to live. If God intended us to be gloomy He would have put us in a
smile-less world.
The
long-faced religionists are a relic of bygone days, when people pictured
God as a terrible creature, breathing fire and showering brimstone on
all His creatures.
God
is love and love is the essence of all bliss in Heaven and earth. Love
is happiness and happiness is laughter and smiles.
If
people only got the correct idea of God and Christianity there would be
no long faces in this world, and the devil would throw up his job in
despair and go out of business.
You
laugh Maud!" |
