Grandma Gates Wouldn't Turn Around or Wait

Crossing the Flooded Creek

                One of the most prominent statues in my childhood was the Pioneer Woman located in Ponca City, Oklahoma, the largest city closest to our farm. The statue to honor all  women who were instrumental in settling this area was decided by a contest for sculptors. As a teenager, I always enjoyed looking at the many entries for the competition that remain on display in the Woolaroc Museum, near Bartlesville, Oklahoma.

                For a long time, I have known that our family has its own pioneer women with nerves of steel and an unwavering determination. One of those women was Rosa Jarrell Rainey, my maternal great-grandmother. I have written several blog postings about her. A posting about her fording the Red River was published on October 5, 2014.

                In 1989, while on a family vacation in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, we visited Abundant Memories Village. As we wandered through the exhibits of yesteryear, Dad spotted the buggy in the photograph below. I was treated to a retelling of an event in the life of his mother, Mamie Irene Tripp Gates.

                In the late 1920s, my grandma traveled into town in a buggy similar to the one featured in the photograph. Old Fancy, the family’s trusted bay mare pulled the buggy. My father described the buggy as a “two-seated, black buggy with shafts and a buggy top that could be pulled up in case of rain.” Dad said the term “two-seater” derived from the seat accommodating two adults. He quickly added that several little children could fit on the seat.

This is the buggy in the museum that prompted Dad to retell
 the story of Grandma Gates fording the flooded creek. Dad
 noted the buggy top that could be pulled up to provide 
protection from a rain shower.

According to Dad, Grandma had Herbie, the baby at that time, and Martha, who was around four years old, with her. Grandma was not just having a “day out”, but was getting her groceries for her family of nine, that included her husband, Edmund, Sr. and the seven children that were at home at that time.

                Grandma had gotten all the items on her list and had loaded the groceries and two “babies,” as Dad referred to Herb and Martha. Perhaps that was how Grandma told the story. It had rained heavily between the time Grandma had crossed the creek near the Belford School earlier in the day and when she was returning. (The creek runs south of Wayne Mitchell’s farm in the Big Bend community. In those days, it was known as the Betts Place since it was owned by Eloise Betts Mitchell’s family.)

                People were waiting for the creek to go down before trying to cross it. The creek was flooded, around four feet deep. Grandma approached the creek in her buggy and was cautioned to wait. Her reply was, “I have to get home.” Evidently, she had not heard the much-used warning of the 21^st century, “Turn around. Don’t drown.”

                Grandma signaled to Old Fancy, and the bay horse obediently plunged into the swollen, muddy creek waters. The small buggy washed sideways as the floodwater surged dangerously into and through the buggy, soaking the groceries. Faithful, strong Fancy pulled the drenched buggy through the flooded creek, assuring the safe arrival onto the west bank of Grandma, the two little ones, and the even damp groceries.

                I like to think that determination remains a part of her descendents’ DNA. (Some call it stubbornness, whereas others refer to this characteristic with the term “bull-headed.) Often this "bulldog tenacity," a favorite phrase of my father's, results from facing a difficult situation and deciding to tackle it fiercely with all our resources. Our sense of responsibility, an unachieved goal, or the resistance to admit failure drives us to press ahead to complete a project or accomplish a seemingly impossible task.

                Many times I have experienced knowing what I needed to do. Then I have found myself praying, “Lord, it seems this is what you want me to do. Help me, Lord, help me.”

                The Lord has always been faithful to strengthen me, enabling me to accomplish something far beyond my capabilities and in spite of my fear. Only He is worthy of praise for the favorable outcome.

After completing this posting, Psalm 124:1, 4-5 persisted in my thoughts. Here are the verses that pervaded my mind: "If it had not been the Lord who was on our side,...Then the waters would have overwhelmed us, The stream would have gone over our soul; Then the swollen waters would have gone over our soul."