The Agility of a Deer

Early Morning Deer Sightings

          A few mornings this summer, I have come out the backdoor to discover that I have startled several deer. I continue to be surprised at their close proximity to the house. They leap effortlessly over the fence between our outer yard and the north meadow. 

          Last week, after spotting them, I opened my Bible to Habakkuk 3:19,

The Lord God is my strength; He will make my feet like deer’s feet, and He will make me walk on my high hills. 

I glimpse deer so frequently. This one was
a distance away in the pasture. Seconds
after I snapped the photo, it bolted.

Habakkuk, a prophet and hymn composer of Judah just prior to the nation’s fall, wrote these words in his paradoxical hymn. The Lord reveals to him that the violence, societal degradation, and flagrant rebellion against their gracious, long-suffering God will not subside. Instead it will worsen, and Habakkuk’s beloved homeland will face the ramification of the consequences of blatant disobedience by his people. Habakkuk’s deep-seated faith in a never-failing God leads him to anticipate shortages, backsets, and lack. Nevertheless, the musical prophet attests unequivocally to God’s strength, undergirding his knowledge that God will give him the agility of a deer to traverse treacherous territory.

          A week never passes without me hearing commentary from friends, acquaintances, and even people I chance to meet concerning the frightful aspects of the era in which we live. Habakkuk’s closing line of his hymn provides me courage to trust God who” knows the future better than I know the past.” (A phrase I often heard from my father.) I seek to internalize no matter the situations I face, with my wholehearted trust in Him, I can walk through whatever lies ahead by His power and divine guidance.

One night when caring for Dad as he struggled with pneumonia, I listened to this song, Fear Not Tomorrow/I Don't Know About Tomorrow by the Collingsworth Family around a dozen times as I drifted off to sleep. It echoes the mindset of Habakkuk. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmH5QQSLtNk

School Shopping in 1932

Calvin Callcayah Smith, my maternal grandfather, exuded permissiveness and leniency in parenting my mother, Bernyce Smith Gates. She was the only child of my grandparents.

Early photo of Mother
in a dress created by
Grandma.

           The Cherokee culture taught children were gifts from the Creator. Grandpa never articulated that credence, but his response to Mother, as well as my sister and me, bore out that he valued his daughter and granddaughters highly.

During the height of the Great Depression, as school began, my grandmother, Gladys Rainey Smith, had an appendectomy at the hospital in Ponca City, Oklahoma. Her recuperation time allowed Mother, a primary student at Belford School on the east side of the Big Bend, unheard of freedom in selecting some school clothes.

This little girl received free-rein in selecting a pair of shoes and a couple of boughten dresses. Grandpa set no parameters or guidelines. As she chose a pair of black patent shoes, Grandpa never hinted that his little daughter had selected an impractical pair of shoes for school wear since she would walk muddy paths on rainy days to Belford School.

Mother followed one criterion in picking the two dresses from the store rack. Never had she done anything like this. Grandma always created and sewed dresses unique to Mother in fit and design. No one in the rural Belford school had anything like Grandma made for Mother.

Mother’s one criterion was a pretty dress. Warmth and practicality never crossed Mother’s mind. Grandma, if she ever considered buying a store-bought dress for her daughter, would have inspected the quality of construction. Not Mother. The two dresses just had to be pretty.

Mother knew from a young age her family’s financial limitation imposed many constraints on what she could have. Yet that autumn day, prices or usability of her new clothes never crossed her mind. She only knew her daddy had granted the wish of her heart.

            As I reflected on the generosity and love of my grandpa for his little daughter, a passage in the New Testament came into my thoughts. We serve a heavenly Father who wants to give good things to His children. In what has been characterized as The Sermon on the Mount, Jesus taught about prayer and the importance of a persevering prayer life. He concluded the section with a beautiful verse to encourage us to come to our loving Heavenly Father with our requests with confidence in His desire to give us what is best for us.

If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children,

how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!

Matthew 7:11

An additional thought about prayer– Grandpa would never have agreed to something harmful to my mother. We must remember if a prayer appears  unanswered, then, God, in His wisdom, knows it is not best for us or if His answer is delayed, He wants us to “wait” until the timing is right for our good.

Honoring My Grandmothers

Posing with my paternal grandma,
Mamie Irene Tripp Gates when she
62 years old

_{Today, August 11, marks the 119th birthday of my maternal grandma, Gladys Vivian Rainey Smith. August 16th will be the 124th birthday of Mamie Irene Tripp Gates, my paternal grandma. Both women worked side by side with their husbands and committed the rest of their time to the care of their children and the upkeep of their homes.  One of the hardest work days of their young lives was known as Wash Day. We 21st century Americans need to be reminded from what “hardy stock” we descend and what caliber of people gave us our DNA. Maybe that will curtail some of our tendency to complain.}
Wash Day

                A look into the past provides a perspective that triggers a thankfulness that may be lacking in our lives. Revisiting wash day of yesteryear can do just that.

                The term for doing laundry in the days when my grandmothers were raising their children was Wash Day. The reason was simple. It literally took all day to do the family washing.

Photographed with my maternal grandma, Gladys
Vivian Rainey Smith at age 57

                The day began early with the water being drawn or pumped from the family well. In Mother's family, Grandpa Smith filled an oblong cast iron kettle with several gallons of water. He carried it into the kitchen. Their Home Comfort wood stove had a couple of sections on its top that could be removed, allowing a larger space for the oblong kettle to access the heat. Since Mother was an only child, her family could do their washing on the porch. Dad’s family, with as many as nine children at home some years, often heated the water over an open fire outside.

                Mother recalled the fear she felt one wash day when Grandpa began moving the boiling water from the stove to the porch. He yelled out when the scalding hot water splashed on him. Grandpa did not have lasting injury, but it frightened Mother to witness the scary event.

                My grandma, Gladys Rainey Smith, made her own lye soap as many women of the Bend did in the early 20th century. Soap making required a whole day, too. In Grandma’s recipes, Mother located her soap recipes. One recipe she labeled “an excellent soap” had been given her in 1940, by Cora Tripp Gallatin, the sister of Grandma Gates. Mother said the soap was always made outdoors over an open fire in an enormous black kettle. 

Photo of the Recipe Grandma Smith had from Grandma Gates's sister, Cora.

Mother's Wash Board with ridges
for regular fabrics photographed

The photo of Mother's wash
board showing the smoother side for
more delicate fabrics.

                  Wash Day predated the washing machine. Instead the clothes were washed in the wash tub or kettle as Mother’s family did. Without the gyration of the washing machine of today, the clothes were doused up and down in the wash tub. For stubborn stains, the wash board was placed in the wash kettle or tub and then the garments with tough stains were rubbed on the side of the wash board with rougher raised ridges. The activity tortured the laundress’s knuckles. The flip side of the wash board had smooth raised ridges for washing finer fabrics, lingerie, or anything delicate. Mother recalled rinsing the laundry in cold water. Instead of spinning dry in the washing machine, Grandma wrung all laundry out with her hands. Grandpa wore heavy denim overalls. No wonder Grandma suffered with arthritic hands in her later years.                              Grandma Gates not only laundered Grandpa’s overalls but, at one point, she and the older girls were wringing out the overalls of four sons/brothers! My grandmothers were indomitable women.

                Even today, I still practice the next step since Mother has no clothes dryer. Clothes were taken outdoors to the clothesline. The metal wires are wiped off with a damp rag just in case they are not clean. Then each laundry piece was shaken and hung on the clothesline using clothespins. Then the rest of drying was left up to the glorious sun.

                Dad said Grandma Gates used her lye-infused wash water to mop her wooden floors of their two-room house before she tossed it out. Grandma Gates did this mopping weekly. These women lived out Waste not, want not.

                Washing bed linens represented a cumbersome task. Dad related Grandma Gates took unpatchable overalls and converted them into heavy quilts for the boys’ winter sleeping in the unheated bunkhouse. What laborious job laundering those heavy denim “overall” bed coverings were!

                Another day of the week had to be designated to iron the fresh laundry. My mother still expresses astonishment that her aunt, Pearl Bierman Rainey, ironed almost everything, even Uncle Lewis’s overalls and her sheets.*

                As I mused about the lye soap recipe, Jeremiah 2:22 came to my mind. The weeping prophet of the era of deliberate waywardness in Judah wrote of the sinful state of his fellow citizens in this verse:

“For though you wash yourself with lye, and use much soap, Yet your iniquity is marked before Me,” says the LORD God. **

Embedded throughout Jeremiah’s prophecy are warnings about idolatry, injustice, disobedience, violence, insincere pleas to God for forgiveness – all based on a blatant disregard of God’s principles found in His Word. As I think about my grandmothers, both wanted their children to follow good principles. The reasons for emphasizing and requiring adherence to their principles were grounded in their concern for their children’s safety, the overwhelming desire for their children’s effective interactions with anyone they met and success at whatever work they were gifted and called to do

My grandmas had more concern that their children were “good” rather than “happy”, so they required obedience to their instructions. In the same way, God’s desire for our obedience supersedes our happiness. But what a promise Psalm 128:1-2 gives us:

Blessed is every one who fears the LORD, Who walks in His ways,  
When you eat the labor of your hands, You shall be happy, and it shall be well with you.

Our obedience results in gladness, internally and externally. As I think about my grandmas, I think how many times I heard my parents praise their mothers for instilling life-directing principles in their early lives that paid off in their adult lives.

                Lord, help us to live by Your principles as Mamie Irene Tripp Gates and Gladys Vivian Rainey Smith did. May we not take the easy path, but the path of obedience to You -  following You. Thank you for giving us families founded on You.

*Ironing Day often followed Wash Day. This workday was featured near the end of the blog posting entitled Unsupervised Kids in the 1930s 

https://bernadeanjgates.blogspot.com/2017/10/unsupervised-kids-in-1930s.html

**The Apostle John clearly explains in his first letter, chapter one, verse how we can have our sins taken away. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.

The First Grandchild of the Gates Clan

             George Washington, the first president of our country, considered himself a farmer foremost. This quote by him illustrated how highly he regarded the agriculture field.

I know of no pursuit in which more real and important services can be rendered to any country than by improving its agriculture, its breed of useful animals, and other branches of a husbandman’s cares.

             This week, on August 9th, the eldest grandchild of Edmund Gates, Sr. and Mamie Tripp Gates, Ron Bledsoe will celebrate his birthday. He was born to Harry and Ella Gates Bledsoe in a turbulent time in our country, less than a year after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
             In my father’s World War II military recollections, Okie Over Europe, Dad recalled his final night in the States. He called Ron’s mother, Dad’s oldest sister. She was the only family member with a telephone! This is how Dad remembered the phone call:

Ron at 6 months of age

A portion of the final evening of Edmund’s stay in Syracuse was reserved to place a call to his oldest sister, Ella, at her home in Oklahoma City. He could not contact his parents since they did not have telephone service in their rural community. Edmund just wanted to personally connect with a loved one before he departed from the United States. Ella was overjoyed to hear from him. This fact became quite apparent during their brief conversation when he heard her baby crying in the background. Ronnie, Ella’s first child and Edmund’s first nephew, had been born earlier that year in August. Edmund commented to her about his crying and she responded, “Let him cry.” This remark revealed how important this exchange was to Ella because she was a doting mother and always adored her children. Only the unspoken knowledge that this might be the last time she could talk to her beloved brother was the impetus to allow her baby boy to cry.

Ron and his mother, Ella

                                                       Even though Ron grew up in Oklahoma City with urban influences, he always craved time at our grandparents’ farm west of Ralston on the Arkansas River. Jim and Herb were more like big brothers than uncles. Hunting, fishing, and even the agriculture activity interested Ron. Ron’s love of the farm, its people and the fondness of the memories connected to it are almost always mentioned whether we visit by email, phone or in person .
                 Grandma Gates had saved a couple of clippings that I discovered recently in a box given to me by Brenda Gates. Both clippings featured Ron’s success as a John Marshall High School student showing sheep at the Fort Worth Stock Show and the Oklahoma County Jr. Livestock Show.
                 Ron earned his degree at the University of Mississippi. As he began college, I was a preschooler anticipating beginning school myself. I remember what a big deal it was for my parents to have a nephew attending Ole Miss. To this day, Ron’s name gets mentioned when Ole Miss appears in the sports news.

Ron, Mary Beth, his beloved only sister, Ella, and
Harry, his father

               A third clipping nestled in Grandma’s keepsakes concerned Ron’s first place of employment following his graduation from Ole Miss. He had joined the Montgomery Ward Company. The newspaper story heralded his promotion as manager of the Ward’s store in Edmond, Oklahoma.

               The Bend never seemed far from his thoughts. He found himself employed with a former Bender, Travis Anson, during one season of his work career. Trav and Ron shared another connection. Dad retained baby photos of both. Their proud mamas, Fern Anson and Aunt Ella, had mailed Dad the cute pictures of their baby boys to Dad when he served in Europe in World War II.
              Following his retirement from Tinker Air Base, Ron and his wife, Stella, began full time ranching near Slaughterville south of Oklahoma City. The two of them worked diligently to create a spread anyone could be proud to own.
              Their youngest daughter, Gabby, shares a love of horses with her father. Ron faithfully helped Gabby train with some of the foremost instructors to become an accomplished equestrian during her years at home. Gabby’s competition in dressage introduced Ron, Stella, and Gabby to people very different from the horse lovers at the farm in the Bend so ever present in Ron’s memories. Nevertheless, a horse lover is a horse lover by any name. (For two other photos of Ron on farm horses, go to these blog postings at: https://bernadeanjgates.blogspot.com/2016/12/a-collage-of-christmas memories.html and https://bernadeanjgates.blogspot.com/2017/09/labor-day-at-101-ranch-and-family.html )

Stella, Gabby, Bernyce Gates, Ron in 2015 when
visiting Mother after her fall. 

             How ironic that the grandchild of Edmund Gates, Sr. with the largest ranch and cattle herd grew up in Oklahoma City! What profound affirmation of the captivating power of the Big Bend on some! In all fairness and commitment to truthfulness, I overheard a cousin relating the Gates girls (my father’s sisters) never had a desire to remain on the farm or marry someone who might entertain that notion.” Julia Irene Gates Newland, the only living child of my grandparents, once said upon being asked about taking a nostalgic visit to the farm, “Why would I want to go back to the farm? The farm was just dirt and hard work!”
             Even today, life in the Bend requires hard work, diligent management, acceptance of a less cushy life – sometimes spotty cell phone service, having to drive a piece for almost anything but good conversation and 101 other drawbacks. But for people like Ron who have become tethered to the land and all that represents, it is hard to be happy anywhere else.
             Ron values his faith and principles. Once Ron and I discussed the source of our faith even though our denominations differ. I stated the necessary belief that Jesus is our only hope of salvation. Ron concurred readily, "Of course, we can agree on that."
            Ron cherishes his children, Tammi, Candi, Ron, Jr., Geoffrey, Alan, and Gabby. What fun we have discussing the talents, uniqueness, and accomplishments of his grandchildren! Finally, Stella, his smart, hardworking wife, embraces Ron's goals and gives 200% to help him achieve them. Faith, Family, and Farm - Ron, you have them all!

Happy Birthday, Ron!