Friday, January 9, 2009

Picture a hard life!

Next time you think you have a hard life, when you feel the world isn't a fair place to live, when you're down to the quick in life's fingernail, think about the woman in this picture.



She was a one-arm woman in a two-hand world.

And hubby doesn't look like the type who helped much around the house!

In fact, his body language shows he didn't even like her. He's turned away, standing on her good side, as if he can't bear to see the empty sleeve. Of course, her head is slightly turned away from him too.

I think they had issues.

Whatever those issues were, I'm taking her side!

I wonder how she worked her butter churn and flour shifter, the hand-turned food mixer and ol' heavy iron. How she washed their clothes on a scrub board or with a wringer washer. Or how she hung up wet sheets on the line outside.

Or peeled a potatoe!

I'll never gripe about my life again!

She has my total respect! So I hung her up in my kitchen on one of two metal chip clip racks I found at a garage sale this fall.


Energy bars hang on the red chip clip.

Oh, my! She couldn't even put a bar or photo on the clip! Excuse me while I go throw her a belated but well deserved pity party. Care to join me?

Bring tissues for your tears for her issues!

17 comments:

  1. I've got the box of tissues ready to go. I'll listen to her rant. You made me thankful for my small problems. It could always be worse. I don't think I could blog well with only one arm.

    The energy bars clipped to the chip rack made me chuckle. I don't know why, but it's just funny to have them hanging there. It does make them a good "on the go" snack though.

    Have a Happy Friday!
    -FringeGirl

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  2. wiping a tear. typing with one hand (I swear I am)i love your chip clip....and the way you write.

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  3. What a photo! Love the clip racks! I have 4 of them, which I used for Christmas cards, during the season. Now, I might just have to get them back out for my black and white photos and energy bars! Love it! ~Mindy

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  4. Oh, that poor woman. Life was so hard for country women for so long. I hope there was a sister around to help her! Great post. I could use one of those clip racks. And an energy bar, come to think of it...right now.

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  5. Only you, the photographer, would notice body language. But it's true, she didn't seem to care for him and vise versa. Probably one of those arranged marriages, so he had no choice but to marry the one armed woman, which you know that's how they referred to as. I can hear it now, poor Jimmy had to marry Blake's girl, the one armed one and she wasn't even the pretty one! What a story you could write from just that pic? That's what I think about when I buy old pictures, what was the story of their lives.

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  6. You can tell a man's household habits by just looking at a picture? That's so sexist. I think she's faking the injury. Ha ha!

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  7. The Good Lord was good to me when he born me in this century! I swear...I don't know how the women made it with two arms...much less one arm! Being a West Texas girl, I have been raised in the wind...the never ending wind! Constant wind can drive you crazy! I often wondered how the pioneer women survived the wind without going crazy! The dust storms...the frigid air from the "blue northers"...the tornados! Just give me central air and heat...dishwashers...Lean Cuisines...all the modern conveniences!

    Bless you, one-arm woman!

    Malisa

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  8. Steven, I spit eggnog all over my computer screen when I read your comment! Glad to see you still have that sense of humor I nurtured in you when you worked for me! Ha ha!

    The Texas Woman

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  9. She probably could still work circles around him with the other arm tied behind her back. We had a neighbor girl who didn't have any arms. She was born without them. That girl was amazing with her feet and I'm not joking. She never felt sorry for herself, just kept on keeping on. Oh, and BTW, you should have seen her in a fight!!! Kangaroos didn't have anything on her. So let's not feel too sorry for the lady in the photo. I bet she managed just fine in spite of sour puss. Debbie

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  10. Oh yes please do refer....Have a great weekend!

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  11. What a mind you have that obviously works in overtime all the time. I agree with you that they certainly didn't care for each other, but then take a look at both of them... you wouldn't care to be married to either of them either.

    But I do give her all the credit for being able to live in that time of times when hard work was all you had. She had it doubly difficult.

    Enjoy your posts Cher.

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  12. Oh my.... thanks for the reminder of how good we have it. I am grateful, I am grateful, I am grateful...

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  13. Love the chip clip idea! things were different then. I do wonder how she did it?

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  14. Well MY take on this photograph --
    She & he are siblings. Neither ever married. She kept up her end of the household responsibilities, keeping an eye on the hired girl and all; he worked in town. She looks like she could utter a few choice words whenever she reached her limit with his self-centered attitude.

    She lost her arm playing around that water-well
    pulley-thing when she was young.

    Can we have some sort of contest based on this
    photo? With this weather so unsettled, I'd like to try to win something,just for diversion.
    Any kind of contest would be OK.

    And, don't throw a verbal --ball at me for expressing my opinions.

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  15. I don't know. She looks pretty darn tough to me. I'm sure she held her own.

    LOVE the chip clip photo display!!
    Candy

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  16. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  17. Oops, sorry, that comment left without me.

    What I was saying was this: Did anybody notice that it is the right arm that is missing? AAAGGHHHH!!! My life is hard enough without that added distraction.

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