Mike Parker: Looking back over 92 years

 Within just a couple of days my mom, Irene Parker, will turn 92. She lives alone, has a driver’s license she renewed just weeksough the years since 1928.

ago, and handles her own affairs. I can only imagine how much the world has changed for her thr

She was born in the mountains of West Virginia less than a decade after World War I. Hitler began his rise to power when she was around 10, and by the time she was 17, World War II was coming to an end.

Mom grew up during the Great Depression. Like Dad, she was born a little more than a year before the Stock Market Crash of 1929. She often told me her family never really noticed the Depression. They were farmers, so they were mostly self-sufficient. Her dad and mom had chickens, pigs, and cows, so meat and milk were never in short supply. Granddad knew the hard work of plowing behind a horse as he took care of his farm, roughly 87 acres.

They lived in a house that had no running water – unless someone came running home with the buckets after filling them at the stream. They had no indoor plumbing. Their “bathroom” was a path to the outhouse. I am not sure when they finally got electricity, but my guess is they used candles and coal oil lamps at least until the 1940’s. My experience with rain barrels and cellar doors date from visiting them on the farm.

Mom’s parents lived far off the grid. When we visited them, we turned off the two-lane paved road and headed up a narrow two-lane gravel road. At some point, we had to stop, open the pasture gate, pull through the gate, close the gate, and drive through a cow pasture, even navigating a narrow stream crossing to get to the house.

Grandma cooked on a wood-burning stove. She always kept a little bit of dough that had yeast in it to serve as leaven for the next batch of biscuits. She knew how to turn squirrel, rabbit, and even groundhog into tasty dishes, served fried and always with gravy.

Self-sufficiency was the key concept. “Use it up, wear it out, make do, or do without” was an adage reflecting the spirit of those living through the Depression. Mom carried those lessons throughout her life. Like most of those who grew up during the Depression, frugality became one of her highest virtues.

She and Dad rarely threw away anything. Though he passed away 20 years ago, Dad’s workshop/garage is still stocked with tools that no one has used in half a century or more. “You never know when you might need it” seemed a pillar of their philosophy.

During the 1930’s the typical worker with a job in town made a little more than $26 a day – working Monday through Saturday. Since Mom grew up on a farm, cash money was rare. Bartering with neighbors for goods and services was common.

Mom learned to work. She was the primary care-giver for her younger siblings: Dorothy, Mary, and Herman. While her mom and dad tended to farm chores, Mom cooked, cleaned, and supervised her brother and sisters. One of her first “public jobs,” as people called them, was at the Celanese Plant in Narrows, Va. Her last job was in environmental services at an Ohio hospital. She was 80 when she retired.

Once she gave birth to John and me, she did not work outside the home. She cooked, cleaned, maintained the house, and supervised her children.

No accountant ever conducted an audit that equaled my mom’s care in checking my math homework. During this time, textbooks had pages of problems that teachers assigned to students for homework. We had to copy the problems and work them. If I made a mistake or two, I was allowed to correct those problems. More than two usually meant Mom ripped the page to shreds and made me start over.

“There’s never time to do it right – but there’s always time to do it over.”

When mom reviewed my written assignments, neatness and legibility were essential in meeting her expectations. Grammatical correctness was a must. Although Mom dropped out of school at the end of the ninth grade, she has grammar skills that rival most English teachers I have known.

Now she lives in a world with jet aircraft, space stations, internet, smart phones, digital coupons, and social media. Frankly, she has resisted the “electronic age” the best she can. She does not believe electronic devices can take the place of human-to-human interaction.

The world has changed in so many ways, but her core values never changed: Family, friends, and faith.

Those are lessons my Mom taught me. I cling to them even now.

Mike Parker is a columnist for Neuse News. You can reach him at mparker16@gmail.com.