Dorothy Elizabeth Rhode Simmons

Dorothy worked hard in those depression times. She cooked, canned. washed, ironed and sewed for all of us. She made each one of us one pair of pajamas each season. She washed them on Monday and and hung them out to dry. We wore them until the next Monday. By the end of the season they were worn out and out grown, and she had to start over. We were so poor, but we didn't even know it. We had a nice clean house to live in, food on the table for every meal (no snacks), and love in abundance. My mother was always interested in our schooling. She visited each one of our classes every year and she usually had all of our teachers for lunch once during the year. Sometimes this embarrassed me as I got older because none of my friend's mothers did this. Our teachers seem to appreciate it, however. My mother attended the Christian Church in Oxford, Indiana as had her parents and grandparents. We went to church every Sunday, and sometimes she would teach a Sunday School class with a baby on her lap. In later years, she was active in the work of the Linwood Christian Church when we lived in Indianapolis. Indiana. She was not allowed to be a board member, or elder or deacon, and she could not vote in that congregation, but she and the other women paid the loan payments on that church for years by cooking lunches and dinners for local groups of mostly men.

Dorothy and Ralph Simmons with Beanie Rhode and Cousin Loreen Messener Carr Previous Home Next