for
Sarah Belle Green Williams
Sarah was 14 months older than myself, so we quite literally did grow up together! We were children of The Depression—born in the early '30's. Our parents never got to travel widely since it was all most folks could do in those days to keep body and soul together—and food on the table. Our father did a very good job of this since he worked for the U. S. Postal Service, which continued to operate, depression or no.
Sarah was always feisty—a trait she never lost as an adult! She led our parents on a merry chase, for years. Since fabric was relatively inexpensive in those days, as were patterns, our Mom sewed most all of our clothes…with the exception of socks and panties. (Slips she did make!) I remember our wonderful matching capes which we wore one Easter. They were navy blue on the outside and lined with RED! I recall the little buttonhole slits we could slip our hands out through! We went running down the street with capes flowing behind us, delighting both ourselves and passers-by. People thought we were twins. For our Mom, indeed, braided our hair in the same style and we were about the same size. Sometimes we had regular braids…sometimes French braids—which took forever to do! Our Mom was always doing hand-work…sewing, embroidering, crocheting…Sarah continued this tradition from our family.
When Sarah and I were small and lived in Virginia…our Grandparents (Daddy's side) lived in Denver. Every few years we would make that long trip across the country! It always began in the darkness of pre-dawn. Our Mom made a bed in the back seat of our big Buick and Sarah and I would sleep—her head at my toes and vice versa until breakfast down the road. They always brought along an Army cot. Motels were few and far between and rooms were quite small. So the 2 of them slept in the real bed and Sarah and I shared the Army cot at the foot of their bed. I remember so well the green canvas of that cot, how it folded up very small and when opened there was a wooden frame with a bar that spanned each end to make the canvas taut. I remember our Dad working so hard to get the second bar into the slots!! There Sarah and I slept, each of our heads at opposite ends of the cot. There was one town (don't remember the name) in Kansas where the owner of the filling station where we always stopped for gas also raised love birds. Sarah and I begged to take a pair of them home!!! So one year during this trip we did….happy! happy! We named them "Jack" and "Jill". We kept them many years and loved them dearly. One day Jill died; within a few days Jack also died. They were such pals…
When Julie came along into our lives (I was 12 years old, Sarah 13) we used to argue and nearly come to blows about who was to give her her bath, who was to dress her, who to take her for a stroll, and especially who was to rock her to sleep. When I rocked her I sang to her; when Sarah rocked her she would hold Julie on one arm and with a book in the other hand…she'd be reading, reading, reading! Julie had 3 moms!!
Our family used to walk downtown from our home to go to a movie—which you didn't do on Sunday—and then walk home, usually after dark. Sarah and I walked together in front of our parents. As we approached a street light we would see no shadow and then as we passed the light, a tiny shadow and afterwards a lengthening shadow which had attached itself to our feet! We would try to recall the words of Robert Louis Stevenson's "My Shadow." Our Mom read a lot of poems and stories to us during our childhood. I recall this being one of our favorites.
When we were small and lived in Bristol, where both of us were born, our parents always took us to Kingsport to go swimming. We went into the "kiddies" pool and never wanted to get out and go home!! There was one way, they discovered, which always worked to make us want to leave that swimming pool. ICE CREAM!! They bribed us with ice cream, which our whole family loved. It was a good way to end a swim…
When Sarah was in either second or third grade, we lived in southern Indiana. One winter Sarah came down with pneumonia and couldn't go to school because she was so sick. So our Mom got her assignments from her teacher and taught her all she needed to know at home. Sarah went back to school too soon and came down with double-pneumonia! Out of school again! She was home-schooled for several months. It was good for her study habits! Our Mom was a wonderful teacher…
When we lived in Winslow, Indiana, we usually drove a few miles north to Petersburg for grocery shopping. This was a rather old-fashioned grocery store…they had a big barrel of pickles, for instance, where you just fished out how many pickles you wanted to buy. They also had a cat—a mama cat—and she had babies at one point in time. Sarah and I wanted one of those kitties in the worst way. So we got our parents to agree that we could take a doll buggy along next time and "help" at the grocery store. On the way home our Mom heard a faint "mew" from the back seat. Indeed, we had sneaked out one of those kitties to stowaway in the doll buggy. Can't remember definitely how that plot was hatched but I'm pretty sure Sarah was the main author of this scheme! We had that kitty for quite a while. It liked cooked green beans, which is odd for a cat!
When we were in Jr. High School (in Oak Ridge, TN) I had taken a bad fall at home and broke my ankle—quite a bad break, so I was on crutches for 7-8 weeks. Since we both attended the same Jr. High School, Sarah was required to carry my books back and forth to school. I simply couldn't manage the crutches and the books together. So this task Sarah did do for me. However, she was not really pleased to do it. At that age and grade level you'd much rather ride the bus and walk with your friends than with your younger sister! Somehow we managed.
I'll close with what appeared to me to be Sarah's magical ability when we were young to run through a lawn covered with clover and never step on a bumble bee!! She did it time after time and, though I sometimes followed her pathway, I seemed always to mix it up with a bee somewhere along the way!! Back home to apply a soda/water mixture to take away the stinging! It seemed so easy for Sarah! Many things seemed easy for Sarah. She was a wonderfully gifted individual in many ways. Never was anyone ever so thoughtful and kind and willing to go out of her way to help someone who needed to be helped.
May she eternally rest in the peace which she forever wished for us all.
In Love,
Betty
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