Tribute to all the Granny Women

My maternal great grandmother, Molly Brantley and my paternal grandmother, Ellie Ott

March is Women's History Month when we commemorate and celebrate the vital role that women have played throughout American history.  While I stand in awe of all the women noted in the history books for their accomplishments I also stand in awe of all the "granny women" who inspired me and helped shape and mold me.

I grew up on a working farm (heavy on the working) in the rural Ozark mountains of North Arkansas.  When my parents married they moved into the house with my paternal grandmother.  My mom was raised by her maternal grandmother and she was a frequent visitor to our home.  Both my grannies had lots of friends and relatives around their age so as I grew up I was surrounded by a lot of granny women.

Molly Maxey Brantley and my mother, Lou Ann Clough Ott

These granny women worked hard all their lives.  They were born before electricity and modern conveniences.  They sewed at night on treadle sewing machines by the light of a kerosene lamp.  They cooked on wood cook stoves and washed clothes on a rub board.  They churned butter in a fruit jar rocking it back and forth.  They planted a garden and canned the food.  They wrung chickens' necks and saved the feathers to make pillows.  

Though life was hard they still managed to find enjoyment in their work.  They got together to make quilts or can food.  They laughed and joked as they worked.

Country kids knew that it didn't matter if it was your biological granny or not you still "toed the mark" when they were around.  We respected all the granny women as if they were our own granny. We would play in the yard while the women sat on the porch and worked.  We may not have acted like we were listening but we were and we learned about values, morals and ethics from them.

They could be hard too.  If you got in trouble you might get the switch used on you - what some in the rural Ozarks refer to as "getting a dose of hickory tea."  They also had a soft side.  They could wipe away tears with their roughened hands,  clean and "doctor" a skinned knee, and yes they put tobacco juice on bee and wasp stings.  The granny women in my life chewed Kentucky Twist and dipped snuff.

My paternal Grandmother, Ellie Bundy Ott, and Gypsy.

I will never see the biographies of any of these women written in a history book but their stories are written in my heart and I commemorate all the rural granny women who taught us so much.