Today we have
Lee Ann Sontheimer Murphy's
Dust Bowl Dreams
Blurb:
Life’s
never easy for a good-hearted man who decides crime is the answer to his
troubles.
No
rain in the summer of 1933 is bad news for Oklahoma farmer Henry Mink. The
local banker wants the mortgage on the farm paid and unless Henry comes up with
the dough, his widowed mother and four young siblings won’t have a home. Jobs are scarce so he decides to rob a
bank. His sweetheart, school teacher
Mamie Logan, doesn’t like the idea and neither does Henry’s kid brother Eddie
but Henry’s out of options.
He
leaves home and robs a bank at nearby Ponca City. When he returns home, he pays
off the mortgage but new troubles show up. Mamie is his greatest joy and they
become engaged but by fall, Henry has no options left but to rob another
bank. If he can pull off one another big
job, he figures he’ll be set until the hard times are over but few things in
life go as planned. His desperate
efforts will either secure his future or destroy it forever.
If
Henry’s family survives and Mamie’s love endures, he’ll need a miracle.
Excerpt:
They walked behind the house and past
the big barn. A foot worn path led into
the field, but a fork veered off right.
As they drew closer to the spring, the path narrowed and the number of
trees increased. Beneath the cover of
the trees, out of sight of the farmhouse, Henry put his arm around her slender
waist. They managed to walk together
down the single file trail to the spring and settled onto the rustic bench near
the water. Henry straddled it so he
could face her but Mamie sat in a side saddle posture. Before he could lean forward to snatch a
kiss, she reached over to rub his cheek with the back of her fingers.
“Tell me you were just being silly a
while ago,” she said. “I’ve been worried sick you meant what you said.”
Her touch kindled tenderness, but deep
in his crotch Mamie’s fingers lit another fire and he inhaled hard. “I did mean it, girl. When I got back to the house, Richardson from
the bank sat there, fedora on his knee, badgering Mama for money. He’s planning to foreclose and take the farm
unless we come up with the money by the end of July. We sure as hell don’t have it and I don’t
know of any other way to get it.”
Mamie’s eyes darkened almost
black. “I could ask Daddy, Henry. I don’t know if he has it or not, but he
might.”
“No,” he said, spitting out the word
with force. Then he used a softer tone
to add, “I appreciate it but I ain’t taking your family’s charity. I’ve made up my mind. I’ll rob a few banks, pay off the mortgage
for Mama, get ahead, save some money and then I’ll quit, no harm done.”
“It’s wrong,” Mamie said with a
troubled expression. “You know it is, Henry.”
He did, but damned if he’d admit it
now. “What’s wrong is people getting
kicked off their families’ land where they’ve lived for generations,” he
said. “Banks are wrong to wring the last
nickel away from folks. It’s not right
for kids to go hungry or old people to do without. I don’t aim to get rich robbing banks, just
take back enough to get through these hard times. If I can help a few people on the way, I
will. And I don’t plan to kill no lawmen
or shoot anyone.”
“Oh, Henry,” Mamie said and sighed. “I
know almost everybody’s having a terrible time and no one has enough
money. I don’t think the banks are being
fair either, but two wrongs won’t make it right.”
“Money’ll go a long way toward fixing
it,” Henry said.
“There’s not enough money in the world
to make up for it if you get hurt,” Mamie said.
“Or if some sheriff hunts you down to take your life. You could end up in prison down at McAlester
or dead like Pretty Boy’s bandit friend, Birdwell. Your mama would just be heartbroken if
anything happened to you. So would Eddie
and the girls. Think about them, Henry.”
Mamie might be a smart young lady, but
she didn’t understand, not yet anyway.
“I am,” he said. “I’m doing this for
them. I can’t let them be put out on the
road without a home or go live with stingy old Uncle Ed. And I’m worn out watching them go to bed
hungry or do without almost everything.
They all need shoes and I don’t think poor little Vi’s ever worn a brand
new dress.”
She grasped his hand and held it so
tight it hurt but he liked the connection.
“Let me help them, then. I can
sew. I saved some of my teacher salary
and I could buy some cloth. I wouldn’t
have enough to pay off the farm, but I could make the girls some nice little
dresses or something.”
“Honey, I appreciate it but I can’t
let you spend your money on my folks.
Mamie, you don’t understand how poor we are, do you?”
“I think I do.”
“What’d your family have for supper?”
His question seemed to surprise her,
but she answered. “Mama fried up some
salt pork and ‘taters. She opened up a
jar of corn she canned last summer and made a nice apple pie with some dried
apples. Why?”
“We ate green beans seasoned with old
bacon grease and onions with cornbread,” he answered. “I don’t think any of us ate enough to fill
our bellies or even liked it much, but by God we ate everything Mama
cooked. Hunger don’t allow for being
picky.”
Mamie’s expression shifted. “That’s all you had?”
Henry nodded. “Yeah and some nights,
it’s even less. Mama meant her garden to see us through summer but the pickings
are pretty slim. She waters it with the
dish and bath water or it’d be gone, too.
We don’t have anything left to butcher and the few chickens still alive
and kicking won’t lay eggs. The milk cow
died last winter and we haven’t kept pigs since Daddy died. I’d hunt but it’s too damn hot for the meat
to be much good and ‘sides, everyone else’s about hunted the game till it’s
gone. I pull a few fish out of the
river once in a while, but not many fish left either.”
He spoke with bitterness in a harsher
tone than he’d ever used with Mamie in an effort to drive his point home. To Henry’s surprise she didn’t bluster with
outrage but scooted across the bench and put her arms around him. Mamie put her head down against his shoulder
and he held her against him.
“Henry, I didn’t have any idea it was
so bad,” she said. “I guess my head’s
been in the clouds and I missed what’s right in front of me.”
“You haven’t been home from the school
year very long,” Henry said. “Things changed for the worse over the winter,
honey.”
“I feel awful, though,” she
murmured. “Maybe my kids in town, in
Alva are just as hard up and I didn’t see it. None of the families I took turns
boarding with were as poor as your family or they didn’t seem like it.”
“Maybe, maybe not,” Henry said. “This
ol’ Depression’s hitting everyone hard, but I think farm folks like us, just
barely getting by anyway, got hit the worst so far. It ain’t your fault you didn’t see it. Your family’s doing better than most and you
should be glad.”
DBD
Links:
Yay!!
This is a real Depression era recipe and what I
still use to making icing (frosting). I
learned it from my grandmother and it’s cheaper to make than buying the little
cans of frosting and it tastes better too.
And it’s very simple!
Icing
4 tbsp. butter
3 cups confectioner’s sugar
2 tbsp. milk or cream
2 tsp. vanilla
Method
1. Cream butter.
2. Add sugar, diluting mixture with milk or cream.
3. Continue beating until mixture will hold its shape. Then spread on top and sides of cake or cupcakes. This icing is especially good for use with a pastry tube.
4 tbsp. butter
3 cups confectioner’s sugar
2 tbsp. milk or cream
2 tsp. vanilla
Method
1. Cream butter.
2. Add sugar, diluting mixture with milk or cream.
3. Continue beating until mixture will hold its shape. Then spread on top and sides of cake or cupcakes. This icing is especially good for use with a pastry tube.
If you want to make it chocolate add ¾ tablespoons of
cocoa. Or you can add a few drops of
food coloring to color it blue, green, pink, or yellow.
Amount – icing for 18 cup cakes or 1 large layer cake.
Amount – icing for 18 cup cakes or 1 large layer cake.
Lee Ann, thanks so much for being here today and sharing Dust Bowl Dreams and your recipe.
Readers, don't miss your chance to get this great book!
DBD Links:
Until next time, happy reading!!
Krista
