OCR Text |
Show 88 nine more. They were too good to be used for doll clothes, Grandma thought. Later, when I was thoroughly weaned from play Grandma chided Mama. "Laura, you make that child work too hard! " That was the time when Mama was having me mop the floors with separated milk because she had read somewhere that milk made them shine. It did, too, but the mop soured and smelled awful. It might be significant that Papa didn't repent until after Grandma died. The bone of contention was always, of course, the matter of Papa smoking. In spite of Mama's defense of him at the time of her marriage, it created an ever-widening schism between them which was not assuaged by his ability to swear a blue flame to heaven, and his less and less frequent appearance at church. When they first moved to Joseph Mama was apalled at the Laodician condition of the Ward. There were about three men who were active: John Ross was Superintendent of the Sunday School, an office which he held for twenty years. Joe Parker was Bishop, and he and John Ross and Jim Billings ley did nearly everything that was done in the Church. Attendance at Sacrament meeting was scanty, the women sitting on one side and the men on the other. Mama was shocked to see two of the High Priests start to roll their cigarettes as the benediction was ended, while they were still in the building. This"Sectarian" flavor in a Mormon ward was almost unbelievable to her. The men in Oak City might back-bite their neighbors, cheat |