Many years ago I met a girl named Betty Jean. One summer, something special happened to her. She discovered something about her mom that she had never known before.
First, let me tell you that Betty Jean lived near the Verdigris River in a house built before Oklahoma became a state.
Think about it… there is no electricity. no running water, no TV, no electric iron, no toaster, no microwave, no hair dryer, no indoor bathroom… Can you get the idea?
Why was her mailbox even 2 miles away, down the road. Betty Jean lived two miles further than the US Post Office could deliver!
When the rains came, as they always did, she was even more isolated. The school bus was unable to cross the low water bridge. Sometimes weeks went by and the only person Betty Jean saw was her mom, her dad, or her brother.
Sometimes she felt very lonely; especially since her mom was so quiet.
This summer Mom seemed especially calm.
Betty Jean had been riding the moped for days because it looked like there would be no ride.
It took us most of the day to get there in the old truck, but that didn’t matter. Just because she was eight years old didn’t mean she didn’t understand. She understood well. They couldn’t go every year. Surely Mom and Dad would decide if they could afford the gas for the old red truck.
Dust was raised as Betty Jean danced on the dusty driveway in front of the house. Mom said, “Pack your clothes. We’re leaving for Arkansas in less than a week.”
Betty Jean knew she had to buy a couple changes of clothes, just like Mommy, Daddy, and her brother would. The older brother would stay home and take care of “the place”. She couldn’t just get up and leave the cattle; someone had to stay behind. The old wooden wagon seat was placed in the bed of the truck against the rear of the cab. The middle brother would return there as usual.
Morning finally came. Betty Jean had been so excited that she tossed and turned all night.
Before dawn, Mom and Dad loaded the truck. They even tied a package to the outside of the cabin as there wasn’t enough room inside the cabin for one more thing! The old red truck groaned and creaked for almost seven hours.
Betty Jean was so tired of being pushed down those roads. Dad called them “washboard paths.”
“We just have to ford one more stream and up the mountain and we’ll be there,” Dad said. Aunt and uncle lived on the “flat” of the mountain. (Mountaintop) Betty Jean wondered if “town kids” knew things like that.
He saw some scattered cabins. She occasionally saw children and adults peeking over the edge of broken glass and behind trees and corners of buildings. When they arrived, the neighbors knew that there were strangers on the mountain.
Mother was quiet… she never talked much. Her sister raised her after her mother died. Mom stayed with her older sister many times after her mom died. Frankie was such a lonely girl after Mom died… being the youngest and all. Mom told Betty Jean about her mom’s beautiful long hair and how cute she was to her mom; but she got sick and was in bed for a long, long time. Her dad even took mom to the Mayo Clinic, but they couldn’t help Margaret.
Betty Jean knew her mom had happy moments when she was a little girl. Mom told Betty Jean that she would visit her older sister, Floy, or she would play with the cousins up and down the valley. Losing her mother was very sad, but going to school and church and playing in the valley with so many cousins was great fun; and she, sometimes, she even forgot, for a moment, how much she missed her mother, Margaret Houston Casey. Betty Jean had seen Grandma’s pictures of her with hair so long she could sit on it.
FINALLY! “Oh sister!” The aunt was looking at them and saw them coming.
Betty Jean thought her aunt looked very tired. But that didn’t stop the aunt! She ran up and hugged Betty Jean’s mother. There were times when Betty Jean wondered what it would be like to have a sister. The two women hugged for a few minutes, without saying a word. It was those tears that ran down mom’s face….
Betty Jean’s mom told her sister, “I brought you something.”
Betty Jean couldn’t imagine what it would be like. There was no money to buy anything they didn’t HAVE to have… And her mom had brought a “gift”.
Mom turned and proudly walked back to the old red pickup truck and untied the package from outside the cab. What’s going on?
It looked like a pitcher! Mom had wrapped a glass jar with newspaper before putting it in several brown grocery bags. There was rope wrapped around and around the paper wrapped jar.
They all went into the log cabin. Mama smiled so sweetly as she cut the string from the outside of the package that her Mama said the jug contained fresh milk. and she knew that her sister would do well. She also knew that her role would keep her nice and cool during that long journey. She still felt great! She unwrapped the jar and unscrewed the lid to find fresh butter… whipped! The back roads of Newton County, Arkansas had turned her mother’s fresh milk into country-fresh butter!
Betty Jean would remember the dismay on Mom’s face as long as she lived.
WAIT! Auntie and Uncle swore that one thing they could use more than fresh milk was freshly churned butter!
Betty Jean was so glad they had decided to come. She had already forgotten how tired she felt when she arrived. Everyone should be as lucky as Betty Jean to ride in a narrow old red truck and drive down “washboard roads” to visit an “aunt and uncle from Arkansas.”
The morning came. They had to leave the mountain. Betty Jean wondered about her mother…she had been different during her entire visit. She used to be quiet. But, when she came to Ark, mom was different. Mom and her sister talked all day. and Betty Jean was suspicious all night!
Suddenly Betty Jean knew! She knew without being told. Mother was at home. Maybe that’s why they didn’t come very often. The coming was wonderful; it was the parting that was almost more than Mother could do.
Yes, Frankie Casey Brown has moved to Oklahoma. Arkansas kept such memories and with no phone and little communication with the outside world, she felt isolated from her family. Poor mom, would she ever be happy?
Betty Jean weighed these things. Mom was happy, but something was missing; now Betty Jean thought she understood. Maybe mom would get better. Betty Jean hoped so. She thought about that summer from time to time, but she never mentioned it to Mom. She wondered if Mom would ever stop missing her beautiful birthplace.
Only mom knew the answer. Mom never mentioned it, and neither did Betty Jean.
After Betty Jean’s dad retired; Mom and Dad were going to Arkansas. Mom would call Betty Jean and tell her we’d be home in a few days.
Suddenly, Betty Jean realized… Mom called Oklahoma “home.”
Mama had found fulfillment… Mama knew she loved that tall Indian she had married all those years ago. Mom was back in Oklahoma!
Some called them Frankie and Arthur; some called them Toots and Jum. They both called me Betty Jean.