This week, I was privileged to speak to the Friends of the Mary Cotton Library. I am grateful for such an honor. The following is part of that experience.
Mary Cotton is the library that courage built. Current Library Director Kim helped me understand that Mary Cotton lived in Sabetha over a hundred years ago. As early as 1912, Mary Cotton saw the need for a public library. She took action. Mary Cotton bequeathed her resources with the intent of ensuring a better future for people in her town of Sabetha. In 1937, the Mary Cotton Library became real.
Along with Mary Cotton, other people contributed to the future of our town. These residents of the 1930’s lived with courage. What exactly is a good definition of “courage”? The root word of courage is “coeur”. This Latinate word means “heart”. These people had heart. Heart-filled. Courageous. The people in Sabetha in the 1930’s invested great heart. It took great heart for local people to maintain their farms, their families, their businesses, their community while the Depression and later the Second World War dictated the way they would live their lives.
Whole-heartedness is how 1930’s Americans lived. Ordinary people in this part of the country showed up whole-heartedly, every day. They lived courageously in the challenges of daily life. In spite of hardship, they planned for the future of Sabetha. They supported the hospital, post office, newspapers, Mary Cotton library, schools, churches, businesses, banks, entrepreneurs, and agricultural enterprises. Sabetha people rubbed the gritty dust from their red-rimmed eyes and looked to the future beyond the Depression and beyond the dirty ’30’s. Local, ordinary people were determination to live well through the practical application of education and and information.
My mother-in-law wrote a little family history book for her grandchildren. Velma served as a school teacher in one-room schools for several years. She tells this story that took place in 1934-36:
"My last country school was Lichty, north of Morrill. Those were the years of Depression, President Roosevelt’s New Deal, and W.P.A programs. I received a salary of $65 a month. I was pleased to receive a bonus of $5 at the end of each term for good teaching. It was at this time that Kansas became part of the Dust Bowl. There were days when the air was so thick with dust that we could hardly see home plate from second base, but nothing short of a blizzard ever stopped our daily baseball games. When recess was over, we laughed at our blackened, dust-rimmed eyes, noses and mouths. We become used to brushing the gritty red sand from our school desks several times a day."
Courage.
It took courage to attend school. It took courage to teach school. But the teacher and the students kept showing up and doing their share of the work.
In 1945, 17 year old Laura began her classes as a freshman at Sabetha High School. The youngest of 10, Laura finished 8th grade at a country school. She and her sisters moved into town where they worked at Buzz’s Cafe owned by the Robinson family. Rhoda Robinson was the English teacher at Sabetha High School. Maude Robinson and Howard Robinson saw to the ins and outs of the restaurant. Laura and her next oldest sister Alice helped serve the meals at Buzz’s. The older sisters cooked and baked in the Buzz's kitchen.
When their work was finished at Buzz’s Laura and Alice frequently stopped at the Mary Cotton Library to check out books. After a couple of years of working at Buzz’s Laura began to think about going to high school. During this time, Rhoda Robinson encouraged Laura to pursue her dream of attending high school.
Finally, in the fall of 1945, four years after she finished 8th grade, Laura was ready to go to high school. Rhoda Robinson told Laura, “You are going this year when school takes up.” Rhoda marched Laura to the local Green’s drug store that served as the textbook vendor in Sabetha. Rhoda paid for Laura’s books for that freshman year.
And with a timid heart that turned courageous in the end, Laura attended Sabetha High School. She continued to work at Buzz’s. The Robinson’s structured her work schedule around her classes at Sabetha High School. Laura graduated in May, 1949.
Of all the stories that my mother told me about growing up in Sabetha, one of her most precious memories was that of Rhoda Robinson who helped her attend and graduate from Sabetha High School. Instead of selling back her Junior English textbook she had used in 1947-48, Laura kept that book.
“I always loved those stories by American authors so much that I just couldn’t part with it,” Mom would tell me.
I grew up reading that book.
Mary Cotton’s influence caused my mom to value learning enough to graduate from high school. She and my dad taught me to love and to value books. On cozy winter evenings, my dad read us history books and historical novels. My mom and I would snuggle together under a blanket on the couch in the living room. Mary Cotton helped make this happy memory of sharing books a reality in my family.
Today, rural is a challenge. Agriculture is often misunderstood by those not directly involved in the process and the daily challenges of agribusiness, farming and raising livestock. Rural is becoming harder to navigate and is more loosely connected within the definition of farming.
A well-meaning woman in Kansas City recently shared this thought about farming and ranching communities:
“The towns are dying but the people still live there.”
It may sound okay or wise or shrewd to say this. But it is not easy to live it.
As I think of the brave and determined people who persevered through the Dust Bowl, the Depression and the challenges of wars since the 1930’s, I gain courage.
And I recognize courage in the faces of the people in this and other rural communities.
Today, Mary Cotton Library represents not only the past but the future of learning and living in this community. New opportunities are recognized through reading books and sharing ideas. Here you are, courageous people committed to keeping the fire burning brightly in appreciation of learning.
Keep reading. Read for the pleasure of sharing ou human experiences through books and conversations. Books are available for sharing or private reading. Books can appeal to people of any generation. Some prefer reading a book online. Others enjoy audiobooks and podcasts. Some prefer reading print books.
Read. Just read.
Hand a little child a board book or a soft book. Let her or him enjoy the colors and the texture and the holding of the book.
Read to children.
Read stories aloud in families.
Read stories together when you are in love.
Listen to audiobooks or podcasts and then talk about the stories with friends or family.
Read.
We are offered opportunities to work together across the generations to cherish and to safeguard the precious power of human conversation. We are free to discuss, agree or disagree about the books and stories and ideas that we gather and share from reading.
Read stories when you need company or comfort.
Just read.
Thank you.
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