Maude 1883-1993
 Mardo Williams
 (Reviewed by The Editor - Rebecca Brown)
 1996 Calliope Press
  ISBN: 0964924129


She Grew Up With the Country. From oil lamps to microwave ovens, horse & buggy to automobiles, she had neither electricity nor running water. She hand sewed her family's clothes & grew & put up her family's fruits & vegetables.

Maude Allen was the first in her Ohio family to graduate from high school Class of 1902. She married Lee Williams at age 19 & together they set up home in the farmhouse Lee's grandfather had built along the banks of Rush Creek, where she bore 4 children in quick succession. Their family entertainment was reading by lamplight, singing along with their player piano, sleigh rides to visit relatives--dry highlights of a rich & detailed life.

Settle down for a detailed read & be prepared for glimpses of another time & place out which we grew. It does go on a bit, how could it not with 110 well-lived years to write about, however, Mardo Williams brings all his skill as a reporter to bear to bring the stories his Mother remembered.

Maude (1883-1993) is a son's tribute to the extra-ordinary span of years through which his Mother lived, survived & thrived. It is also a remarkable almanac of everyday life in Ohio, how to raise fat hogs, what the national debt was & what things cost. What was read, worn, eaten & used. The photos speak volumes about clothes & lifestyles.

A good, if pedestrian, biography-cum-memoir worthy of gracing your library shelf.

Mardo Williams (1906-2001) began his writing career in 1927 as a reporter for the daily Kenton News-Republican. He later joined the Copy Desk of the Columbus Dispatch, eventually writing a daily business column. He wrote for trade periodicals & penned the award-winning Great-Grandpa Fussy and the Little Puckerdoodles for his great-grandchildren.
(04/27/03)

Rebecca