Wanda Rose Smith
By Velma Rose Smith
I was pregnant and when the pains started, Aunt Jen, who was with us, made plans for the birth. But it was fake labor, Aunt Jen said, “If we had known the little girl that arrived 2 weeks later, we would have known she wouldn’t arrive early, but just on time”. There was a total eclipse the 24 of January, at 11:00 am I was in bed, but it got darker and darker, the chickens went to roost. Arnold and Aunt Jen were watching it through old negatives, so I went outside and looked too, there wouldn’t be another for 100 years. There were huge snowdrifts, roads were closed. Marvin took the team and bobsleds to meet Mama Rose and Dr. Neal at Cherry Flatts. We lived on the Smith farm at the time. I named the baby Wanda Rose. She was fat and healthy, shoulders 9″ wide. She was a very good natured baby, required a minimum amount of care, I nursed her of course. When she was seven months old, I gave her a new box of Rosebud salve to play with. She got the cover off the box and ate and smeared that salve over the carriage. That was the beginning of a life long trait, she never got over her curiosity to see what was inside of a toy or what made them work. She got her first bruise, when she got too close to Wayne, and got hit on the head with his hammer.
She was a clean child, and seldom got dirty, except when her and Papa got ice cream, of course chocolate. She was like Mama Rose, clean, neat, efficient. Their favorite color was blue. One time when she was in a county spelling contest, I bought her a frilly dress, she had Mama take her back to town, and they bought a plain blue dress. She won the contest too. Her and Wayne both won prizes in a spellng contest in Blossburg, dictionaries.
She like old and young, poor or rich, as she said when she was very small, “I like all bodies”. This held true all of her life. She was sensitive, quiet in a way, well behaved, she could be trusted not to say the wrong thing. Her brothers couldn’t tease her, she ignored them, except the jibes when she practiced on her violin. She took lessons from Arthur Lofgren. She liked music, had a strong alto voice. Wayne and her, both, represented their school in glee clubs, going on many trips. I remember one winter night, when they should have been home by midnight, I found them, when I came up from morning chores at 7:00, walking the kitchen floor, half frozen, hungry and dead tired. The roads were ice and the kids pushed the bus up the hills.
She enjoyed life. She never grew up, but what she could scream and yell when she rode the roller coaster.
When Jeannette was born, Wanda was 12. I didn’t feel well so the family decided I should go to Elmira for a week with Stella. She kept house for 6. Jay picked black long berries and she canned some and made two batches of jam. The day I came home Jay (10) and Eileen (7) had helped her pick and cut up string beans, she was just getting them on the old cookstove to process when I got home. She was so hot, red in the face, and so tired, she cried and I cried, and tears still come to my eyes when I think of it.
She was an A student, and was valedictorian of her class at Charleston. She was determined from the time she started school that she would be a teacher.
When she went to college she boarded with the Allen family in Mansfield, working for her board, and Wayne sent her the money she needed. She graduated, an A student in 1945. She went to teach at Mill City, Sr. Math. The students were hard to handle, and she was sick, nervous breakdown, when she came home for Christmas. She got better and somewhere got courage, and got her dander up. From then on, no one took advantage of her. From then on she was capable of handling any situation. She never lost her loyalty to people. She still loves all bodies.