Answers

Today I received an email from my DIL asking some questions about my “Lucy of the Mountains” post.

She wanted to know if my father ever talked about being in the war. No, he didn’t. I remember asking him about his medals which were kept in box in my mother’s dresser. He only told me about purple hearts being awarded to him because he had been wounded. He didn’t say any more about the purple hearts or what the rest of the metals were for. Years later when he was in the hospital after having his first heart attack, I saw a horrendous looking scar around that reached from his knee and more than half way down his leg and from the front of his leg to the back. When I asked him about it, he said that he messed up his knee while going under a barbed wire fence. I think the scar was much to big for his explanation. He said he was also wounded in the hip when a bullet ricocheted off a concrete wall. I found out later that he had told my older brother a completely different story about that one. When I asked what his job was in the army, all he would say was that he was a scout for his platoon. The only thing he would discuss at all was being in Paris. I’m sad to say that I don’t know what happened to that box of metals. I think my older brother’s daughters probably did something with it after he died. I doubt if they knew, or even cared, what it was.

She also wanted to know how we bathed with no bathroom. The house was rented to us furnished. I think the only things we brought with us were dishes and kitchen utensils, clothes, and the wringer type washing machine. A wringer type washing machine required a metal washtub. My older brother and I were bathed in the washtub in the kitchen. I suppose Mother and Dad did the same. The house did have hot and cold running water so Mother would fill the tub using a big pot. I thought it was fun! I bet she didn't.