Woven on the Wind : Women Write about Friendship in the Sagebrush West

by Hasselstrom, Linda M.

• ISBN13: 9780395977088
• ISBN10: 0395977088
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-05-01
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin

Summary

"Woven on the Wind" collects contemporary stories told in essay and poetry form by women of the interior West, also known as sagebrush country. This book tells of their relationships with each other--how they develop, how they may fade, but mostly how they sustain women in a place where companionship is not always easily found.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Voices Woven of Wind and Sage	xv
I My Feet Set Down Roots: The Grounding	1	(102)
My Heart Still Grins	5	(1)
Jane Wells
June and I, Singing	6	(1)
June Frankland Baker
Thinking of Rain in the Dry Season	6	(1)
Kathleene West
No Room for Strangers	7	(3)
Mary Hadley
Dear Judy	10	(1)
Sherry Schultz Shillenn
Letter to a ``Friend''	11	(2)
Agnes L. Wich
Goldie	13	(1)
Helen Applegarth McConnell
The Rapture	14	(1)
Diane J. Raptosh
Girls' Night Out	14	(3)
Shannon Dyer
Something of the Earth	17	(2)
Joyce Badgley Hunsaker
Sisters	19	(1)
Stephanie Pershing Buehler
Love and Light	20	(1)
Deb Carpenter
Without a Doubt	20	(1)
Eva Potts Wells Burton
If	20	(1)
Peggy Sanders
Pearls from the Milk	21	(2)
Sheila Vosen-Shorten
Tea with Daphne	23	(1)
Anne Slade
Preserving	24	(2)
Caroline Patterson
Trinity	26	(2)
Stephanie Painter
Stella He	28	(1)
May H. Baughman
Aunt Noi	29	(1)
C. L. Prater
The Oddest Daughter	30	(3)
Jo-Ann Swanson
Homemade Noodles	33	(1)
Cheryl Anderson Wright
The Path	34	(1)
Charlotte M. Babcock
Secret Sin	35	(2)
Norma Nelson Duppler
Ladies Aid	37	(1)
Barbara M. Smith
Light	38	(3)
Sandra Gail Teichmann
Prairie Ocean	41	(1)
Echo Roy
That's What Neighbors Do	42	(1)
Kathryn E. Kelley
Rosario	43	(1)
Mary Peace Finley
Elvira	44	(1)
Ginny Jack Palumbo
Six Artists at a Country Retreat	45	(3)
Linda M. Hasselstrom
Beverly	48	(2)
Lorrie Mydland
Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star	50	(2)
Jeannie Fox
Summer Friends	52	(1)
Saundra DeRemer
Learning How to Be Lonely	53	(2)
Betty Downs
Dormant Seeds Sprouting	55	(2)
Faye Schrater
Of Potatoes and the Wind	57	(2)
Janelle Masters
Pearls	59	(2)
Lee Ann Roripaugh
The Art of Living the Moment	61	(2)
Robin Littlefield
The Women	63	(1)
Judith McConnell Steele
Sigga	64	(2)
Lillian Vilborg
Lupe's Song	66	(1)
Ellen Vayo
The Lady Who Knew How to Live	67	(3)
Lucy L. Woodward
Resolving Mrs. Wackerly	70	(2)
Eileen Thiel
Spun Sugar	72	(1)
Ellen Waterston
Capes	73	(2)
Karen N. Miller
Wyoming Mother	75	(2)
Dawn Senior
Women in the Rain	77	(2)
Candy Hamilton
Belonging to the Black Crows	79	(5)
Dorothy Blackcrow Mack
Pink Iron Nails	84	(2)
Sue Leever
Ghost of April, 1978	86	(2)
Carolyn Dufurrena
Joan	88	(1)
Dianna Torson
Some Things Never Change	88	(4)
Mary Harman
Marriage	92	(1)
Mary Lou Sanelli
Up Fortification Creek	93	(2)
Sureva Towler
Divas for a Day	95	(1)
Barbara Rinehardt
Dear Berry	96	(2)
Sharon R. Bryant
Friends for Life	98	(2)
Wanda Morgan
A Man's Work	100	(3)
B. J. Buckley
II Leaves Speak for You: The Nourishing	103	(94)
chokecherries	107	(1)
Thelma Poirier
Coming Home	107	(3)
Diane Josephy Peavey
Friends Because	110	(1)
Colette ``Koko'' Knutson Gjermundson
Letters to Lil	111	(4)
Charlotte M. Baboock
Time for Friendship	115	(1)
Dianne P. Rood Kiesz
La-vin-i-a	115	(4)
Nancy Curtis
There Were No Women	119	(3)
Laurie Wagner Buyer
Because Men Rule	122	(1)
Wanda Rosseland
The Reclamation	123	(4)
Anne Fantaci Clement
Who Else?	127	(1)
Karen Obrigewitch
Gram's Vegetables	127	(2)
Karen M. Berry
At the Prairie, the Day Before	129	(2)
Twyla Hansen
Saying Good-bye to `Nali	131	(3)
Jennifer Green
Backbeat	134	(2)
Page Lambert
Strung on Sinew	136	(1)
Ara Anderson
Handwork	136	(1)
Jennifer Graf Groneberg
Whatever Works	137	(3)
Linda Boyden
Lessons Learned by Hand	140	(3)
Bernie Koller
Granma's Gloves	143	(1)
Ellen Vayo
Old Ladies Go Hunting	143	(3)
Heidi R. Cousins
Muskrat Ramble	146	(1)
Lois Hart
Spider Beside Her	147	(1)
Donna Parks
The Storm	147	(5)
Lee Ann Siebken
Passage	152	(1)
Tina Welling
End of the World	153	(3)
Sandie Nicolai
Norma J. Kulas
Huddled for Warmth	156	(1)
Donna Gray
Mother Love	156	(2)
Ruby R. Wilson
The Woman, Listening on the Party Line	158	(1)
B. J. Buckley
Shifting Gears	159	(3)
Gin Scott
Co-Madres	162	(1)
Claudette Ortiz
Barriers of Silence	163	(3)
Gael Seed
Majesty	166	(1)
Vee Hageman
Hog Wars	167	(2)
Kathy Hanks
Don't Step in the Cactus	169	(1)
Donna Britton Harvey
The Night	170	(1)
Tena Cook Gould
Trying to Remember She Is Now a Man	170	(1)
Mary Lou Sanelli
Vi and Me	171	(2)
Pamela J. Ochsner
Whistling Girls and Knitting	173	(1)
Phyllis M. Letellier
Sybil Harris	174	(2)
Lois Jean Moore
Barbed Wire and Robert Frost	176	(1)
Pearle Hennksen Schultz
Knowing with the Heart	177	(3)
Gaydell Collier
Maybe Slower Is Better	180	(1)
Jody Strand
Leah, Bright and Dark	181	(2)
Mary Alice Gunderson
The Heart Knows	183	(1)
Cleo Cantlon
The Sunset Cafe	184	(2)
Patricia Archie
At Forty-five	186	(4)
Julene Bair
Full Monty	190	(1)
Rian Connors
Living Without Loneliness	191	(1)
Elizabeth Canfield
A Woman's Place	192	(1)
Lyn DeNaeyer
Sky, Grass, Rain, and Sage	193	(2)
Nedalyn D. Testolin
Daily Acts of Courage	195	(2)
Jane Elkington Wohl
III New Flowers Unfolding: The Promise	197	(98)
Oyurushi: Forgiveness	201	(1)
Lee Ann Roripaugh
The Company of Women	201	(2)
Susann McCarthy
She Was Writing	203	(1)
Lora K. Reiter
The Wedding Shower	204	(2)
Carol Boies
Linda	206	(1)
Lucy Adkins
The Legacy	207	(2)
Kay Marie Porterfield
Resurrections	209	(1)
Lyn DeNaeyer
The Gift	210	(1)
A. Rose Hill
word	211	(5)
Susan Minyard
Tapestry of Knots	216	(1)
Virginia Bennett
Pilgrimage	217	(2)
Maura T. Callahan
What Makes Our Lives	219	(1)
Emily Boies
Tea for Two	220	(2)
Georgia Rice
Sisterhood	222	(1)
Patricia Frolander
Dear Ann	223	(3)
Darcy Acord
Common Ground	226	(2)
Shelly Whitman Colony
Holy Ground	228	(3)
Sister Hildegard Dubnick
The Concubine	231	(3)
Mary Garrigan
Anneen	234	(5)
Sue Hartman
wild roses	239	(1)
Thelma Poirier
My Mother's Moccasins	239	(4)
Sophie Dominik Echeverria
Her Soul Lives Here	243	(2)
Melinda Stiles
Let the Circle Be Unbroken	245	(1)
Mary E. Schnell
Melissa	246	(2)
Janet E. Graebner
Reclaiming Mother's World	248	(1)
Louise Engelstad
Matrimony	249	(1)
Diane J. Raptosh
The Shell Game	250	(2)
Gwen Petersen
Cycles	252	(1)
Bonnie Larson Staiger
Alva in the Fields	253	(1)
Jo-Ann Swanson
How I Became My Own Woman	254	(2)
Candi Red Cloud
Defying Bare Branches	256	(2)
Katy Paynich
Dear Quilting Sisters	258	(1)
Laura Hawkins Grevel
Jean	259	(4)
Susan Vittitow
Come Home	263	(1)
Donna Applegarth Mentink
Before She Left	263	(2)
Maureen Tolman Flannery
How the West Was Won	265	(2)
Hilary Barton Billman
Car Pool Friendship	267	(2)
Maureen Cain
Circled in Shadows	269	(1)
Louise Steneck
To Breathe on My Own	270	(2)
Maureen Helms Blake
Below Zero---December	272	(1)
Jane Elkington Wohl
Cultivating the Iris, Dawn of Change	273	(5)
Vanessa Hastings
The Waiting	278	(1)
Doris Bircham
To Smooth a Mountain	279	(1)
Cindy Bellinger
Barefooting Summer	280	(1)
A. Rose Hill
The Field Road	281	(8)
Susan Austin
Laurie Kutchins
Community of Stones	289	(1)
Jeanne Rogers
My Old Aunts Play Canasta in a Snowstorm	290	(5)
Marjorie Saiser
Contributors	295	(16)
Acknowledgments	311	(1)
Credits	312

Excerpts

I

My Feet Set Down Roots: The Grounding

Woven on the Wind begins with writing by Western women who have set their roots deep in the soil, drawing nourishment from the earth as well as from “women remembered.” Life in this arid country has taught these women to stay “close to the wind, earth, creeks, grasslands,” learning from the land and from each other.
Hardy and versatile, women have always been part of the West, but they were often invisible to the mythmakers who did, and still do, view the West as a male fantasy. “The joys of a woman’s life” were “not mentioned in books, not found in the universities or corporations.” Ignoring the lively truth, or taking for granted women’s triumphs and talents, official historians and literature professors often acknowledged only the “antiseptic remains of history.” But the truths endured, “growing quietly in the hearts” of women scattered throughout the West.
Sagebrush, too, was often ignored or overlooked. Until Kendall Johnson began referring to “Mama Sage,” little homage was paid to sagebrush, and even less to Western women. Philip Fradkin says that sagebrush has come to dominate the plains “by pure ordinariness” and persistence, another apt description of women. Many biologists now believe that sagebrush is as essential to Western ecology as women are to humanity -- that without sagebrush, the entire ecosystem would collapse.
For a while, women “pretended not to notice” being forgotten in formal accounts. Keeping busy with their households and other tasks, they kept an “undulant silence,” accepting the idea that women were “supposed to want other things.” Hiding the truth doesn’t make it disappear. News stories about drug use, alcoholism, and other ills make it clear that the West is not immune to the problems of the larger world. But even poor soil, even the greasy, hard-packed clay we call gumbo, can bring forth beauty -- “gorgeous flowers in gumbo” -- just as many of the stories in these pages grew from difficulty. Telling our stories helps us realize how similar we are and creates connections between women “with wind- chapped cheeks and wrinkle lines” who may never have met. Just as sagebrush, deeply rooted, shelters other plants and feeds an abundance of wildlife, so these stories can provide comfort and community for others, both in the West and elsewhere.
Stoic acceptance was the first rule of enduring hardship of any kind in many Western families. Tradition taught Westerners never to argue, never to complain, because “the more it hurts / the bigger the pearl.” In joy or sadness, we sang or wept “without saying a word,” learning from some of our elders that “lonely is a state of mind.” Our silence sanctioned and helped promote the creation of a Western myth that had no place for the reality known to women. Each woman who has written her story has taken a stand, saying, “I chose to break my silence.” Writing of friends, mothers, teachers, and others, ordinary women have recorded a rich and varied legacy of other women from the past. In poems and essays, “in quiet words we speak,” each woman tells how her “feet set down roots,” how she drew strength from others, learning to survive in spite of isolation and loneliness.
Even as the editors compiled and shaped this manuscript, we knew that some tales would remain untold and found another striking parallel between women and the sagebrush outside their doors. Beneath the outer bark of sagebrush root hides a slender white filament called the heart thread. Only by peeling away the root’s tough husk -- or opening up the dark shell of a woman’s silence -- can we find the translucent heart. To learn how other women have illuminated our spirits, we must know their stories. If “we share our lives,” we will remember the women who inspired us, and their light can “never dim, flicker, set, or be extinguished.” But if our “deeper feelings are mostly inaccessible,” we cannot move toward a deeper understanding of one another.
The heroines in this “tapestry of tales” are often humble women with little to leave as souvenirs. We may find a thread to follow in objects as common as faded photographs in a tin box or as startling as a wooden leg in the attic. Although we may no longer see “their faces flashing in the sun,” their wisdom enriches and inspires us. Through these pages, they live on to cast their light over a larger circle.
“Rooted to the earth,” the women who inhabit the following pages have grounded us and given us the courage to go forward. “Tapping into ancient rhythms,” their stories set their roots deep in our hearts, showing us how to thrive and how to nourish.

Copyright © 2001 by Gaydell Collier, Nancy Curtis,, and Linda Hasselstrom

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Excerpted from Woven on the Wind: Women Write about Friendship in the Sagebrush West by Linda Hasselstrom, Gaydell Collier, Nancy Curtis
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

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