News from the Silerton Community of Chester County

Remember to pray for Joy Freeman, Brenda Cooper and Sarah Chandler as they continue to deal with health issues.
Congratulations to Bryce and Amber Majors on the birth of a little girl. They chose Zoie for her name. She was born March 25 and weighed nine pounds and eight ounces.
Judy Dillard reported her granddaughter, Robin Lambert, and family were unable to make their trip to Tennessee to visit relatives. Her husband is in the Navy and currently out at sea. When his ship docks, the crew will be quarantined. Judy is hoping everything works out for them to visit this fall.
During this stay-at-home time, I found an interesting article that was written in the Jackson Sun on March 12, 1985 by reporter Delores Ballard regarding Ronie Beshires. She was the wife of John Beshires. They were the parents to 12 children, nine boys and three girls. Mr. and Mrs. Beshires and their family were loved and respected by our community. The reporter interviewed Mrs. Beshires about her laundry day, known in her day as washday. As we endure the virus crisis, this article will probably make readers realize how blessed we are. The article reads, “Today the morning sun is doing its best to burn through the chill, but the wind is up, and it is less than 40 degrees. The washer is on the back porch. Each piece of laundry must be fished out of the wash water by hand, one at a time and fed through a wringer. Ronie, 78, a veteran of the tub-and-washboard generation, says, ‘This is a pie next to the way it used to be done.’ She usually has to run a hose from a spigot to fill the washer, but today she uses rainwater, a free compliment of God, and she doesn’t believe in wasting anything. The rainwater was collected in buckets under the eaves of the house. She heats the pails of water on the wood-burning stove in the living room. When she has finished her first load, she slings the homemade calico bag with the clothespins over her shoulder and hefts a pail of wet laundry. She says, ‘Put the sheets on the line nearest the road so they can hide the unmentionables from passing traffic.’ This is the kind of work that your mama told you was good for you because it ‘builds character.’ She grew up on a farm where they had no tractor, just mules to farm with. She is not afraid of hard work and she’s got her freezers full of garden produce and her hand-pieced quilt tops to prove it. She’d rather quilt than do just about anything else.” The older generation might suggest this younger generation could use some hard, gruesome work to help build the character we saw in Mrs. Beshires’ generation.
I would appreciate if you would call and share some of your news and thoughts or memories so we can stay connected.