The Red Nail

Reflections of Sandra Tatum as told to her daughter, Se’Vette Early

Mother has had compliments on her article titled “The Eggs Froze Under the Bed” which appeared in the Sept. 16 issue of The Gatesville Messenger. I took it upon myself for more stories from her. She said she did not feel she was a really great writer, but she would tell me stories and I could write them down – so here goes.

I asked her if they were embarrassed when visitors came to see them, and their clothes could be seen hanging on a nail. She said that they didn’t have that many clothes to begin with and actually no nail was crowded, but she decided to use her mom’s red fingernail polish and painted her nail red so it would be pretty. Sister dear was determined to do something with her nail, so she used Christmas ribbon and made streamers to hang down. “Now at least everyone knew our nails!”

She also said if we watch the cowboy movies you will notice those people used nails in their homes back then; customs are passed on, as they still are about different ways of living. For instance, we don’t say icebox, we say refrigerator and deep freezer. She continued on that subject about, she can still see in her mind the huge, thick quilt her mama used to wrap a block of ice in to bring the ice home from Gatesville to put in the bottom of their icebox to try and keep some foods at least cool. Even in the winter months she did this; actually the ice lasted quite awhile even though the fireplace was still roaring – “remember, we had to be kinda warm.”

Thought for the day: “Yes, I do love my refrigerator and am so thankful for modern conveniences – as I think most of us are. I’ve read that red is not to be used when decorating a room because it might make some people feel angry, but my red nail made us happy, or at least it did me – and no I didn’t get in trouble for using mom’s red fingernail polish, and I did not spill any of it either! Lucky me and my pretty red nail!”