Today, March 7, 2025 would be my mother's 99th birthday. She learned to be a caretaker starting in early childhood.
Here's a photo of the Snyder family about 1935 in the front yard of their farmhouse on Pleasant Home Church Road, Millers Creek, Wilkes County, NC.
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| Back row: Tom (W.T. Snyder) and Neil (age 13). Front row: Nora holding Ralph (age 3), Carrie (age 9) holding Bette (age 1), Kathy (age 6). |
Neil was the oldest child but gender roles were strictly enforced. As Tom and Nora’s oldest daughter, Carrie’s chores included looking after her younger siblings. First Kathy, born when Carrie was 3. Three years later, Ralph came along. The other children could play outside after dinner, but Carrie had to rock the baby until he closed his eyes. She blew lightly on Ralph’s eyelids, then dashed outside. Sometimes it worked! Bette arrived in 1934; Carrie was 8. Carrie wrote:
I remember the nights after supper, we all played “Ain’t no bears out tonight, Papa killed them all last night.” At dusk we were scared. Mama usually made me sit on the back porch and rock the baby to sleep. I would hurry to put the baby into bed so I could play. If I quit rocking too quick the baby cried and Mama would call me back in. By the time the baby was really sound asleep, I was too scared to go into the yard.
While walking home from school in the spring of 1936, a neighbor lady called out “Carrie Mae, you better hurry on home! Your mama and daddy got a big surprise waitin’ for you!” Carrie then walked as slowly as she could because the last time that lady said there was a big surprise, Bette was the surprise. So Carrie figured there was another baby for her to take care of. Instead, they got a radio! All the neighbors came over to hear it. Tom told them it didn’t work at night so they would go home and not stay for dinner. Carrie loved the music and comedy and stories. The radio was much better than another baby!
