Promised Land Part 2
By Jeri Lynn White
School Building
Ethel also felt the darkness when the blizzard of 1981 roared and thundered across the plains, and two thirds of their cattle were lost. But soon the sun broke through the clouds, and they began again. Then again the dark days came in 1923. F.W. came speeding up in the Model T yelling about telephone lines, water, and drowning. Finally, Ethel calmed him and learned the story. F.W.’s brothers, Mark and Russell, who had been repairing phone lines, which ran through a usually dry playa lake, had drowned. The boys were in a boat, and when it tipped over, Mark fell into the water. Russell jumped in to save his brother, who was unable to swim and neither returned to the surface. The devastation that struck the family demanded a strength from Ethel she had not known was within her. And as Ethel’s parents had also said, “When the clouds roll by, bright days will come again.” They did. F.W. rose early as he usually did, but on this day he told Ethel he had to go to town. Ethel thought this curious; F.W. normally went to town at the end of the week, but she had her own chores to worry about. Later that evening, she heard a commotion outside. As Ethel looked out the window, she saw F.W. in the Model T, honking the horn, with a piano balanced on the back end. F.W. had traded a mule to buy her a piano. Receiving the piano was one of the brightest days for Ethel.
Ethel watched the town change, her husband inspire development, and her children grow. She saw transportation become cars instead of horses, ranches plowed into farms, and a one room school grow to a two story building. Her children all graduated from college, her husband became a town leader, and her mother-in-law became the first woman on the school board. Through it all, Ethel devoutly continued to give music to her community. She played the piano for the church, led the choir, and gave lessons to eager children.
Still the dark days come. The drought consumes the country, and crops dry in the field before they even begin to grow. The wind rips across the prairie and tears at men’s souls. But there are more bright days than dark; and more days filled with music than there ever are silent ones. Ethel grew to love her home in Texas; she gave this love to her family. She loved to watch the sun set and the sky turn into fire. She loved the wind’s melody through the grass and through the cracks of the house.
Ethel’s God-given talent also became a gift she gave to her family. Ethel’s piano no abides, adorned with white doilies and family photographs in the home of her granddaughter. The piano stands as a reminder of how a young, inexperienced woman can step off a train onto the untamed plains and survive. It stands as a token of Ethel’s love for music. And it stands as a reminder of how Ethel came to love the Panhandle. “I should have know to trust F.W.,” Ethel once said, “He has a way of seeing the hidden beauty and promise in what I do not. Yes, Texas is a promised land.”
Jeri Lynn White is a direct descendant of Glen and Ruth Stevick. She is related by marriage to the White and Reeve families. She and her husband Bill are the parents of two children, Hadley Glen and Adaline Ruth.
Wedding Picture