Thursday, January 30, 2014

Feet

Over a year ago I had a guest who traveled here to Michigan from Oklahoma to visit her father. During her visit she had the opportunity to acquire some family history all bound up in several large, old ledgers. The handwritten daily entries dated from the late 1800's to the 1950's. Among the numerous artifacts contained in these books were notations of how many pigs or cows were sold or butchered, who owed what, and recipes  to make soap, chicken feed, and pig wormer; who was born, who died, who got married or divorced. I was right in my glory when my guest allowed me to copy some of the items I found interesting. Actually, all of it was interesting, but I only had so much ink and paper. To me, family history is the foundation of where we live. And every family has interesting history.

Among the items and entries I copied were newspaper clippings. One such is dated August 2, 1927 and it was a regular newspaper column titled "Lyrics of Life" by Douglas Malloch where poetry was the theme. I have typed the poem below.

I am unaware of what town newspaper the clippings originated from that I found in the old ledgers, but it had to be from a city in the southwest part of Michigan where the family was once established. Thank you to Mikki Mast for her generosity in allowing me to rifle through her family history.
Feet
by Douglas Malloch
Feet go walking up and down,
Taking folk all over town,
Great big feet in great big shoes,
Little feet like babies use,
Quiet feet like mothers wear,
Noisy feet that just don't care,
Children's feet that romp and run,
Old, old feet whose romp is done.
People seldom think about
How their feet help people out,
Take them where they want to go,
Just as though they seemed to know,
Always take them somewhere, then
Always bring them back again.
People don't appreciate
How their feet just work and wait.
Father talks about his hands,
But it's on his feet he stands.
Sister talks about her face,
That won't take her any place.
People go buy hats to wear,
But their feet must fetch them there.
Feet, no matter what one spends,
Are just about our best of friends.