And you knew who you were then. Girls were girls and men were men, Mister, we could use a man like Herbert Hoover again.
Didn't need no welfare state, Everybody pulled his weight, Gee our old Lasalle ran great. Those were the days.
Theme song for All In the Family as sung by Archie and Edith Bunker.
I've finished four of the big, thick historic novels my friend Christie gave me. So I can officially say the part of my brain that processes large amounts of information in a timely manner seems to be up and running again.
As with each of these books, The Saints of Swallow Hill is not a fun read. I was reminded why I've always had a "depression mentality." And I learned something. I had never heard the term "Turpentiners." I had no idea turpentine was extracted from tree trunks. It's why North Carolina is the "Tar Heel" state.
The book takes place in the south during the depression. The vast majority of people were poor. Turpetentiners did hard, dangerous work. No bonus for excelling but harsh punishment for falling behind. There was no safety net. "Didn't have no welfare state."
Rae Lynn Cobb and her husband were turpentine farmers but they were barely hanging on. When her husband unexpectedly dies, Rae Lynn takes to the road to find the only work she knows how to do. She ends up in Swallow Hill. Knowing they wouldn't hire a woman, she disguised herself as a young man. She worked hard but couldn't quite make her numbers, so she was punished.
And this brings us to the sweatbox. The small sweatbox is a form of torture that, I'm sad to say, was popular in the south during times of slavery and beyond. It's still used in some parts of the world. The sweatbox, a draconian form of solitary confinement, is most effective in hot, humid weather.
Rae Lynn was put in the sweatbox for three days. When she's freed, not quite dead but close, the novel takes a different direction.
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