20 Apr 2015 Women! Start your ingenuity!
by Vivian Lawson Hogue
Women of all ages and circumstances must be resourceful at some point in their lives. Sometimes resourcefulness is used to make wise decisions for your family or simply learning how to make home repairs.
I recall once, while living in a rental home, I became tired of a wooden screen door that was in very poor condition. I took the door from its hinges, removed the molding and ragged, rusted screening, measured the opening and went to a hardware store. I returned with new screening, staples, tiny finishing nails and store clerk advice. While the children were at school, I repaired the door in less than two hours.
When they arrived home, they noticed the door. They couldn’t help it. I was guarding it with outstretched arms and saying quietly, but with a firmly set jaw, “Don’t push on the screen.” I didn’t even have to say, “Or else.”
At another rental home I noticed one bedroom was not getting air through the floor vent. I removed the register and looked down with a flashlight. All I saw was dirt, so I knew there was a detached duct. I put on my worst clothes, which were hard to tell from the good ones during those financially challenged times, pocketed the flashlight and duct tape and entered the opening in the foundation. It was like another world under there. I did a belly crawl to the duct, pushed it back up, taped it securely and crawled back out. I was proud of myself, but my wise mother questioned my judgment in regard to snakes, spiders, live wires and the possibility of being injured and no one knowing where I was.
A now-favorite family story concerns an experience after an October family event in Little Rock. We left the festivities around 10 p.m. with my 91-year-old father in the passenger seat with his cane and my adult daughter in the back seat. We stopped for gasoline somewhere in North Little Rock. I don’t know where. Still don’t, as we were lost. I went into the store to prepay with cash as required, which should have told me something. All sorts of shady characters were there. I quickly paid $10 and went outside to fill the tank. As I pumped, I became aware of a fight in the middle of the wide intersection. Two shirtless, barefoot, bloodied drunk men were throwing empty liquor bottles at each other as they wrestled toward the gas pumps.
I ducked and squatted down by the car, continuing to pump while my daughter was yelling, “Stop and get inside!” Always a comparison shopper, I refused, saying, “No, I’m getting my $10 worth!” As I finished and capped the tank, a bottle landed a couple of yards from the car. I jumped in and drove off quickly but never forgot how my dad looked. Knowing and hearing what was going on, he stoically sat there throughout, hands on his cane handle, looking straight ahead, the sparse hair on top of his head standing up — like Yoda without the ears. Two years later I was ironing and watching “COPS” on TV and there it was . . . a video of the two blood-soaked drunks sitting on a curb in handcuffs. However, the 1988 white Honda had left with a full tank, still hunting for Conway.
These examples show resourcefulness that is probably less dignified than that of other women. All that is involved is doing what can make life easier, safer or more affordable. Although sometimes convenience or enjoyment is the purpose, it is becoming increasingly a matter of necessity.
A native of Conway, Vivian Lawson Hogue graduated from the University of Central Arkansas with a degree in art education. A retired teacher, she worked in the Conway School District for 23 years. She is editor of the Faulkner County Historical Society’s semi-annual publication, “Faulkner Facts and Fiddlings.” She can be reached at [email protected].
