FOR MOST OF THE CENTURY: HELLO, COMMUNITY (PART 38)

Jean Bell Mosley's new autobiography, "For Most of the Century," is only available in serialized form in the Southeast Missourian. Return each week for her continuing story.

With Stephen in school, Edward working steadily, and my toe in the door of saleable freelance writing, I began to take a larger part in community affairs, but not very large. The lure of home and the fascination with this newly-discovered gift of writing was strong.

In the ensuing years I joined the Rodney Vista Homemakers Club, Parent Teacher Association, Quest Club MFWC (Missouri Federation Women's Club), Chapter G.F of PEO, the Cape Girardeau Writer's Guild, the Missouri State Writer's Guild and a local bridge club.

The Rodney Vista Homemakers Club was a part of the Missouri Extension Service to homemakers. It consisted of housewives living in the Cape Girardeau suburb west of Highway 61, or Kingshighway as it was later known. We met monthly, in the afternoons, took our pre-school children with us, studied ways of doing home chores better --how to clean steam irons, cook oatmeal, prepare nutritious meals from the five food groups, etc.

The County Extension Agent met with us from time to time, giving us the latest tips on canning, cooking, decorating, raising children and many other things. Some of our activities included rolling bandages from old white sheets for the local Cancer Society's cabinet, sponsoring chili suppers and talent shows, the proceeds of which were given to the Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts.

Always we prepared Christmas and Thanksgiving baskets for the less fortunate and generally had a good time just enjoying each other's company.

One lasting memento I have from those Homemaker's Club days is a hex sign that has been in the gable of my garage for years. Sometimes directions to my house are given as, "The garage has a hex sign in the gable." One of our club projects was the making of serving trays from rounds of aluminum. We crimped the sides of the rounds with pliers so that a "pie crust" would stand up. Different designs were made in the bottom of the tray by the process of gluing in a design, then pouring in acid that would "eat" the metal out around the design.

I ordered an eighteen inch diameter round but never did make a tray of it. Later I painted the Daddy Hex sign on it in brilliant colored enamels and nailed it in the center of the white gable. About every two years I change the colors by re-painting.

The legend of the Daddy Hex sign is that it is supposed to ward off evil spirits. I am not superstitious about hex signs, but I do think they make colorful decorations.

This Daddy Hex sign was a quilt pattern found on the cover of a roll of Mountain Mist quilting cotton. I enlarged it to fit my aluminum circle.

When Stephen started kindergarten I became a zealous member of PTA. After being put in charge of securing parental subscriptions to the PTA magazine, I had every set of parents subscribing.

Louise Gross, the kindergarten teacher, conceived the idea of enlarging the children's playground by clearing a steep-sided ravine to the north of the playground, very brushy and poison ivy infested.

The area was known as the Home of the Birds because great flocks of blackbirds and starlings made this area their roosting place.

We parents slaved at that task and exchanged remedies for aching backs and poison ivy blisters. A steep rock stairway was put into place, leading down into this extended playground.

All parents were uneasy about that stairway, especially those of little boys who liked to run and chase.

I promoted the idea of putting life size, wooden cutouts of the characters in the story of "Little Black Sambo" down in the ravine, the little book at that time being popular with the youngsters.

Internet information now, in the last decade of the 20th century, declares that not many people under the age of 40 know the story and that, because of race relations, the book has quietly disappeared from most bookshelves.

Quest Club MFWC (Missouri Federated Women's Club), like the Rodney Vista Homemaker's Club, was for women, but the objects and aims are broader. There is hardly a facet of life that Federated Women's Clubs does not touch, although their one main object is supporting Girls Town, a place to care for uncared for girls.

PEO is an international sisterhood much concerned with philanthropic and educational matters. Members support Cottey College at Nevada, Missouri. Many scholarships are given to women.

The Cape Girardeau Writers Guild, in the beginning, was composed of members who had some area of interest in writing and some who actually worked at writing. It was quite active in the 1950s and 1960s. We met in members' homes where we talked of what writing projects we had completed, what we had underway or what aspirations we had for future projects.

It was special to meet at the J.~ Gerhardt home on Apple Creek where the lower room walls were natural rock outcropping. Gerhardt was an architect and building contractor. Sometimes his friend, James Logan, nursery man and gourmet cook, would be there to prepare wonderful meals for us.

For many years the Cape Girardeau Writer's Guild would have an annual spring banquet at which some well-known writer would be the guest speaker. The Guild faltered near the end of the century.

The Missouri State Writers Guild was composed of members of local guilds who had at least three published pieces. This Guild's annual spring meeting coincided with Journalism Week at Missouri University School of Journalism. I went regularly for several years, quickly becoming vice-president and then president of the Guild. I gave several speeches during Journalism Week before the student body and the State Writer's Guild members.

As for bridge clubs, they are social get-togethers, not altogether unlike the pioneer women's quilting bees, except that we play the card game instead of quilting. It is a good place to share life experiences, form lasting friendships and have good "woman talk." It is the great pastime for the local ladies.

I served on the Board of the Cape Girardeau Public Library and the Publications Board at Southeast Missouri University. I had no great input for either, just filled out the membership. Perhaps I was asked to serve because of my stated love for books and the fact that I had some published.

I did make a few speeches on behalf of a bond issue to be floated for the Public Library. It failed, but other financial means soon enabled the city to relocate and build a new library.

I was on the Board of Publications at SEMO when the counter culture was beginning to creep in and stated my objections to some of, what I thought to be, rude and objectionable expressions in a campus book of poetry then being published. It was subsequently discontinued.

When the local Zoning Committee held hearings on whether or not an apartment building could be built at the southeast corner of Marie Louise Lane and East Rodney, I appeared before the committee to object. The permit was not issued, but a nice two family duplex was erected that appears to be just a handsome residence.

I appeared before the City Council to object to any public rest rooms that might have been contemplated in the Missouri Conservation building, and I also objected to an adjacent wading pool. The public rest rooms did not materialize.

The wading pool was built, but after some years was demolished because it did become a place of leaf and picnic trash collection as I had predicted.

Small victories.

~Jean Bell Mosley is an author and longtime resident of Cape Girardeau.