Her Mother Always Told Her She Was Strong... But Strength Isn't Always Enough

On this episode of Our American Stories, Edie Hand remembers an Alabama childhood filled with mud pies, Shetland ponies, and afternoons in the barn where she could dream freely. Her mother kept a perfect home and often reminded her that she was strong, like her grandmother Alice. But while her brothers drew their mother’s attention, Edie was left to prove that strength on her own. Now in her seventies, she looks back on a girlhood shaped by joy, silence, and a search for connection that still lingers.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
and we tell stories about everything here on this show,
from the arts to sports, and from business to history
and everything in between, including your story. Send them to
our American Stories dot com. There's some of our favorites.
And you've heard from Edie hand before on our show.
Today you're going to hear a little bit about Edie's

(00:31):
own life story. We love telling you stories of family,
stories of mothers and the importance they play in their
children's lives, for better and for worse. Here is Edie
with her own story.

Speaker 2 (00:50):
I recall a simpler time in my life and burn Out, Alabama.
It was so small that we used to laugh and say,
we know burnouts burnt plumb out. I remember going out
back of the house and I would be making mud pies.

(01:10):
My brothers would come up, and I'll never forget how
they said, so, what are you cooking today? Eatie, or
they called me Edith, and I said, I'm making a
new mud pie. You want to try it. I remember
they sat down on the little pieces of wood on
the rocks and they put that mud in their mouth.

(01:32):
They got sick from eating that dirt and running to
the house to tell mother that I'd fed on mud pies.
It wasn't funny to my mother, but it was funny
to me. It was those little things. I remember going
to the barn with the boys and we saddle up

(01:52):
our horses. We had two Shetland ponies and a quarter horse.
It was a wonderful place to grow up. There was
forty acres of rolling hills. We had the garden with
different chores to do. The boys did more in the garden.
I was more helping mother with laundry. My mother would

(02:16):
always have us baked when we got off a school bus.

Speaker 1 (02:20):
I remember was.

Speaker 2 (02:21):
Baked sweet potatoes and chocolate dew dad cookies. She would
want to hear about what we had done in school
for the day. I remember we had a cold glass
of milk with that. That was It's just remembering home.
That was home to me, and we all need some
place we can call home, either physically or a place

(02:44):
we can go back to in our minds. And that
is a place for me, and I think the barn.
I used to think, this is the place. You know.
It was just simpler times, but it was the place
of the most joy. I think of feeling free and

(03:05):
It could be anything you want to be. But the
barn just spoke to me in a way of I
like the openness. I like the lofts, and you could dream.
It was a place to dream. You could look out
through the holes see the sky, or you could jump
out of the barn and be in a pile of

(03:26):
sawdust or hay. And we played kick the can, relay
runs that we would see how fast we were, you know,
go from one tree to the next. It was just
nothing big, but those simple games that I cherished the most,
that I would call this is the place. I think

(03:48):
that place is where I found me. My mother, Sue,
was a homemaker when I was young. She just lived
for her children. She loved to dress me up beautifully.
I was her baby doll, and of course I was
her first child and the boys always so handsome. Now,

(04:12):
she didn't come to the barn and do the things
with us, but my grandmother, Alice did. She She was
a tomboy, my grandmother. She could ride, she could milk cows,
she could do anything. But my mother was the one
that always had everything just right in the home, was
always dressed perfect. My mother taught me about being proper,

(04:35):
good manners. Was always important to be a lady, so
I grew up with a lot of old school manners
with her. She was always very proud of my accomplishments
in life. I didn't get to be as close to
her as I wanted to be. She was closer to
the boys. I think my mother was closer to the

(04:59):
boys because they were more needy. And she would say,
you're strong. You're like Mama, You're like Alice. You don't
really need anybody. You just get out there and do it.
But what I wish my mother had noticed was that
I didn't either, so I always just was strong. Everybody

(05:25):
said it, so I must be strong. I think it
made me a loner. It was a good quality, but
I don't like being alone. My grandmother, Alice, she said,
please always love your mother. She loves you dearly. She

(05:49):
just doesn't know how to connect to you. Your mother
loves you. And sometimes there's just no real explanation other
things and just the comment of it. Because what people
don't realize, I think is that it is important to
take the time to explain to someone and talk to them.

(06:13):
Don't hide behind feelings. I think I suppressed mine through
the years to be almost seventy years old, and to
see that the little girl in me still wants to
go to the place. Since the barn is gone, my

(06:35):
grandmother's gone, when most of my family is gone, there
is no place that I feel quite at home anymore.
But I'm looking for it. I'm going to find another
place because my grandmother said I could do hard things,
and I will and I do.

Speaker 1 (07:00):
And great job on the production by Robbie, and thanks
for just a beautiful piece of storytelling from Edie Hand.
And that barn is a place to dream and it's
seventy years old. She's looking for that place. She suppressed
her feelings and she was the strong one and it
made her a loner. Eadie Hand's story here on Our

(07:25):
American Story liehbib here and I'd like to encourage you
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(07:48):
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