Armchair Travel
Tuesday, September 08, 2009
  For Real Comfort, There's Northing Like a Shroud
I saw a book I couldn't pass up at the South Hadley flea market last week, Maine Memories by Elizabeth Coatsworth. It's a series of stories about life on Damariscotta Pond, where she lived with her husband, naturalist Henry Beston.

This is a fantastic book. Coatsworth includes a lot of stories that she heard from the older members of the farm families in and around Nobleboro, and they're great reading. There's something about a story that's been seasoned by telling and retelling and becomes part of the fabric of the community. Here's one:

"There lived many years ago in a neighboring town a solitary woman who, they say, 'wrote.' No one has the least idea what she wrote, but the memory of desk, ink, and pen clings to her story. As she got on in years she made herself a shroud, to have on hand for her burial if she should sometime be taken suddenly ill."

There came a spell of very hot weather and the lady decided the shroud would be loose and easy to wear during the hot spell "and could be put to some use before it took on its grimmer duties."

Then she started wearing it in the garden, and then when she rode her horse around town.

"She discovered there was nothing like a shroud for real comfort, and in summer she was rarely to be seen in anything else. She wore out shroud after shroud, and when she finally died, the neighbors had to make one for her, as there wasn't a shroud in the house fit to be worn."

Labels: , ,

 
Comments:
Interesting story And it is the truth we accept when we are gone.
 
Post a Comment



<< Home
Literary gadfly Stephen Hartshorne writes about books that he finds at flea markets and rummage sales.

My Photo
Name:
Location: Sunderland, Massachusetts, United States

Stephen Hartshorne worked in newspapers and magazines around New England for many years and served as Information Officer in the New Hampshire Senate under Senate President Vesta Roy. He worked as a material handler for nine years at the Yankee Candle Company until the company was taken over by corporate weasels. He is currently the associate editor of GoNOMAD.com, an alternative travel website, which gives him the opportunity to correspond with writers and photographers all over the world. He lives in Sunderland, Massachusetts, with his daughter Sarah, a student at Drew University, and their cat, Dwight D. Eisenmeower. This blog is dedicated to his mom, who made him bookish.

ARCHIVES
February 2006 / March 2006 / April 2006 / May 2006 / June 2006 / July 2006 / August 2006 / September 2006 / October 2006 / November 2006 / December 2006 / January 2007 / February 2007 / March 2007 / April 2007 / May 2007 / June 2007 / July 2007 / August 2007 / September 2007 / October 2007 / November 2007 / December 2007 / January 2008 / February 2008 / March 2008 / April 2008 / May 2008 / June 2008 / July 2008 / August 2008 / September 2008 / October 2008 / November 2008 / December 2008 / January 2009 / February 2009 / March 2009 / April 2009 / May 2009 / June 2009 / July 2009 / August 2009 / September 2009 / October 2009 / November 2009 / December 2009 / January 2010 / February 2010 /


MOST RECENT POSTS
A Coat, A Hat and a Gun
The Lobster Coast
Brave Sweet Sally Soldiers On
Brave Sweet Sally
Visions of a Better World
The Ideal Whereunto Mankind Slowly Draws Near
Developing as a Writer
Heading for the Light
Pre-Code Movies and Salacious Paperbacks
The Fine Art of Being Yourself


MY FAVORITE BLOGS
  • Kent St. John's Be Our Guest
  • Max Hartshorne's Readuponit
  • Mridula's Travel Tales from India
  • Paul Shoul's new Photo Blog Round World Photo
  • GoNOMAD Travel Website Great Travel Writing
  • Sony Stark's Blog "Cross That Bridge"
  • GoNOMAD's Travel Reader Blog Travel Articles
  • Sarah Hartshorne's "Erratic in Heels"
  • Posting comments can be a pain. Email me.




  • Powered by Blogger