Tom's Wife

While I had learned a little in school about the depression our country had gone through, and heard stories from relatives. I was not prepared for how bad it really was. Even though this is a work of fiction the facts during the time period are correct.

Because of the cost to feed and have clothes for family members, a lot of girls were wed to men they hardly knew. This is the case with Annie who was married to Tom Huckaby. Her mom did not prepare her for marriage and how it should be. During the first year of marriage her husband Tom had hit her numerous times.

There was never even a soft caress from him. At night it was more like rape than a husband making love to his wife. Tom would come into the bedroom and tell Annie to take off her dress and slip. Then she laid down until he was finished. She fled back home and her mom told her it was to be expected. That a woman had to do everything she could to not make her husband mad. That it happened in all marriages.

Annie had only two years of school. If it had not been for her friend Twila, she would have been totally lost and alone. That is until a peddler stop by to show what he carried in his suitcase for sale. Annie looked at him once and then could not look again. She felt things that a married woman should not feel. Things best left alone. But could Annie keep those feeling in bay or would she eventually give in over time?

One thing that I did learn is that there were different types of being poor during that time. Some could say a pecking order for lack of a better word.

This author makes the words she writes seem as if you are there with her. She takes you back in time with her. This book is not about a happy family like "The Walton’s" television show. In fact it is sad, but a book that I think people should read. Learn what it was really was like for hundreds of people like Annie.
posted to Midwest in Oct 2011
Rated G