LEARNING FROM ALORTHA
BY
MARY WALKER BARON
I lived
with Alortha Aston during my sophomore year in high school. My parents correctly reasoned that, since her
husband, Lomax had recently died, she could use the extra income.
Alortha was
born in Missouri. One of her favorite
expressions was, “I’m from Missouri.
Prove it to me.”
For the
entire year I lived with her, Alortha worked at Upton’s Café in Globe,
Arizona.
She visited her husband’s grave every day. Often, sometimes after dark, I would go with
her.
Every
Friday after school I rode with another ranching family to the little town of
Young (population 200). The trip took
well over three hours, often on dirt roads.
Then either my father or mother would pick me up at the Young Post
Office for the more than an hour and a half ride to our home on the Flying W.
Alortha was
a member of the Church of Christ in Globe.
The Church of Christ is not famous for its liberal view of life. Alortha’s brother-in-law, Loathar Hamilton,
was the song leader. He used a pitch
pipe. This created such a schism that the church dissolved and moved elsewhere
outside of Globe. Ultimately Alortha
bought the building on Deveraux. My
brother and I once visited her there.
She was doing all of the remodeling on her own. Alortha Aston was truly an independent and
remarkable woman.
I learned a
lot from her during that sophomore year.
She insisted that I hung up my clothes with the hangers all pointing in
the same direction. Her reasoning was
that in case of fire one could easily remove all one’s clothing. To this day I still hang my clothes with the
hangers all pointing the same direction.
My reasoning differs significantly from Alortha’s. If my house were on fire I would not feel an
urgent need to get my clothes out of the burning house. I probably wouldn’t even worry about my
clothes. My goal would be to get all the
living creatures, human or otherwise, to safety.
Sad to say,
Alortha wasn’t much of a cook. We
generally ate dinner at Upton’s. I ate
breakfast and lunch at her house—lunch alone because Alortha was working as a
waitress at Upton’s. Alortha taught me
to eat what I didn’t like first because then I would always save the best for
last.
I’m a
writer. I didn’t learn much about
writing from Alortha but I did learn a lot about living from her. I believe that good writers must necessarily
know a lot about living.
During the
year I lived with Alortha Aston I learned a lot about living and I thank her
for that.
