Mama never believed in the safety of any bank for the family savings. Perhaps her fear of banks stemmed from the Stock Market crash of the 30's. When I grew up, every penny we had was in mama's charge and in her purse. Daddy liked for her to handle all of the finances as well as she enjoyed being in charge. Wherever mama went, she never ever set her purse down where it was out of her sight. It not only held all of our family cash, but many important papers. So hence, mama clutched her purse everywhere she went.
We urged her to get the money out of the house after she sold the livestock on the Caywood farm and moved to town. We assured her it was safer in a bank. She finally relented and deposited most of what she had in the Farmer's bank of Cherokee, OK.
When mama came to visit us, she carried her purse in her hand or had it sitting by her chair at all times. If she moved to another room, her purse went with her. After some teasing about it, when we took pictures, we finally goaded her to place her purse on top of the refrigerator. Still, you would catch her glancing that direction.
Back in mama’s day, all women carried some type of a purse. They were changed with the seasons. A dark purse was used doing the fall and winter months and a lighter colored one was used from spring to fall. Nowadays, some women carry billfolds or small clutch purses. When I go shopping, I put a tiny billfold or clutch purse in my vest or jacket pocket. When I carried a diaper bag, I put a small billfold inside. If I carried a sizeable purse, an extra diaper or two went inside of that. I disliked carrying both a purse and bag while trying to juggle a small baby or child around.
I can imagine when mama went to be with her maker on Christmas Eve, 1996 that she said “Wait a minute, I have to get my purse first” My memories of mama always includes her purse in her hand.
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