Mabel Ramsey wrote this poem about her mother, Amy Dysert, an early pioneer of the mining town of Golden, Ore.
Mama’s Mama on a winter’s day, milked the cows and fed them hay,
Slopped the hogs, saddled the mule, and got the children off to school,
Did a washing, mopped the floors, washed the windows and did some chores,
Cooked a dish of home dried fruit, pressed her husband’s Sunday suit,
Swept the parlor, made the beds, baked a dozen loaves of bread,
Split some firewood, lugged it in, enough to fill the kitchen bin,
Cleaned the lamps and put in oil, stewed some apples she thought might spoil,
Churned some butter, baked a cake, then exclaimed “For mercy sake!
The calves have got out of the pen”…went out and chased them in again,
Gathered the eggs and cleaned the stable, returned to the house and set the table,
Cooked a supper that was delicious, and afterwards washed the dishes,
Fed the cat, sprinkled some clothes, darned some socks that were full of holes,
Then she opened the organ and began to play:
“When You Come to End of a Perfect Day.”
Source: Ramsey, Roger C. "The Kentta-Ramsey Cabin-Part 1." Daily Courier 18 May 1992 [Grants Pass Oregon]: A 12. Print.
