July, 1949 Poem by Ron Rash

I enjoyed reading Ron Rash's poem entitled July, 1949.

What This Poem Taught Me

When I read this poem I pictured a woman with sweat trickling across her brow. A woman who had worked hours toiling in the summer heat, dreaming of another life as Ron Rash suggested that she was. The car pulled up and the woman ran desperately to reach the car, while the sandlapper relatives spilled out toward her from the mill. Sandlapper is a term that the British called the people who lived around the river basin during the Revolutionary War and who often attacked while lying on their bellies in the sandy soil. The British taunted them until the pesky little “dirt eaters” ran them out of the state. Like many other derogatory names throughout history, the name sandlapper has become a title of honor and the represents the sandlappers' spirit of doing whatever it takes to get the job done. The woman left the hoe in the field without a care to what would happen to it there; because she was dreaming of another life that offered her more opportunity and luxury than the one she would be facing hoeing beans. I think this is every young girl’s dream that faces a hard life without any way out or any escape from the struggle that she realizes life will be if she stays there. Without dreams and ambitions many things would never happen… like Ron Rash!

How I Relate To July, 1949

I feel that I can relate to this poem because it immediately reminded me of my mother. My mother was raised out in the country on a cotton field…literally! My grandmother would lay her on a small blanket underneath a tree while she and my aunts picked cotton underneath the scorching Sun. My mother grew up, like many other people in the South, working from Sunup to Sundown in the humid hot summer. All of my grandmother’s children grew up to lead good prosperous live. I have no doubt that they spent many hours laboring in that cotton field dreaming of escape!

I have, like so many of us, been through many hard and/or trying times during my life. I believe that this is a poem of hope that reminds us to look for salvation during those trying times. For me personally, when I have been through horrible times I have prayed for guidance and hope. I feel that I have always had my prayers answered and my life has been truly blessed! I have had to sacrifice a lot and work hard but it has all been worth it. There is always hope for those who wish to see it!