strong hands

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source:  https://www.shorpy.com/node/3167

I remember going to see my Grandmother once.  After my Grandfather, Charles A. Olson, had died, Catherine Olson moved to Oshkosh WI to a Methodist run old folks home.  Her family ran mostly to sisters and two of them lived at this Methodist place.

These gals were originally from a town in northern Wisconsin, Mattoon.  The Lightbody family had a farm and lumberyard ?  I may have that wrong but I suspect they worked pretty hard.

Anyway on this visit to see Catherine (she wasn't my actual grandmother, she was my grandfather's second wife after my Dad's Mom died) we met her sister Jean.  Jean was the oldest of the Lightbodys, born in 1901 (?) so she would have been in her 80s when I met her.

source: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9YB9-9RHK?i=8&cc=1727033

Two things I remember about Jean, she was always mentioned in conversation as:  "Jean and John", part of that married duo, never just as Jean :)  Second, when she shook my hand she had a bonecrushing grip, a little old lady of almost 90 - and wouldn't let go !  :)  I would have been in my mid thirties, admittedly not very strong man entering middle age but yikes.  I figure that these women worked like crazy, milking cows, cutting wood and so on.  That's how your hands get like the ones pictured.  Whenever someone talks about "hard work" in the 21st century they don't know what they are talking about.

Anyway that picture was part of the very famous exhibition (and book) curated by Edward Steichen:  The Family of Man

it's an excellent book, check it out:

https://archive.org/details/georgejeannathan00nath/page/78/mode/2up

Best Regards,
Chuck, WB9KZY
http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm