When my grandfather was killed in a mining accident, my grandma opened her house to boarders. She had a parlor with a piano and a beautiful fireplace in it. On Sundays she would open the parlor and play and sing hymns. I learned to walk, hanging on to Grandma's skirts.

There were no restaurants in the 20's in Lock Four (on the Monongahela river banks) and there was a Government Works there that only employed men. So grandma served meals to them. She had a small back porch, long and narrow, that had been enclosed, like a sun-parlor. She kept a small table there with a tablecloth and a place setting covered over with a large white cloth. Whenever a hobo would knock at her back door for food, Grandma had them come in and when I was there I got to serve them at that table, a big glass of milk, a cup of hot coffee and everything that Grandma served her "mealers". Usually she had beef on one end and pork on the other end of her large table, laden with vegetables etc. On a side table there was always homemade pie and cake, usually an egg custard pie along with the fruit pies. The hobo had his pick of the goodie table. When anyone remarked that she shouldn't feed the hobos, she would remind them that Jesus said, "you fed me when I was hungry--if you do it for the least of these, you do it for me." And she'd tell me "Li'L Ruth, remember you may be entertaining angels unaware!" I was pre-school when she preached this to me all the time. Once a hobo asked me why grandma did this and I told him "cause you might be an angel in underwear."

As Grandma worked, cooked and scrubbed, she sang all the old hymns.When the Roll is Called Up Yonder, Will there be any Stars in my Crown?, Beulah Land and In the Garden. I had these all memorized before I went to school.

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