Snakes in the Kitchen

by Carolyn Paul Branch

We were "river rats" - that's what they called us. We lived in the bottoms, close to the railroad tracks and the Missouri River.

Nearly every year the river flooded and turned our dirt streets into creeks full of fish, snakes, and trash from towns upriver. Some years the Missouri took the whole bottom, rushing into our house so we had to get out fast with whatever we could carry. When the water went back down, we scraped mud off walls, scrubbed with strong bleach, and moved back in.

Mama did that year after year. She learned to deal with floods. But the snake pushed her over the edge. She didn't want to live in a house where snakes could come and go as they pleased. Daddy said we couldn't afford to live anywhere else. We owned the old house on River Street and some years the water didn't get in it at all.

It wasn't an argument, or even a discussion. Daddy made the decision.
Mama lived with it - and a whole lot more.

Snakes in the Kitchen is an early childhood memoir of growing up poor in the early 1950's, in Mokane Missouri. It's a story of one woman's efforts, against all odds, to pull her children out of the mud and into a house with indoor plumbing.

Mama never gave any thought to Women's Rights, but she knew she didn't have any. She didn't know anything about women's liberation, but she knew a man had always been in control of her life. Her father forced to quit school to take a job when she was thirteen. He refused to let her see the man she loved and pushed her into marrying a man she hardly knew.

She didn't know anything about equal pay for women, she just wanted a job so she could feed her children and keep a roof over their heads.

She was trapped in a loveless marriage with a husband was who harsh and openly unfaithful.
Divorce was a disgrace to her family and friends, but she faced the disapproval and held her head high as she built a new life for herself and her children.

Snakes in the Kitchen includes many award winning biographical stories published here for the first time. The title chapter, Snakes in the Kitchen, won the top Midwest Writer's Workshop non-fiction award in 2013. The second chapter, The Day Grandma called the Doctor, took the same award in 2015. The author was recorded telling Mama and the New TV and the video was used as part of a Smithsonian sponsored exhibit. Other chapters won the Storyteller Magazine Award and the Lt. Fred Guidry Search for Excellence Award.

124 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 25, 2016

About the author

Carolyn Paul Branch learned storytelling from her mother and started writing down both family stories and "made-up" tales when she was twelve. She worked with the Callaway County Public Library's local history and genealogy collection for more than thirty years and developed a deep love and respect for the human stories buried in old records.
She is the author of six books of local and family history.
Snakes in the Kitchen is her first memoir. The title chapter won the top non-fiction Award from Midwest Writer's Workshop 2013 in Indiana. The second chapter, The Day Grandma Called the Doctor won the same award in 2015. Other chapters have won various literary awards in Arkansas and Missouri.
Tangled Roots is a mystery novel set amid the small towns, bluffs, and trails of Central Missouri.
Branch's next novel, The Sanity of Strawberries, is a murder mystery set within a hospital for the criminally insane.

Reviews

[❤Marie Gentilcore · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was the last book I finished in 2020 and it was a real pleasure to read. It is a short memoir filled with vignettes about various times in the author’s childhood. It felt very authentic to me. I’m so glad that I ended the year with this lovely book.

[Shannon Green-Kingery · Rating 5 out of 5]

A friend recommended I read this book and I am really glad she did. The writer is from Missouri, as am I. She writes about growing up in Callaway County in the late 40s and early 50s. Though I did not live in that part of the state, I can really relate to a lot of what she writes about--both as a child of that era and as a Missourian. She has a real knack for capturing the time and the place. It is a wonderful little book and a quick read. Once you pick it up, you won't want to put it down:)

[Terry]

My father was born in Mokane, Missouri. The family eventually moved to Southeast Missouri, but there are still some cousins there, where the family has had wineries for several years.
This one is going on my must read list!

[Greta Cross · Rating 5 out of 5]

I know I am entirely biased about this book, as it’s about my hometown and resembles so many of the stories I heard from my grandma growing up, but that’s why I love it.

I know where River Street is, where the Fall Festival is held each year before school starts, and what the bluffs look like driving to Jefferson City. Despite it all, the dark and grim, this book made me feel extremely nostalgic and warm. I feel grateful to Carolyn for documenting the few years of her childhood that she did for this memoir.

[Shari Ring Wolf · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great short story

There is no doubt this is a factual memoir. It’s hard to tell f it is well-written in first person capturing the voice of a small child, or a simply written first effort at writing a book. Well edited and proof-read. I’m left wondering what happened to this girl & her mother as they grew.