Friday, September 18, 2009 9:12 PM CDT
Visitors to the Village: The ones you don't want to stay
By Rachel Sykes
Grain elevator fires were more common around the 1920s. Extensive damage was done to the local elevator that my father and his brother Arla owned and operated. They hired a crew of workers from Indiana to rebuild it.
The workers needed room and board in order to come. The most practical solution for handling this came upon Mother. She had to provide meals and prepare sleeping quarters for them.
In return for her efforts, she was surprised by the most unwelcome of household intruders — bedbugs! We can only imagine what extra work this must have caused. I think that must have been a nightmare. It’s the only thing I ever heard her say about this difficult time.
We are told that bedbugs are making a comeback by trying to set up housekeeping and blood-leeching clinics in the nation’s inns along the well-traveled roads. That must cause a lot of headaches. I know nothing further about it, so hope the problem has been contained.
My own experience with them is almost nil, but not quite so. During World War II, we visited with family working in a defense plant in Milwaukee. We women got to stay awhile in a cabin on a lake not far away. It was owned by someone they knew, and I don’t believe we paid much, if anything, to stay there.
The first or second morning at the breakfast table, cousin Leah seemed a little distracted. She said she hadn’t slept well last night. As she discussed this with Mother, they suddenly concluded there must be bedbugs on her bed in the bedroom. Leah was scratching her arms, but Mother was having no such troubles.
The two of them decided to go look for the invaders. By tearing the bedding apart and turning the mattress, their suspicions were confirmed. No time was lost before they had the mattress on fire outside. Next, they called the owners to report the presence of bedbugs.
Two men came very soon, looking dumbfounded. They never changed their expression the whole time they were there. When Leah confidently told them she had already burned the mattress, they made no protests.
All I recall of their conversation was a bland and brief statement that two men they knew recently asked to stay there. After examining the area where the mattress burned up, they soon left.
We still had a few days left to stay, but Leah and Mother had no desire to stay longer than the time it took to pack up and go. They felt badly that I had to leave early, but it really did not matter to me that I would also leave.
They arranged for me to stay with the mother and children in the next cabin. Her daughter about my age and I had enjoyed sharing fun time together. It was easy to dismiss the bedbugs and spend the rest of our visit in Leah, Autie and Carrol’s apartment.
Yes, bedbugs are very unwelcome any time. In early apocraphyl writings about the Apostle John, there is a story that concerns bedbugs. John and some friends were staying together overnight where there was only one bed. In deference, John was assigned this bed, only to discover that bedbugs were there first.
He commanded them to leave, which they did. After an undisturbed sleep, upon leaving these men found the bedbugs outside the door of entry, waiting patiently for their opportunity to return.
In China today, there are inspectors who routinely check out dwellings for sanitation reasons. The residents have to be out of the house at the time. Do you suppose bedbugs are ever found by them?
These exterminators may save housewives the agonies involved in this situation. Mother could have used some more help in the early part of the 20th century, I am sure.
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JeffGrill wrote on Sep 17, 2009 7:23 AM: