Looking Back with Frances on Sod Houses

Tea. Toast. & Trivia.

S4 E34: Looking Back with Frances on Sod Houses

Welcome to Tea Toast and Trivia.

Thank you for listening in.

I am your host, Rebecca Budd, and I look forward to sharing this moment with you.

May 22, 2022, The City of Vancouver held a symposium to feature best practices in green roof design, maintenance and policy making on the West Coast. This was in response to Vancouver’s ambitious targets of having all new buildings “carbon neutral” by 2030. One of the strategies is to promote green roofs as a way of managing rainwater. It is called the RainCity Strategy.

The United States Environment Protection Agency supports this strategy: “Green roofs have been proven to help reduce heat islands.” The European Commission recognizes the multiple benefits of green roofs in a new EU Strategy on Adaptation to Climate Change.

Green Roofs are emerging as a global strategy. And yet, green roofs have been with us throughout history. We continue to build on knowledge that has come before. As Isaac Newton remarked a few centuries ago: “if I have seen further [than others], it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.”

Today, I am joined by my mother, Frances, to discuss sod houses. I invite you to put the kettle on and add to this exciting discussion.

"Carl A. Oman was a tall, very handsome man. He was born and spent his early childhood in Oman, Sweden. His surname came from his birthplace, a choice was made to change the family name when they came to the United States. He came as a young unmarried man, possibly to prepare for the arrival of the rest of his family. Many of his relatives settled in Minden, Nebraska, but he chose to homestead approximately fifteen miles between the towns of Callaway and Arnold, Nebraska. Gothenburg lay 24 miles to the south. There is not much information about his family, but he did have brothers who “made it well”. One settled further to the west and one chose to go to Alaska to mine for gold." Frances, My Mother’s Memoirs

Thank you for joining Frances and me on Tea Toast and Trivia as we looked back at how sod houses created family homes.

Until next time we meet, safe travels wherever your adventures lead you.

Special note: When I entered the world of podcasting in 2019, my first goal was to preserve my mother, Frances’s story. Frances was raised on a farm in Nebraska during the eventful decades of 1930’s and 1940’s. We read about the Great Depression that spanned the years from 1929 – 1939 and acknowledge that it was the worst economic downturn in the history of the industrialized world. And yet, it is when we hear the stories of those who lived in those years that we come to appreciate how history continues to influence our present reality.

Music by Emily Rubye “In Another Life” #EpidemicSound

https://www.epidemicsound.com/track/zBn6lcut8W/