Breaking Clean

Breaking Clean

By Judy Blunt

Growing up in rural Montana in the 1950’s and 1960’s was a life a large majority of Americans cannot fully comprehend, appreciate, nor would even want to live. It was a hard life for men who worked farms, and was especially hard for the women who shared this life as well. Breaking Clean is a simple, honest memoir written by Judy Blunt who grew up as the third child out of five of a third-generation of homesteaders in eastern Montana. The family farm was closest to the town of Malta with a population of only 2,500 that was more than an hour away, and the biggest town there was within a hundred miles in any direction.

People in these Montana prairies had an isolated life where “Every generation relearns the rules its fathers have forgotten”, cursed nature when it threatens their livelihood, yet realized that “This land owes you nothing” [p. 60]. This was a time and region where the difference between what was expected of men and women was paramount. Children grew up working hard, knowing their place in their society and grew up quickly as a result. Being somewhat of a tomboy, Blunt could handle farm equipment and chores as well as her brother, yet was still expected to learn how to cook, clean and care for the men. As with previous generations, it was expected that she follow a planned path to becoming a rancher’s wife. But Judy Blunt always felt there was something more to this hard, bleak life and began a long journey towards breaking clean from the constraints of her upbringing.

An example of the cycle followed by her father, his father, and his father before him is told when Blunt recalls a major blizzard in December 1964 that trapped the family and some neighbors in their small homestead. She unemotionally describes how her father simply proceeded to go through the motions of keeping the pipes from freezing, calmly accepting the fact that he could do nothing as the storm progressed and he could not prevent loss of a of their livestock. Or how when he first ventured out to check on the animals in their nearby barn and nearly lost his way back in whiteout conditions. Later, when the storm passed, she told of playing amongst the frozen corpses of the cattle, jumping from ribcage to ribcage, daring her older brother and sister to cut off pieces of the animals, all with the calm acceptance that this was so normal, nothing strange about it.

By contrast, many of the experiences Blunt had during her school years, despite the isolation of her community, could have taken place anywhere. From the simple pride having her first personal possession (a clean, embroidered handkerchief), coveting prized desks and adding to the graffiti on them, to the arrogant pride in being accepting of an �outsider’, an Indian boy who attended her school. In retrospect, she knew her arrogance was a result of how she was raised and that ”there were so many things I knew without knowing why, things I learned as a child listening with half an ear to all that was said, and most intently to all that was not said" [pp. 84–85].

High school offered her first glimpse into the unfamiliar more urban world and her first steps out of childhood. At 14, she was sent to Malta, and had room and board at the same house as her older brother. Even then, she was given nothing but her own resources to cope with her new situation. Her attempts to fashion herself after models in magazines were met with snide remarks and scorn from the city girls, but being raised in a culture where self-pit was not accepted nor tolerated, she calmly tolerated the remarks. In contrast, the local in-town girls a mystery with their giggling over boys and exaggerated fear of small creatures. Blunt bravely went against the rigid morals she grew up in and experimented as many teenagers still do today, stealing make-up to wear from her mother and developing a cigarette habit unbecoming to a proper young lady. As with many teens, she found her parents did not agree with choice of “wild” girlfriends or her going out with boys not familiar to them within their rural community. She had become too willful in their eyes and threatened her newfound independence by nearly pulling her out of school and back to the farm. Judy felt she had no choice but obey their wishes knowing that she must protect this chance to learn more about the outside world and the changes she saw through the sources available in-town.

During this time of probation her visits home began to include reappearances from an older neighbor boy, John, recently back from Vietnam. While he fascinated her by his obvious interest in her, he still represented life back home as his family went back generations ranching and farming that country