Mable Pyne, the name sounds like a character from a book written by Carson McCullers, southerly with a lonely heart, she doesn’t give too much away and stands upright like a walnut armoire in a second bedroom that doesn’t get much use, but without mirrors there’s no reflection on the actual name of the woman; no funny business, she’s there to get the job done, a real Rosie the Riveter who understands she’s as good as anyone and out to prove it. See that geography book? Mable wrote and illustrated it for children, using her own iconography that lets you see as soon as you turn a page, the entire economy of the United States, a scattering of cows, corn, cotton, oil rigs, milk and cheese, and minerals across every state, takes you on a cross-country trip through rivers and mountains, deserts and western plains, including canals, volcanoes and islands. She lets us know about the people who came a long distance “to find a better place for themselves and their children…working to make their new country still better.” From Mexico, Italy, Ireland, and China. I know more about Mable and her books than I do about my own mother.