Feeding the Family: The Garden, Part 2

We were organic before organic became popular. From the totally organic garden to the table, and sometimes it didn't even make it to the table. The first peas were furtively plucked, pods popped, and the delicious fresh peas were scraped from the pod and scooped into the mouth. The first tender fresh carrots were pulled from strategic places in the row, wiped on the pants, and crunched between the teeth. And is there anything better than a tender young radish? Or the first handful of washed lettuce topped with sugar? But, of course, there was much more than could be eaten on the go. Tommy and I soon found ourselves with large dishpans full of peas in front of us. We made a game of seeing who could fill their bowl with shelled peas first. After the bowls were full, mom blanched and froze them. After the peas, we began on the beans. Sitting on a blanket on the shady side of the house, we attacked the dishpans that were now filled with beans. Each one had to be "snapped" on both ends before mom took them, cut them up, and canned them. Beans weren't as much fun because they are no good raw and too many of them had dandelion fuzz stuck to them. It wasn't long before we were husking corn, which mom cut off the cob and froze. And, oh, the taste of fresh corn-on-the-cob straight from the garden to the supper table! My brothers had a contest to see who could eat the most. For weeks, our days were consumed with picking the produce from the garden, canning, and freezing, making into pickles, relish and numerous other things. The two big freezers in the basement had been defrosted and made ready for all the new food. The shelves in the basement were ready to receive the bounty of canned goods. Last of all, the "pit" under the well house received gunny sacks full of potatoes and carrots. Finally, before winter set in, another year of gardening had been complete. I looked forward to several months reprieve before I was once again on my hands and knees in the hot sun, in the dry dirt, battling against the never-ending weeds.

Feeding the Family: The Garden, Part 1

The sun was hot, the days were long, the dirt was dry, the row was endless and the weeds were numerous. My brother Tommy and I had the job of weeding the garden. Rows were assigned and a timeline given ("Before supper"). Tommy didn't seem to mind. He hurried through his rows, yanking up all the weeds, staying ahead of me. I tried to keep up for awhile, but daydreams and the hot sun soon slowed me down. It wasn't long before Tommy started using the hoe, working between the larger plants. I was still on my hands and knees, pulling every weed around the peas and the beans. "Isn't it lunch time yet?" I asked again and again. Kool-aid and cookies sounded really good. Yes, this is how many days of my summer vacation went. Planting the garden was fun - it was early in the year, it was cooler, the dirt was black and moist, and the planting seemed to go fast. But this weeding business was very tiresome and b-o-r-i-n-g. This was no back-yard garden, after all; this was a small field. Row after long row of vegetables: peas, carrots, beans, beets, corn, cucumbers, squash, potatoes, lettuce, radishes, watermelon, tomatoes, and more. Eventually, the plants were bigger than the weeds would ever get. I anticipated the reprieve. But the real work was soon to begin - time to harvest the bounty.

I Hate Those Viruses!

It's amazing how dependent we are on our computers. Tuesday night I landed in Odessa, Texas, at a little after 10:00 p.m. That's only 9:00 my time, so after I made it to the hotel I fired up my laptop just long enough to check my email and Facebook. I had a strong signal with the hotel free wireless, so I used that instead of my broadband card. The next morning I made my way to the dialysis facility and started up my laptop. Everything went crazy. I got all kinds of alerts and then some porn sites pop up. Whoa! I quickly lower the lid to about a 30 degree angle and call our IT department. Well, IT worked on my computer remotely ALL DAY! They got all the viruses cleaned out, but was unable to fix whatever keeps me from logging on to the Internet. They said, "DO NOT use your computer until we can get it fixed!!" So I've been all week with only my blackberry, which is a great secondary, but a rotten primary way of getting work done. Well, I'm home now and will be taking my infected computer to IT tomorrow. I sure hope they can fix it. By the way, this is the second time at the same hotel that I got infected with a virus. I think I would be wise to never use their free Internet again. In fact, the wise guys at IT said "DO NOT USE THEIR INTERNET AGAIN!" Got it.

The Baptism Bowl

One of my most prized possessions is the bowl pictured above. As a child I remember seeing this beautiful bowl on the top shelf of the kitchen cupboard. Later it was moved into the cupboards dad built in the dining room. Unlike most kids, I loved to clean the cupboards. It gave me an opportunity to see and handle all kinds of things that were not a part of our "everyday" life. I would very carefully take this bowl into my hands and VERY carefully step off the chair. I would feel the cut edges of the glass and marvel at the unusual, but beautiful color. Mother's cousin, Elizabeth, gave it to her and Oscar for a wedding gift in 1934. (Elizabeth was the daughter of Grandma Sophia's oldest sister, Louise). There was only one time I remember this bowl being used. This was the Baptism Bowl. For some reason, rather than go to the church, my baby brother, Bob, was baptized at home. I can still see the pastor, a gathering of family members, and this bowl sitting on the table with some water in it. "In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost".... and Bobby was a baptized baby. I discovered later that my oldest brother, LeRoy, was also baptized at home, using this same bowl. Mom said she may have served a salad in the bowl a few times, but felt it was too pretty to use. And with all those kids around, she was probably afraid it would get broken! I love my baptism bowl. I have never used it to baptize, but I have served a fruit salad from it several times. But you can be sure, I will never let anyone else wash and dry it. That job is for me!

Mom-isms

Did you hear about the old couple who were rocking in their rockers one day?
Pa said “Ma, one of these days one of us is going to die and the other will be left alone.” Ma said “Yes, Pa, I’ve been thinking and when that time comes I want to move to California.”

I love you little
I love you big
I love you like my little pig

She used to roll his cigarettes
He used to roll her socks
Now they roll the baby carriage
For blocks and blocks and blocks

Intuition?

Sometimes it's funny how a little decision works out for the best, in ways not imagined. As I got ready for my flight to Dallas this morning, my heart rebelled at wearing business casual. I knew I would be going to one of the dialysis facilities when I landed. But I really wanted to travel in jeans. Finally, as an inner act of rebellion, I put aside the dress pants and pulled on my jeans. A tad bit risky for my reputation, as I knew all our company officers, VP's and most of the directors were also in Dallas this week. Boarding the plane, I made my way to 10A and settled in. As soon as I was allowed, I put on my noise-cancelling headphones, programmed my iPod to some nice Hawaiian music, and fell asleep. I woke up to the noise of beverages being distributed. Feeling dry, as airplanes always do, I asked for an orange juice, no ice. I took a sip, sat back, took another sip, and ... somehow the whole glass of orange juice was suddenly running onto my lap. My thirsty jeans sopped up almost all of it. Glad I wore jeans? You bet! And by the time we landed, I was all dried out (yeah, those airplanes are really, really dry). And no one could see the stains. Second reason I was glad I wore jeans happened after I got to my destination. A friend needed help unpacking a bunch of huge boxes of pictures. I was able to get down and dirty -- because of my jeans. Maybe I wasn't really rebelling; maybe I was just following a little inner voice. The voice of Someone who knew how my day would go. Oh, and I didn't run into any company officers....

#6, #7 and #8

I came across this picture of David, Tom and me. It was likely taken Christmas of 1955. I'm sure the wagon was a brand new Christmas gift to the boys. I love the background - the big freezer in the unfinished basement. I am holding one of my favorite dolls. I don't remember what her name was at this time, but she was later named Kandy, after my cousin "out West". In this picture I am nearly four, Tom is nearly seven and David was nine. Jim was "on the way" and Bob was still dust under the bed. I wonder why Don was not in the picture. By the way, this was only one of the two big freezers we had. Before winter each freezer was full. It took a lot of food to feed a family like ours!