We've had some warm days, and I have had a touch of spring fever. I've really wanted to plant something though it is still much too early to do that in this area. We could still be in for snow, so I'll have to wait it out. This warm weather brings back a lot of sweet memories. I remember in the spring when we were children; following behind grandpa McDaniel as he turned the soft warm sod, it felt good to our bare feet and was the first time since winter that we were allowed to get barefoot. I love remembering the smell of the dirt, what a heavenly scent, especially after a spring shower. He yelled gee and haw to Prince, the old plow horse that knew the commands so well. Gee; turn left and haw; turn right. The rows were always straight as an arrow. The plowing was repeated until the rich brown Louisiana dirt was as soft as silk beneath our toes. The vegetable garden was always so exciting for us, they always let us help plant the seed. We couldn't wait to watch the new green plants peeking out from the earth. We helped set the tender green tomato plants and rejoiced that they let us run back and forth to the water faucet to carry water to each baby plant. When those tomatoes came in we felt like we were just as responsible for them as grandma and grandpa.
New tomato plants.
The fruits of labor.
I cherish these memories; they truly were the good old days, before television, before video games. You never heard us say: “I’m bored, there’s nothing to do.” We knew how to play and entertain ourselves. We had a grand playhouse between the wash house and smoke house. Daddy even put an old two burner wood heater out there and forbid us to ever put a fire in it. He put nails on the walls and hung old pots and pans there for us. Back in those day pots would get holes in them and when they did we got them for the play house. Our cousins would visit and we had the best time playing in that old playhouse. We made many a mud pie and pots of mud soup. We often sneaked into the house and got flour and meal to put in the mud soup and many an egg never found its way into the house because we often raided the hen house. We broke up pieces of grass and green weed for our salads and vegetables. Sometimes we even got laundry powder from the wash house, added a little water and beat up some beautiful icing for our mud cakes. After adding some spring blossoms for decoration, they really did look good enough to eat. Once we broke the rule and built a fire in the wood stove and that mud soup was bubbling away when mama caught us. It was fun while it lasted. I know I had a busy guardian angel, real busy! Life was good back when life was simple.
MAMA'S MAMA
-Author unknown
(I did not write this, I found it in a very old book and thought it was so cute, I had to share it:)
Mama's mama, on a winter's day, milked the cows and fed them hay,
Slopped the hogs, saddled the mule, got the children off to school.
Did the washing, mopped the floors,
Washed the windows and did some chores.
Cooked a dish of home dried fruit,
Pressed her husband's Sunday suit.
Swept the parlor, made the bed,
Baked a dozen loves of bread.
Split some wood and lugged it in,
Enough to fill the kitchen bin.
Cleaned the lamps and put in oil,
Stewed some apples she thought might spoil.
Churned the butter, baked a cake,
Then exclaimed: “For goodness sake!”
“The calves have got out of their pen!”
Went out and chased them in again.
Gathered the eggs and locked the stable,
Returned to the house and set the table.
Cooked a supper that was delicious,
And after-wards washed up all the dishes.
Fed the cat, sprinkled the clothes,
Mended a basket full of hose,
Then opened the organ and began to play,
“When You Come To The End Of a Perfect Day”
PSALM 46:10 ...”Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.”
