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A favorite holiday of my childhood was celebrated on the 4th of July. That day had to be earned with sweat and bother. Sweat was sweated in the early morning as we had to plant the last of the sweet potatoes. Let me explain that. Mama and Daddy always had a bed of sweet potatoes to grow plants for the start of the acre of those tubers to feed us and anyone else in our neighborhood or kinfolk. We would pull up the plants from the beds to stob down into the rows, the plants grew vines that we took "cuts" from to keep adding so as to fill the...
A favorite holiday of my childhood was celebrated on the 4th of July. That day had to be earned with sweat and bother. Sweat was sweated in the early morning as we had to plant the last of the sweet potatoes. Let me explain that. Mama and Daddy always had a bed of sweet potatoes to grow plants for the start of the acre of those tubers to feed us and anyone else in our neighborhood or kinfolk. We would pull up the plants from the beds to stob down into the rows, the plants grew vines that we took "cuts" from to keep adding so as to fill the...
August 1951 brought death to my family. My Granddaddy Marion Grissett died at age 75. His neighbor Mr. Marvin Lisenby rolled into our lane to motion with his head for Daddy to come out to the car. I was on the front porch with my siblings and that was a sure fire way to get our attention. Daddy walks to the car with a knowing look on his face. That gave me another reason to shush everybody and get information. " Shut up y'all, som'ums wrong". Daddy listens to Mr. Marvin and asks, "Do what, what happened"? " Mr. Marion just fell dead". " When,...
The garden had been planted, well some of it. The early part was planted and producing somewhat. For our Sunday dinner, new potatoes had been "grabbled" out from the roots of the biggest plants. Holes had been filled back in so as to allow for the littlest spuds to finish off. English peas had been picked from vines that were jute string tied to inside the garden fence. Mama kinda thought some late blooms would produce more peas. Daddy said, " Shug, you get two messes with English peas, one mess to eat, one mess to clean up". Daddy said to us,...
June, Month of brides, wormy apples, peaches, plums, watermelon, TOMATOES AND FAMILY REUNIONS. Lawd Hammercy! I just ate my first tomato 'samich of the season thanks to someone hanging a bag of those globes of wonderful on my front door knob. For breakfast y'all. Two slices of fresh Sunbeam, gobs of Duke's smeared around, a dash of salt, a hard shake of black pepper.....little bit more........ there now! It was just that good. The month of June always brings good things out in the open. Like tomatoes. And family reunions. Let me tell you about...
It was a Saturday night at the Barnett Crossroads. Supper was over, young'uns had their bath. At exactly 6:00 p.m., the Smiths' were somewhere near the old Philco. Daddy, by now was usually stretched out in the front porch swing enjoying a dip or a roll you own. Mama was at the ironing board to finish pressing the clothes for church the next day. The radio dial was set on the station, volumn ramped up all the way. The squealing, squawking static would abate as WSM Clear Channel 650 with 50,000 watts of power brought to us, The Grand Old Opry...
Poor Mama. She was usually defeated before the battle even started. Daddy bought hog shorts at Gilmore's Store in Wallace and when it was time for that purchase Mama made sure to be there to pick out the sacks. The need to explain this is for the benefit of the younger generation. See, back, way, way, back, things like hog shorts (feed) and flour for biscuits came in cloth sacks, printed with pretty designs of flowers or strips of rainbow color. This cloth was very durable ( had to hold hog feed people). The Purina and Martha White Milling...
Did I ever mention being poor and falling through the holes in my shoes on an ice spewed up in the ditches morning? Circa 1951/52 Y'all, I'm here to tell you how I rolled with that situation. So the school morning at our house was a loud, rushed, homework lost, baby gnawed book kind of morning. Poor Mama, Poor Daddy. Poor little Earline had fresh months old holes in the very center of her shoe soles. I was walking on my socks and freezing my toes off. I whined to Mama about this bothersome problem. Mama whined to Daddy. Daddy felt guilty for...
Circa 1951 there about, third grade, barefoot tomboy. Life was full of fun and disaster. I took advantage of anything needing to be taken advantage of. Uncle Rudy, Daddy's baby brother, home on leave from the Navy with all that braided gold on his uniform. Made Chief something or other along the way before retirement. Circa 1951 his pay allowed him to own a RED Ford convertible. Shiny chrome grille centered with those big old shiny bullets. Uncle Rudy let us ride with the top down in his RED...
My memory of eating at this Pensacola landmark. For the young and innocent among us, let me set the stage for my story. Hopkins Boarding House was opened in 1949 with rooms to let for the ones needing a place to call home until jobs and circumstance moved them on. Arkie "Ma" Hopkins operated the boarding house and cooked meals to serve to local telephone operators, railroad men or anyone needing to eat. Some years later the Hopkins family bought a big old house across the street to reopen as a restaurant with Blanche Hopkins doing the cooking...
We were a creative bunch. We were blessed with excess energy and low on spending money for toys. We were creative. My older brothes, Rayford and Jarvis ( aka Humpy ) built things for making our fun more fun. Our land had several natural ponds, one being, "the pond". Daddy had given instuctions on building a billy. What is a billy you ask. A " billy" is a contraption that looks like a ladder and will float on water. We needed a billy. We would enjoy floats into "the pond" while riding the billy. My older brothers did the hard work on...
Early April, 1959. I had a date for the prom. I had a beautiful gown, all lavender, strapless, full skirted netting, ballerina length. BORROWED from Mary Kate Mantel. I had new white pumps, an early graduation gift from my sister. I had a new pair of thigh high hose with seams. I yet had to figure out how those things were suppose to stay up on my skinny legs. I would do one of two things. I could use Mama's garters and roll the suckers down to just above my knees, or I could sneak my sisters new garter belt and temp the hounds of hell if I...
My SMITH side and my GRISSETT side has always rubbed against each other. SMITH side has the gift of laughing at ourselves, my GRISSETT side waits a bit. Both have good and not so good. Example, SMITH side could throw hissy fits on a regular basis. Smith hissy fits ease colic, dandruff, carbunckles, cough due to cold, festersores, lost dentures, or on one occassion a three day layover in Amarillo.. Just to name a few. GRISSETT side, not so regular, but when it did, it was a fit to end all hissy's. Then a long grudgement took place. Lawdhammercy,...
Back in my young days of the early 1950's when Mama cooked squirrel we used a wood burning cook stove. Humpy loved squirrel, fried, in dimplings or smothered in gravy. He killed 'em, Mama cooked 'em, we all ate 'em. To set this story, our family shared a distant relative with the community far and near that would circulate among her relatives or claimed kin for visits and to get news, give news and opinions. Especially opinions. We called her Aunt Dell. Most old ladies back then were called "Aunt". Aunt Dell was spending a few days at our house...
Our old barn was the center piece of many happy days of my youngest side of youth. I was the revival preacher and 2x8 plank piano player. The preacher part was easy, the piano plank had to have the keys outlined in black and blank with using Daddy's carpenter pencil. The pencil, kept in his toolbox had to be for sure put back, otherwise things would go from bad to worse if he knew we had messed in his "off limits" stuff. Our barn was built with the middle having a gated drive through with left side doors opening into two rooms for holding...
I will change names and places to protect the ones in this story. Most, if not all are dead now. I loved and respected them as friends. No harm intended here, just a sweet and very funny memory that I need to share. So we moved to the community as outsiders. We needed to pay our bills and settle for our children to have a place to be free range and educated and socialized. The job allowed us to buy acreage and build our dream home. One offspring was in school, one was home schooled by Captain Kangaroo and Mr. Green Jeans and Mr. Rogers, "It's...
My first job that was assigned to me with full parental backing was, "Waterboy".. At my age of about four and a half years old we had moved from Atmore to here at our farm in the Barnett Crossroads community. Our land was purchased from my Daddy's siblings. Their inherited shares of my Smith grandparents homesteaded land lay fallow and waiting. The ending of WWII had my Daddy's work at the shipyard in Mobile phased out, my siblings kept being born, Daddy and Mama were on a hustle to feed us. So, here we landed feet first in a place of...
15, 4th grade, circa Feb. 1st Teacher, Mrs. Rupert Green announces that we will have a Valentine's party on the 14th. We will be served red strawberry flavored Koolade, cupcakes with red icing and exchange valentines. Party? Oh my, those were few and far between in my world. My heart fluttered. Then to add more flutter, she tells us that the ones receiving the most valentines would be crowned Valentine King/Queen. EPIPHANY... I would wear the Queen's crown. Hook or crook, I would. I could feel it, I could hear it, I could taste it. The crown...
Out of pure curosity we went to look for Alabama. "My Homes In Alabama", "Mountain Music" , "Christmas In Dixie" and every song they had ever sang to us.. That Alabama, at Ft. Payne Alabama. We found their museum and the bus out front. "And That's Close Enough To Perfect For Me". No, we'er not young enough to push our way to the front of the stage, but we do turn up the volume when the CD clicks in. "Oh Play Me Some Mountain Music".Lawdhammercy, I have had to pull off the road to settle my legs after that one. We drove the rim of Little River C...
September 1947 Before hurricanes were named, one called the Fort Lauderdale Cyclone, hit Miami and traveled the Gulf Coast toward the Mississippi/Louisiana coast line. New Orleans was tumbled about and my world at Barnett Crossroads, Alabama got slammed with side winds. I had started school at the first of the month as a first grader at A. D. Kelly in Wallace. I didn't know a hurricane from a rain storm. I did understand something different was coming for us as Daddy and Mama put everybody into the cotton patch to try and gather what hadn't...
The most important things required to sustane life are air, food and water. We have a maximum of three minutes without air, being without food mostly depends on how much the body can feed off itself, but being without water usually causes the giving up of the ghost around a week or so at the most. I don't want to test any of those things. As a child of intense curosity I did try holding my breath to see if it would kill me. It didn't, but I saw gnats behind my eyelids before I stopped and staggered about. Mama slapped my thighs into running. My...
So we got married at the end of December in 1963. He worked one shift, I worked worked another. Both jobs were at different plants. The bed got changed once a week due to constant usage of different sleeping schedules. We moved three times in 1964 due to rent cost and the desire of the husband wanting to be closer to his family for helping out with the farm work. It was fine with me as my mother-in-law could cook like no body else since my own mama had passed away and I didn't get to eat her biscuits anymore. Sad to remember how low my...
Aqua Net Extra was applied to hold the hair in place for a solid week. The 1960's had many with hair piled up like loaves of monkey bread. Not my hair, mine was corkscrew tight with spit curl sides. Scotch taped for sleeping. The Beauty Shop was the place we went to get fixed up and lacquered down. Weekly sets cost $2.50, 47 cents a can for hairspray would just about do it. We made appointments every Friday for the next Friday before leaving the shop with the firm promise we would be back for another go at the dream of having the oil changed,...
