It might get up to 95 degrees today--the bank digital readout by the road yesterday read 98 degrees at 2pm. I hate hot humid weather, but that's what ya get in deep south Mississippi. I was raised in a shack in the middle of a cornfield, and we didn't even have a fan when I was growing up (or indoor plumbing either, but that's another story.)

Mama would can tomatoes in the summertime and get so hot her face would be beet red. All us kids were running around with nothing but drawers on, sweat running off our heads. Grandma never owned a fan or air conditioner either. She would sit on the "gallery" that's what she called her front porch--and fan herself with a cardboard fan with a picture of Jesus on it.

Grandma would get up before daylight and feed her chickens and drink coffee and fry slices of cornbread for breakfast. Then you'd see her at daybreak sweeping the hard packed dirt of her front yard before it got too hot. Every sprig of grass was pulled up. That was the fashion back then--a hard packed dirt yard swept clean with a "bresh broom."

Then she'd sit in her rocker on the gallery and fan with that Jesus fan and smoke her pipe. She and grandpa had raised ten children--she deserved whatever peace and quiet she found. On Saturday night, she'd listen to the Grand Ole Opry on the radio and drink a whiskey toddy, rocking with enjoyment as she listened to Ernest Tubb, and Kitty Wells and a song about the Titanic going down. Lord knows I loved that old woman with her high cheekbones and gray plait of hair pinned up in back.

She lived to be 98 years old but her hair never turned white, it was always gray, with a musky smell. My oldest daughter's hair smells just like that, even freshly washed. That Choctaw blood is strong. Oh granny--if I could see you again for one minute, to tell you how much I love you, because we didn't say things like that back then. This heat  must be getting to me, so I'll say...

Bye y'all, susil

Comments:

comment by troutbend on June 25, 2008 11:43 AM ()

Hi Laura; It's a different world for sure.

reply by susil on June 27, 2008 3:19 AM ()

comment by tealstar on June 25, 2008 4:28 AM ()

Hi teal; if Grandma had met you, she would have been
entranced--she was always curious about people and would
have peppered you with questions about your life and
your family. She listened with her head cocked to one side
contemplating every word; fascinated by anything foreign
to her.

reply by susil on June 25, 2008 9:28 AM ()

Oh, that was just such a vivid post. I can see your granny too.
Wow... she lived so long. I'll bet it was the drinking and smoking,

comment by shesaidwhat on June 24, 2008 7:18 PM ()

Hi she; Thanks; and although Grandma used that cardboard fan with
the picture of Jesus on it, she was too much of a cynic not to also
enjoy her Saturday toddy and that pipe!

reply by susil on June 25, 2008 9:33 AM ()

comment by marta on June 24, 2008 8:59 AM ()

Hi marta; thank you for visiting. I think my brain
is a closed loop because I seem to write about the
same things over and over. Appreciate you hanging in there!

reply by susil on June 24, 2008 3:33 PM ()

comment by jondude on June 24, 2008 7:43 AM ()

Hey jon; I've eaten hothouse tomatoes in winter, but they just
don't taste the same as the field ripened ones. (And a jar of canned
tomatoes eaten right out of the jar is so delicious..Mmmm!)
Hope you are well..

reply by susil on June 24, 2008 3:28 PM ()