The Country

My great-grandparents on my mother's mother's side own a place out in the 'country' down a dirt road off the main road. The drive to the house was through the woods to a clearing that the house stood upon. Papa (that's what we called my great-grandfather) had built the house. It had an open air front porch and a screened in back porch-both running the width of the house. Besides the freezer on the back porch, there were beds. That is where we children would sleep-adults in the house and children on the back porch. This was fun to me. You could here all the wild life with their voices at night. You could also hear in the distance someone's hunting dog chasing something. I was difficult to get to sleep because I found myself wanting to stay awake to listen to all the sounds of the night forest. Their were relaxing to me.

Well, getting back on track, I remember chicken coops, large gardens of okra, snap beans, lime beans, corn--whatever Papa would plant. When Grandma (that's what we called my great-grandmother) deemed it was time, she would go out to the garden and pick snap beans with grandchildren in tow. Then I would sit next to her on the back porch 'snapping' those snap beans getting them ready for cooking (maybe that's why I really like green beans). Then there were the blackberry vines. Mama and Grandma really didn't want us kids too close to the blackberry patch because of snakes; so us kids had to stand a few feet away form them as they picked the berries. Then it was jam making time!

I also remember there being a poultry farm up the main road from Grandma's house. My Mama, Grandma, and Mawmaw (my mother's mother) would pile the kids all in the car and go up the road to the poultry farm for fresh eggs. Now-that was fun! We kids were allowed to go in the farm and watch as the eggs came through on a conveyor belt past the lamp lights so that the inside of the eggs could be examined. Us kids would stand there looking at the inside of the eggs to see if we saw any little chicks.

Man oh man we were blessed!