Yesterday I left the house early - 5:15AM - to head to Ararat Va - My family has a greenhouse business there on the mountain. For years I have traveled back to the country and gave them a good days work in exchange for some plants -flowers and vegetables. It's a time I always look forward to - seeing almost everyone, getting some work done and planning out my garden for the summer. I do enjoy my time there - its like stepping back in time. Life is tough there on the mountain and things are simpler in many ways. My Aunt lives in my great grandparents house - I remember the cook stove and the room with the piano and the screened in porch - it was a place to escape the heat of the summer and a place where folks sat and talked about "life". I remember going out my grandmothers back door through the woods down this little trail to a cold spring - dipping and filling a metal pale to bring back to the kitchen for drinking water. I remember how cold that water was and how refreshing. I remember at my grandmothers before they had the greenhouses and they farmed their food during the summer - I remember working in the fields and helping out- getting tired and sneaking the salt shaker out of the house and then picking some bell peppers ... sneaking to the front of the house and climbing the tree there and hiding in the branches. I would take out my pocket knife and slice up that pepper - pour some salt on that thing....man that was life. Things went by slow - time seemed to stand still and the grass grew before our eyes.
I love going back to that mountain - my mom's grave is there - the church bells ring on the hour as you stand and look up to that mountain. A lot has changed there since I was a kid - the local store down the road is not there anymore - lots of cars and homes being built all around .... it now takes $10 in gas to go to town if you are lucky.
I got to meet some folks yesterday that go way back - folks who have lived in the area all their lives. Folks who grew up with my grandparents and my dad and his brothers and sisters. I will be thinking about all this as I plant my garden over the next few days and when after much work on the land and tending the plants - I cut my first summer tomato - it is sweet just like that mountain and the folks who live there.
I am sore today! I am glad to be back at my desk job :) - and I am getting ready to go do what I love doing .... visiting "MyKids" at their school so I am off to Furr Elementary now ..... and picking up a little McDonalds on the way.
Life is good ~ Hope you are engaging yours today. God has plans for you today - do you know what they are? Sometimes we need to step back to move forward.
Later~
Lonnie
3 comments:
I also enjoy bell peppers with salt. I helped my grandparents work their garden when I was a child. I remember how hard it was but fun at the same time.
My grandparents are in heaven now and I know they have a very large and beautiful garden.
You guys are sooo right a salt shaker and a fresh pepper or tomato off the vine...umm nothing better -- I was just thinking the other day of the summer I was grounded for life and my punishment was to spend everyday for a month working in my grandparents garden and canning!!! I snapped beans , chopped chabbage and weeded until my fingers were black and blue--i hated it---Boy I would give anyting for that summer with her again.
I too have fond memories of my childhood up at granny's. We used to go up there once a week when I was little and she would cook supper...pintos, potatoes, and her delicious homemade biscuits were the best. And of course, the green peppers and salt and fatback were right there as well. Papa would pull out his guitar and play...I loved listening to him play his guitar. I always wanted him to teach me to play one day but I never got to. I also remember getting excited when Uncle Lonnie and Aunt Lois and my cousins would come down from New Jersey to visit! I miss those days, life just seemed easier then but I guess it was just because I was young. I also spent many spring weekends up there transplanting flowers to make some spending money when I was a teenager. And you are right, one day spent up there and the next you could hardly move...I always wonder how granny does all that she does. I guess that is what has kept her in such good health at her age today. I don't get to go up there much these days with running the kids to all of their activities but I am going to try and get up there in the next couple of weeks. I enjoyed reading about your memories, I wish I would have known you were coming up, I would have tried to make it up there to see you. Well, maybe next time :)
Love,
Angie
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