Staying with Gramma
Guess I was about three or four and I had the opportunity to spend a few months with my gramma. She, like all the other family members, always had a garden.
The kids that lived behind her were a little older than me and always seemed to be coming and going all day long. They were always carrying gunnysacks with them when they left. Then some time later returning with them partially full of all kinds of junk. Scrap metal, bottles, anything their mom could sell to the old rag picker (that's what gramma called him) when he came by.
Sometimes gramma would see the littlest guy fooling around playing in the dirt and would ask him if he wanted some things from the garden to which he always declined because he said he didn't like vegetables.
One day gramma steamed some fresh carrots and put some brown sugar on them. Holy cow! They were great so I went out to the fence and told the little fellow to taste them. He thought they were great too.
Well gramma started steaming several things from the garden, putting fresh honey, brown sugar or molasses on them and I'd always go out and share with the little guy.
One day I asked him over when I was checking for weeds and bugs and we made a game of it seeing who could find the most. Gramma came out to check on me and looked at all the weeds we had in a sack. We had a bunch and she said she had another chore for us. We had to crank this contraption that had ice around a tin center that turned in the middle of the ice. We didn't know what it was, but got after it.
From time to time she would come out and add more ice and a little salt to it. After awhile we couldn't turn it anymore so she took out the tin and opened it up. Man, what a site. I had never seen so much ice cream in all my life; neither had the little guy. She gave us huge bowls and we had our fill.
A couple days later I asked him over again and he said his mother told him not to come over anymore, that he wasn't to be bothering anybody. I was kind of sad because I enjoyed the company. Telling my gramma about this she said some people were too proud to take any help and she knew the woman was trying to raise her sons to be independent.
Saturday came and it was grocery shopping day so I got out the wagon that we carried all the bottles and jars in to the store as they were deposit ones. There were no bottles. I asked gramma where they were and she just said that she took them earlier or something like that.
Later that week I noticed gramma take her big knit purse, put two empty milk bottles in it and walk out around the corner. I sneaked a peek to see what she
was doing and saw her leave the bottles by the neighbor's small yard gate. That's when I figured out that she was leaving all the returnable bottles for the kids next door to have a little cash for things they needed.
Sugar was scarce during the war so gramma had several hives of bees that supplied us with honey and she had relatives that shipped molasses by the drum
to her from Texas. She also had a bunch of chickens that ran all over the neighborhood eating bugs and whatever they could find. They furnished us with more eggs than we could use too.
One day she was talking to the neighbor lady and I overheard her say that she had more than plenty if she wanted some eggs and garden stuff. Their friendship was sealed and I got to play with the little guy from then on.
Gramma baked bread on certain days and man you could eat a loaf by yourself. The little guy and I ate bread and butter till we were about to pop every week after that.
Well the day came and my mom showed up to take me back to Texas, but before we left we had to go clothes shopping at her friends stores. She bought me all kinds of stuff. I was so proud.
On the way home I was telling her about my friend behind gramma’s. Seems she knew all about him and his family. She told me that he would be starting school in a few days. I was so proud of my clothes that when we got home I ran to show my friend. He seemed happy for me, but I could sense some reservation in his voice. He told me he would have to start school next week and he was thinking about running away because he didn't want to go to school in his old tattered clothes.
That evening I told my mom and gramma what he said. They didn't seem concerned much to my chagrin. The next day my mom was gone for quite awhile and when she returned there was a lot of talk between my mom and gramma. I didn't understand
what was going on, but I did see a covered truck pull up to my friend’s house and they all went out to it. After some time they all went back in carrying all kinds of clothes. The next morning my friend had on new looking clothes and told me that his mom was going to work for one of the stores downtown. They had offered her a job and they gave them all a lot of clothes that she could pay out over time from
her check.
That night I overheard my mom and gramma talking about calling in some favors that had been long owed to them by the merchants downtown.
Mark Crider ©1997