Memory Lane

After reading Richards Bends Journal, I could smell the farm fields and hear the crickets. I never really knew much about farming until we moved to Illinois when I was in my 30's. My Grandmother lived a couple of hours away and we visited each other as much as possible. She was in her 80's (her winter years) but had lots of patience with me. Our home was located at the edge of town with farm fields all around us. I hated those fields, as they represented isolation to me.

     My kids were teenagers then, loved to sleep late, eat all the time, complain when they spoke and roll their eyes at everything their Mom said. (God how I did NOT like those years!) I decided that they needed to learn what hard work really was and the value of a dollar.  In the summer the farmers hired the young people to "walk" beans and detassel corn. Sounds like fun but is really hard work, although it paid well. I really looked forward to this, as I thought that after they finished their summer work, they would really appreciate us as parents and how many blessings they had. (How naive I was!) I dropped them off before sunrise and by 8:00 a.m. I had a call to come and get them. They both were covered in bug bites and had asthma so badly they couldn't breath! Why didn't I know this? They couldn't even mow the lawn without asthma. (knock knock, isn't any body home in my brain?) The rest of summer, when I mowed the lawn, I wondered if it was really a blessing, being the only female in an all male household. Oh, did I mention that my husband had a very bad back?

    I picked my Grandma up and brought her to my home. Her name was Leota, don't ya just love it? She was born in 1902 and was married twice. More about that later. It was a beautiful autumn day and I took her for a drive to the next town. We went by all of the farm fields and I asked her about farming and what they were doing. She told me they were opening the fields. That would allow the fields to dry faster. The sun was starting to go down and there was a slight breeze. It was just beautiful. I now know what "amber waves of grain" really means. I started walking at sunrise or sunset after that and grew fond of the beautiful fields and the quiet peace they offered.

    Leota died in 1999. She didn't have any family around. My aunts and uncles put her in a private home for somebody else to watch. She had several strokes and her gentle disposition turned sour. I didn't live in Illinois then, but many miles away. It is one of my biggest regrets in life. I didn't visit her then. I had some health issues of my own and I guess I thought she would live forever.  I hope none of us die like that. I hope we are surrounded by people we love and who love us, in a bed we are comfortable in and not in pain. But then, we don't get to vote, do we?

     My husband, Jim, grew up in the country. I grew up in the city. He was from outside of Harrodsburg, Ky. and I was from Lexington, Ky. He grew up in a family of 6 kids and grandparents a short distance from them. They were poor, had outside plumbing, slop jars in the winter, hand me down clothes and church every Sunday with their mother. (Dad stayed in the car) I grew up with a  mother, brother, 10 years younger than I was and an alcoholic father. We did not have a car and we never went anywhere, except where the city bus could take us. I remember going to the movies occassionally. We always went according to the bus schedule, insead of the movie schedule.  We ususally got to the movie in the middle of it, instead of the beginging. I guess that best describes my childhood, walking into the middle of it and trying to piece things together. Maybe that is why I am so good at puzzles. I even put one of those 3-D "bastards" together. I remember that because of not ever going anywhere, I found it most difficult in the first few years of school, to figure out the difference between cities and states. I heard people mention going to Paris......but I didn't know it was Paris, Kentucky. The only Paris I knew was Paris, France or Evening in Paris, the perfume that I would by my mother at the dime store.  So although, I may have been a city girl, darlins, I was NOT worldly.

   Enough of my memories, it's dinner time and Jim is home. Memory Lane is not scarey TODAY, just a comfort. I can almost smell my mothers fried chicken. She fried it in LARD and still to this day does not have a colesterol problem. She uses Dail soap on her face and has a perfect complection too. I am in my 50's and my hormores are "flashing" I will now have a different feeling  when I pass by the neon signs at Long John Silvers, that say NOW FRYING. Is the heat on?      Signing off.  Anne