SOUTHERN DREAMING

In the South, most of us around my age (21-ish + a few years), grew up gardening. My grandparents (my mother's parents) were referred to as the Country Grandparents. I loved spending time with them and I miss my GrannyMaw and PawPaw dearly.

The one thing I remember mostly about spending time with them were summers of working out in the garden. Not just one garden but four. GrannyMaw had a small garden on the hill above their home where she planted what every Southern woman plants:

Tomatoes. Yes, tomatoes of all kinds. What I remember mostly was taking a huge, red, juicy tomato from the vine and slicing it up to put on two pieces of bread slathered with mayonnaise (Bama brand only) and seasoned with lots and lots of salt and pepper. Ahhh...heaven. Also I remember the more tomatoes that grew the more homemade vegetable soup that my GrannyMaw canned herself was available during long winters of sittin' in the house. Also a wonderful goulash she concocted with ground beef, macaroni noodles, and lots of tomatoes. Yummers!

She also planted her usual strawberry patch, bell peppers, hot peppers, and prettied the area up with her many Irises which bloomed in all colors.

My PawPaw had a medium sized garden where he planted corn, green beans, peas, and his section of melons. Among that section were beautiful cantaloupes and, of course, his pretty:

Watermelons. I remember him telling us grand kids as he walked us through the garden, "See these blooms and vines? If I catch you touching them I'll tan your hide." Apparently if you touch the bloom or the vine of a melon plant, it won't bear fruit. Or at least that's what he told us.

My PawPaw had another garden, about the size of my GrannyMaw's on the hill, where he planted:

Peanuts and:

Potatoes. Oh, the yummy goodness of fresh potatoes and oven roasted peanuts. The only thing better than that was salty, boiled peanuts. And he was the king of peanuts...at least in my world.

Their fourth, and final, garden was located many, many miles away from our home in Attalla, AL. We traveled to Fort Payne, AL to our great-aunt and great-uncle's farm on the mountain where there were vegetable rows as far as the eye could see.

I miss those days. I only wished my own children could have had the chance to do the things I did as a child. Ripping and romping in the garden with GrannyMaw and PawPaw, playing backyard baseball with the neighbor kids, and then evenings full of swimming in the cement pond--the pool was really a homemade cement pool about 4 feet deep made by us kids and our grandparents.

Well, until next time, keep living like today is the first day of the rest of your lives.

Y'all come back now, ya hear!!