AppalachianFolkA Collection of Appalachian Stories

My great grandma Lucy (we called her Maw), was a pistol.  I think I get some of my stuborness from her.  If she got her mind set on something, you might as well accept it.  She was very strong in that way.  My dad, her grandson, was like a son to her and she treated him just like her other kids.  She wouldn’t even serve dinner until he got there to cut the meat.  Everyone had to wait.  It was her way.  If you couldn’t wait you had best drive down to the local Dairy Bar and get something to eat because no one was eating until Gary (my dad) got there period, end of story. 

I remember a lot of things about her.  She had really long hair that she braided and then twirled into a ball on the back of her head.  She grew a garden on the side of the hill.  I was not allowed in it which meant, of course, I had to get into it.  Like I said, I was stuborn too.  I can’t tell you how many time she ran me out of her garden.  I’m a little bit of a pistol myself.  She only scolded me, but never whipped me which was probably why I kept going back in.  I think by the time she got to her great grandkids she was becoming a little soft, or perhaps she saw a little of herself in me and realized that she was waisting her breath on me.  I don’t think it ever really made her mad.  I think she just acted like it did and then probably laughed because she got over it awfully quick.

One other memory that I have is that she used to have the coolest water that we drank out of a dipper.  I guess the water probably came from a well, but that was something I enjoyed doing, drinking out of the big dipper. 

I remember that she used to have these big buckets of lard, they were 5 gallons I think, and she used to cook with it.  I would never buy lard myself now because of health concerns, but I will tell you one thing, the stuff that she cooked with it was the bomb.   My favorite thing that she cooked was fried kraut.  It was the best thing ever!  I hope that when I get into the pearly gates Maw will have made me some fried kraut to eat.  I don’t even know if the angels could match her on her fried kraut.  My mom, after all of these years, has started making fried kraut that is pretty close to Maw’s recipe.  We loved Maw’s kraut so good that she spent years trying to figure out exactly what Maw did and make it her way, although she won’t use lard because she, for whatever reason, say’s she wants us to live.   People are more concerned about what they put in their bodies these days.  She made beans and corn fritters too.  I’m getting hungry just writing this post. 

She was a really nice lady with alot of stories. She was 1/2 Cherokee Indian.  She taught me how to crochet.  I was never any good at it, but she worked with me, she would crochet beautiful things and I would crochet unidentifiable objects.  She always told me that it was good though.  I think God will forgive her for telling me that white lie.  Its a really nice memory.  I also remember her making blankets from scrap cloth.  My dad still has some of them.  They were so comfy and warm.   I can remember her watching church on tv after she became to ill to attend servcies in person.  I’ll leave the story of “I said you are not putting a door between my kitchen and living room” for my dad to write.  Its one of my favorites, but it happened before I was born so he will be able to give you better details.

My uncle Lacy, her son, lived with her and he used to aggravate the living heck out of me when I was little.  I loved him and he loved me.  He never had any kids of his own so he would tease me.  I would get upset and tell on him.  Maw would yell at him to leave me alone.  He thought it was funny, and probably so did Maw, but she always took my side.  I’m glad that he did aggravate me though.  It was his way of showing me that he loved me.  However, he better watch his back when I get to Heaven because I have a few things to get him back for.  As side note, I remember that he loved his scanner.  He listened to it all of the time.  It was sort of like the local news.  I don’t know if people still listen to scanners, but he did.  Oh, and he was unsuccessful at keeping me out of the garden too.