I'm back

Now that I have awakened from my long siesta I will try to get back on track with "The World According To Papa." On my last blog we were in Eagle Rock and about ready to move to Plummer but before we go I have a couple more memories to share. The first I can't honestly say I remember but it's more of a shared memory that I spoke of early on. The kids were across the track by the river in our vegetable garden digging potatoes when my oldest brother came across a nest of white eggs buried in the soft river bottom soil. Wow! what a find! He collected them and decided to take them to Grandpa's house sorta like a show and tell. Grandpa was very up set when he brought them into the house. You see, they were rattlesnake eggs. Had they hatched they are poisonous from the very beginning of their life. Needless to say they were quickly destroyed.

There was a man of the Jewish faith that came through Eagle Rock about ever 6-8 weeks with an old rattle trap of a truck and he carried every thing you can imagine for the kitchen and for house cleaning supplies. He always stopped at Grandma's house to see if she needed any thing. She would always buy something, maybe cleanser or canning supplies or maybe a vegetable brush, etc. She would always invite him to have a sandwich, bowl of soup or some other lunch item. I remember he asked her, "Mrs. Stephens, do you brush your bread from the oven with butter or with lard?" Grandma said always with butter. He said, "Mrs. Stephens, I trust you. Some people would try to fool me as the Jewish people could eat no pork products and lard is made from pork." Grandma had a reputation through the hill country as being a strong Christian and very honest in all things.

In the early 40's life for a kid was pretty good. We were very poor but didn't know it as we were never hungry, we always had warm clothes on our back and not a worry in the world. Of course as we look back from the lofty perch of old age we just shake our heads in wonder at how they did it. But worry was for parents not for kids. As we travel down this road we will spend a lot more time with my Mother, Grandma Orr. She was the most amazing person I have ever known as she worked so hard to provide for the family. As I mentioned we had no electricity or running water which meant that all that we ate was canned or cured for the Winter months. In my minds eye I can still see those rows and rows of canned tomatoes, beans, peaches, pears, beef, jams and jellies and all the other goodies prepared for Winter. She canned literally 100"s of jars of food on an old wood stove in that small house with no running water and four kids hanging on her apron. There was a small cave on the side of the hill by the house that served as a food pantry year around. In the Summer months it never really got too hot and in the Winter it didn't get cold enough to freeze. It worked pretty well but of course you never knew what kind of critter might decide to make a home there. Through it all Momma as we all very lovingly called her always had a great sense of humor and always a strong faith in God. We were truly blessed to have a family foundation that was laid so deep and so strong.

Now maybe next blog we will be loaded and ready to move to Plummer.