Oh, Heavenly Day!

My Grandma used to say that when she was surprised or exasperated, it was her by word. I think she must have said this to remind herself that the Lord was there with her always to carry the burden or share the joy.

I hate to watch the news these days, all bad news and not a chance of things getting better if you listen to the newscasters. The economy affects us all and we dread the weekly trip to the grocery store. My husband’s Aunt B. told me recently she picked up a bag of onions at Wal-mart and when she saw how much they had gone up, she put them back. Just buy one and hope next week things will be better. Do and make do, use it up and wear it out; those were slogans that our parents lived by during the lean times of the depression. Grandma and Grandpa were good at saving… jars to reuse for making jelly…string to tie up onions for drying…lard cans to store the popcorn and peanuts they grew each year in the garden. That garden provided so much of the food they ate. Big red slices of tomato, golden corn on the cob, white fluffy potatoes and big orange sweet taters that my Grandpa was SO fond of. When we were around the table at Thanksgiving he always would thank the Lord for the bounty provided for us.

I can still see my Grandparents in that garden; Grandpa with his big straw hat and Grandma in her flowered cloth bonnet. They would bend and stoop hoeing the weeds and carrying water in the heat spells of summer. After dinner we would sit out under those big sycamore trees and enjoy cold watermelon that they had grown. Soon the lightning bugs would start their flickering dance in the air and the sound of crickets filled the night. My parents and grandparents would laugh and talk and I'd be lulled to sleep in that glorious security blanket called "home."