Fall memories 2012

September was the month for canning at my grandmother's who we called Mama, Vera Leonard.  She would get  bushels of corn and would shuck it and cut it off all day long. She amazed me because she could go for hours and not get out of the chair. She would then can all the corn for winter. We also would pick green tomatoes and make green tomato relish. It was a long process. You had to wash the tomatoes and peel then and chop them with green peppers and onions. Your cooked it with sugar, vinegar, salt and pepper. You then put it in a clean pillowcase and put it on the clothes line and let all the juice drain off. It took days. You had to bring it in at night. After about one week, you put it up in jars and sealed it. It is great on beans and hot dogs. Another thing we did was pick apples and make applesauce for fried apple pies. We had to peel the apples and slice thin. We would put a clean sheet on the roof of the back porch which was a tin roof. We placed the apples on the sheet to dry. We would have to bring these in every night before dusk. It took about two weeks to dry, according to the weather. This meant we had applesauce all winter. There was nothing better than coming home and smelling the pies frying. Mother would have them stacked on the stove.
   I was just thinking about things I used to do and thought I would share with you. I hope you enjoy.

End of Summer 2012

     It has been some time since my last post and I will try and do better. I retired in 2009  and it seemed like all kind of things started happening. It has been along 3 years and now we are all on the mends and trying to adjust to the lost of my brother-in-law, Sonny Williams, who had Parkinson's . He died in January, 2011 and my dear sister, Claudine Williams fell and broke her hip while at her granddaughter's, Cara Cronk. While at rehab she fell again and broke her leg and never recovered. She passed away in July, 2011. Sarah and Jeremy lost their baby in July. Her was Alexa. My other sister, Marjorie Ward fell at my nieces house in North Carolina and broke her hip and arm in July, 2011. She has recovered and is doing well. We were all on our way to visit my brother, Cecil Ray, in New York when all of this happened. I finally drove with my brother to New York and spent three weeks with him. I had a great time with lots of rest and relaxation. He and Mary were the best. I come back through North Carolina to check on Marge and she was doing really good. I come back in October and brought her home. We stopped in Palm Coast to see Celeta, Greg, Jennifer, Cara, Sarah and all the kids and rest of the family. Marge made the trip really well.  I have caught all of you up to date on my family. Now we can have some fun time.
    Jon and Heather Duncan had a baby girl born in March and her name is Cassidy. We had a mini family reunion in Asheville, North Carolina this summer. The reason I said mini was it was everyone who lives in North Carolina and my brother, Cecil Ray and his wife, Mary Ellen, Marge and me. The rest of the family had other commitments. We missed them but we all had a great time. We had barbecue from 12 Bones in Asheville. It was delicious. Marge and I got to pend three days with Cccil Ray, Mary Ellen, Jon, Heather, Ben, Cassidy, Jim and Cheryl. We had such a good time and great food. Marge and I went back to Glenville, NC to spent some time with Sherry, Lily, Lisa, Chrissy, Lydia, Jim, David and Brad. What a great time we had. We also spent time t the reunion with Michelle and Katie Blaine.
    Reunions are so much fun and you get to be with family that you don't get to see very often. I had an email from a dear friend, Nancy Tapscott and she reminded me that she went to a family reunion with me in December, 1958. She had found an old diary and it was in it. The reunion was at my grandparents. I wish we had photos from all the old reunions. I am sure it was also a Christmas get together. I can imagine what we had to eat.  I think I have gone on long enough today. I will post again soon and bring back some old old memories.