Almost Lost

This is in response to the StoryWorth question: Did you ever get lost as a child?

I don’t recall ever being lost as a child but I remember one time worrying that I would be lost.

When I was a child, kindergarten had not been made public yet. I attended kindergarten but it was a private kindergarten and was held in a little church a few miles away. We never had much money other than for the necessities and I am sure that private kindergarten did cost money. I am so fortunate that my parents felt that kindergarten for me was one of those necessities.

Since kindergarten was private there was no school bus to pick me up and drop me off. The church was a few miles from where we lived, so I could not walk to school like I did for first and second grade which was just up the road a few yards. So, Mom usually took me to kindergarten and my cousin Denny, who was more like an uncle, would pick me up.

I remember one time on the way to school I experienced a bit of drama. Mom was driving me to school and my younger cousin, either Kathy or Debby, was going along for the ride. I was sitting next to the door and my cousin was sitting between Mom and I in the front seat. That was back in the day of wide and roomy bench seats. I am not sure if cars back then even had seat belts but if they did, we didn’t use them.

Well, my cousin had her arm stretched across my lap and was holding onto the armrest. We came to the end of Knox Avenue and stopped at the stop sign before turning left onto Third Street. When Mom took off and turned left, the door opened and I slid right out onto the middle of the road. I think that my cousin must have accidentally opened the door when she grabbed onto the armrest.

When the car took off, out I fell. I was just oblivious enough to think that Mom would not notice that her daughter was no longer in the front seat. Fortunately, Mom did notice, stopped, picked me up and we went back home. I think that I may have had a bit of road burn on my hip, but other than that, I was fine. I am not sure if I made it to school that day or not?

Well, that wasn’t the story that I meant to tell but at least it was related to kindergarten.

So, my cousin Denny would drive by my kindergarten and pick me up each day. One day, all of the children were outside waiting for their rides but there was no Denny. I waited and waited as more and more classmates got into cars and left for home but I was still there. Finally, I was the last one there. I was afraid that I had been forgotten and I did not want anyone to know that I had been forgotten. I hid behind the marquis in front of the church so that no one could witness my humiliation at being forgotten by my family.

 

 I hid behind the marquis as my teacher climbed into her car to drive to her home. I made sure to stay hidden as she pulled out of the driveway of the church. She left never knowing that I was still there. I should have gone to her and told her that Denny hadn’t come yet and she would have stayed there with me until he did. In my mind though, Denny wasn’t coming because he had completely forgotten me! Why Mom and Dad would probably not even notice that I wasn’t home and go about their day as though everything was fine.

It was in this forlorn, dejected state of mind that I began walking down the drive of the church, hopefully toward home. I hoped that I could remember how to go…but what if I couldn’t?! As I walked down the drive, my eyes began to burn and my worrying, forgotten little heart was about to burst.

Before I had even gotten to the end of the driveway, here comes Denny!  He asked me what I was doing and I told him that I was going to walk home since I thought that he had forgotten me.

I usually got into the front seat with Denny to ride home, but that afternoon, I insisted on getting in the backseat as I did not want him to see my tears. After all, I was a big girl.

So after I got in, Denny pulls off to take me home and explains that he was just running a bit late but he had not forgotten me. He reassured me that he would never forget me and told me that I should have stayed with my teacher until he came. If he ever ran late again, I should never try to walk home but I should wait with my teacher because he WOULD be there. Then, after glancing at me in his rearview mirror, he asked me if I was crying. I told him that I was just wiping my eyes because something was in them. That really wasn’t a lie because there had been tears in them.

So that is the story of how I thought that I had been forgotten and how I came close to being really, really lost. Even now, I don’t pay attention to how to get to places when someone else is driving. I am certain that I would have never remembered how to get home. Thanks God that Denny came before that happened.

Denny was never late again and I eventually graduated from kindergarten with a Bachelor of Rhymes degree.

All is well that ends well! 

  

 　

Three Stooges Go to Germany

This is in response to the StoryWorth question: What was your first big trip? I suppose that my first trip to Germany was my first big trip, but I mentioned that in my story A Blind Date with Destiny. So this is about the second time that I went to Germany.

When our daughter Roxanna was getting ready to graduate from high school, she told me that there was a program called the Congress-Bundestag Fellowship program that she wanted to try out for. If she was chosen to participate, she would live with a host family in Germany for a year.

Roxanna had taken German for four years in high school. She has always been a talker and she would learn a second language if necessary so she could talk even more with even more people. She did well in German. Going to Germany for a year would certainly be a wonderful opportunity to really learn the language.

I told Roxanna that I really did not think that her father would allow her to go to a different country for an entire year. Up until that point, he had been hesitant to even let her spend the night with anyone except for family. I told her that it was probably a long shot for him to agree to a year abroad but she should ask.

Well, she asked and he agreed; almost without hesitation, he agreed. After picking up my jaw from the floor, I smiled and hugged Roxanna.

So, Roxanna went to a small town in Germany called Troisdorf and lived with a couple who had a daughter a little younger than Roxanna.

I remember when I first talked to Roxanna on the phone after she had been in Germany for a while, she told me something that I had already surmised. “Momma, I thought that I knew how to speak German, but I really don’t know how to at all!” That would soon change because nothing stands between Roxanna and her talking!

So Roxanna was away from home for a year. Although she had graduated from high school, she would attend a final year in a gymnasium in Troisdorf Germany just like a German student. She made many friends and enjoyed submersing herself into all that was German. She loved to travel around visiting local landmarks. One of her favorite spots to visit was the Dome Cathedral in Cologne.

In spite of enjoying her experience, everything was not rosy. Roxanna was homesick and she did not seem to be a good fit with the host family. She asked me to send her pictures of her room and our house which I did. Her dad decided that I needed to go visit her while she was in Germany to help ease her homesickness.

Well, I was not keen on traveling to Germany by myself. I was shocked when Mom said that she would go with me. When Mom talked with her sister Fanny and told her what we were planning on doing, Aunt Fanny decided that she wanted to go too. My eight-year-old cousin Chase’s class had read Flat Stanley, so Flat Chase would also accompany us to Germany.

And THAT is the story behind “the three stooges’” visit to Germany!

So, Mom, Fanny and I got everything in order and were on our way to Germany! Flat Chase was with us too.

Of course, we had a couple of transfers during our flight from Nashville to Germany. First, we stopped in either New York or DC; I cannot really recall which. We made the next leg of our trip without incident but our next transfer was in London.

Now, I knew that we didn’t have much time to make it to our gate in London and I had no way of knowing how long it would take to get there. This made me a bit anxious.

Now Aunt Fanny is a smoker. Even back in 2005 when we made our trip, smoking was becoming a more and more restricted activity. There were designated smoking areas and they were not around every corner.

As we hurried through the airport, hopefully toward our gate, Aunt Fanny began to need a cigarette and began searching for a smoking area. I told her that we didn’t have time to find one. We progressed a bit further and she said that she thought that there was a smoking area “over there” and she needed to go smoke a cigarette. I told her that we had to make it to our gate. She said that she thought we had time for her to smoke a cigarette. I told her that she could find a smoking area after we got to our gate but we didn’t have time before.

Finally, we made it to our gate and they were already boarding the flight. Aunt Fanny looked surprised and said, “Wow, we really didn’t have time!” I hope that she didn’t think that I was just trying to torture her, but I didn’t want to be stranded in London after missing our flight.

Somehow the three stooges made it to Germany. Roxanna had reserved us a room in the little hotel there in Troisdorf. We met Roxanna’s host family and shared a typical German meal with them of sausages, boiled potatoes, and kohlrabi. For one meal, we ate supper at a nice German restaurant that served authentic German food.

 

                                                           The Troisdorf Hotel.

I looked forward to trying the sauerkraut at this German restaurant. I imagined that it might be even better than Aunt Alta’s had been and I hadn’t had Aunt Alta’s kraut since she had passed away. Alas, it was not at all what I expected; it had cloves in it! Aunt Alta made stand-alone sauerkraut. It certainly didn’t need cloves or any other addition to make a shiver go up your spine. So, even after trying sauerkraut in Germany, Aunt Alta’s kraut still reigns supreme!

Most of the time, it was Roxanna and the three stooges galavanting around Germany. We got to sample a bit of life in a place where mass transit is the main method of travel. There were very few cars driving around Troisdorf. Often when a car was seen, it was one of those tiny electric cars that resemble a sardine can on wheels; tiny wheels. Folks utilized travel by bus or train. Shorter trips were taken by walking or bicycling. Perhaps in part due to this, it seemed that everything looked so neat and clean. Litter was rare. Colorful flowers were in window boxes, planters, everywhere! I had been struck by the apparent age of buildings in Germany. Many of them had been around centuries before our nation was even a nation. That age was not evident through the accumulation of years of grime as everything seemed almost pristine.

 

 

Roxanna was a wonderful tour guide. She walked fast and Mom, Aunt Fanny and I were like three ducklings following a few steps behind Momma Duck. Occasionally, Roxanna would look back to make sure that her ducklings were still in tow but she had us on a tight schedule and she didn’t let us lollygag. She kept her ducks a’runnin’! We rode buses, we rode multiple trains, and of course, we walked…we walked fast in order to keep up with Momma Duck!

 

                                            Flat Chase with Roxanna at the train station.

One of Roxanna’s favorite places that she had visited was the Dome Cathedral in Cologne. She had visited there multiple times and she had to take us there. It was certainly an impressive place. It had beautiful stained glass windows, ornately carved woodwork and stonework, and many holy relics. I can’t remember exactly, but I think that they had a splinter of Christ’s cross, some bones of a saint or two, a shrine holding the Magi…

 

The Shrine of the Magi

It was a place full of beauty but somehow, I personally feel that such wealth does not belong in a house of God. I believe that all of the money that goes into those stained glass windows, all of that ornately carved wood, all of that ostentation could be better spent providing for folks who are unable to independently meet even their basic needs. The Dome of Cologne, Notre-Dame of Paris, Washington National Cathedral in DC, are all beautiful to behold but they bring to my mind the Tower of Babel.

So we visited museums. We walked by the home of Beethoven. We three stooges would follow Momma Duck around all day and then return to the little hotel in Troisdorf for the evening, Just around the corner from the hotel was a little restaurant, the Adria. There we would enjoy supper before returning to our room to turn in for the night.

And we did enjoy our suppers! We could sit, relax, and just enjoy each other’s company without worrying about getting separated from Momma Duck. Aunt Fanny was delighted to discover that this little restaurant in the small German town of Troisdorf actually had escargot. I believe that every night that we ate at the Adria, Aunt Fanny ordered escargot and she washed those snails down with chardonnay.

 

                                                                The Adria Restaurant.

So we lingered over our supper just happy to be able to sit and not run after Momma Duck. The little restaurant must have played music because I recall Aunt Fanny and I singing B-B-B-Bennie and the Jets more than once. I also recall tapping on the table to the music and claiming that we could be the Beatles. Of course, I would be Ringo since I could obviously play “drums”!

After enjoying a relaxing and entertaining supper, we would make it back around the corner to our hotel. We would be laughing, singing, cutting up like kids. I am pretty sure that the hotel staff thought that we had all been drinking even though only Aunt Fanny had had wine.

Aside from those relaxing suppers with good company at the Adria each evening, my favorite part of our trip was taking a boat down the Rhine River. The river had narrow bands of river bottomland lined with small towns along the banks. There were terraced fields that I believe held vineyards. Ancient castles, some in ruins, at least one converted into a hotel, stood on bluffs above the river. While witnessing these structures, I found myself trying to imagine all of the changes that those ancient castles had “witnessed” from their lofty perches over the Rhine. If only those walls could talk, what stories they might tell!

  

 

 

 

So, when our time was up, the Three Stooges and Flat Chase returned home. I am sure that Flat Chase had some wonderful tales to tell Chase’s class. I just hope that Flat Chase knew that in some instances, what happened in Troisdorf, stayed in Troisdorf!

Memories of Anglin Branch

                                                Memory Lane AKA Anglin Branch Road


The buildings lie in ruins now. Family members have passed on and others have been born; still, in my memories: insects drone, leaves rustle in the breeze, water tumbles down the stream.

A tin-roofed, white frame house nestles in a narrow ribbon of creek bottom.

A sense of quiet and peace seems to soften all sound, even the slamming of the screen door. Smoke drifts silently from the chimney in winter, hollyhocks and moss roses bloom in the yard in summer. Red dust in the lane seems to anticipate its transformation into mud pies by cherished grandchildren.

                                                                   Makin' mud pies.

Cool crisp water is drawn from the well and sipped from a communal tin dipper. In this magical place, salt is pinched, not shaken.

Uncle Gayle is geeing and hawing to the mule as the plow overturns dark, rich earth. Hens cackle indignantly as Grandma gathers eggs. The cow munches hay while milk whish whishes into the pail. The cream will later become butter when Grandma rocks it in a gallon jug over her knee.

 

Grandma coming back from feeding her chickens.

 

                                                                    Grandpa milkin'.

Grandpa sits on the front porch on a woven-bottomed chair. He takes out a gray, soap bar-sized sharpening stone, knicked on the corner and worn thin in the middle. He sharpens his pocket knife and whittles away at a cedar stick. Curling, aromatic shavings gather at the base of his chair. Mist is hanging over the hills and he tells me that he has a giant that lives in the hills. The mist is smoke from his giant's pipe.

                                                                        Porch sittin'
 

                                                Catchin' crawdaddies in Anglin Branch

Grandma is in the kitchen. Her hair is pulled back in a bun and she wears her ever-constant cotton house dress and bib apron. She makes a lemon pie. She gives me a metal Bob White syrup lid and a small ball of dough so I can make my own miniature version. I know it's gonna be good 'cause it's just like Grandma's.

 

 
Grandpa puts on his old fedora hat and Dad drives him to the general store in Booneville or Manchester where he buys the necessities; flour, meal, sugar, coffee, bib overalls, and, of course, a box of Bob's candy sticks.
 

Later the adults play a friendly game of rummy. I think that Grandpa loves to play rummy. His blue eyes twinkle as he tries to pull in the discard pile to count as his points.

                                                                        Playin' cards.

It's bedtime. We sponge off in a tin basin and then lay under piles of handmade quilts on old iron bedsteads. We listen to the pop and crackle of the coal in the grate and hope that during the dark of night we don't have to brave the cold to use the chamber pot.
Our family is not very often exuberant in vocalizing feelings. Nonetheless, we go to sleep knowing that we are well-loved.
And still, on Anglin Branch; insects drone, leaves rustle in the breeze, water tumbles down the stream.

Earthbound

This is in response to the StoryWorth question: Did you have a favorite planet as a child?

Well, considering that, as a child, I probably knew nothing of Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, or poor and since demoted Pluto, I would have to say that Earth was my favorite planet. Earth was where my peeps and I lived.

 

 
My parents, my brother, all of my family members were Earthlings. Kimmy, the little girl next door was an Earthling and I did enjoy playing outside with her. My teachers and classmates at school were Earthlings and I rather liked school. The playground equipment at school was firmly planted on Earth and I loved to see how high I could reach in the swing. Climbing up the monkey bars and sliding back down to Earth on the pole in the middle was always great fun and the merry-go-round on playground Earth made feeling like you might puke somehow enjoyable.

Earth held such beauty. I can recall going to the orchard with Aunt Alta in the fall to pick up some apples and most likely a package of cracklings too. This was in the fall when the leaves had changed from green everywhere to shades of gold, crimson, orange, and browns; such a variety of beautiful fall colors! And those leaves would waft ever gently from the trees onto the ground and they made delightful crackling sounds as I walked through them.

There was a playground close by with swings and a tall slide. I recall pushing a pile of those beautifully colored leaves to the base of the slide. What fun it was to slide down into that pile of leaves sending them flying into the air yet again!

 

                                                               Picnic grounds Earth

And Earth held Anglin Branch where Grandpa and Grandma Smith lived. For a little girl born in Dayton, Ohio, their home there on Anglin Branch was a magical place full of adventure. There were blue-tailed lizards that scurried up the stone steps leading up to the porch. There were crawdaddies and minnows to catch in that branch. Sun dappled the water and caught the iridescent wings of dragonflies darting along the creek bank and over the water flowing towards the sea.

The hills surrounding Grandpa and Grandma’s place served as a home for Grandpa’s giant friend who lived there. When mists cloaked the hillsides, Grandpa’s giant was smoking his pipe. And when those mists were present or when rain was approaching, I could smell the rain. That smell of rain held the rich, fertile perfume of Earth in it.

 
Earth served as the home for Grandpa and Grandma’s chickens, their cow, their horse Silver, their mules, their hog. That same Earth caught my cousin Darryl and me when we slid off of the mule’s back while it was being led around, giving us a ride. If Earth hadn’t caught us, we might have gone spinning off into space!

My brother, my cousins, and I would make mud pies with the dusty earth in the lane that led to Grandpa and Grandma’s house. Grandpa and Grandma planted seeds into that earth and a bounty of produce sprang from Earth ensuring their family’s survival. They planted tobacco seedlings into Earth and this provided a bit of cash for them to purchase the things that they could not raise themselves. It also gave them a bit of cash to purchase hard candies, oranges, and pretty apples for Christmas stockings.

 

     

                                                                Mud pie bakery Earth

                                                                  Cash crop spot Earth

In the evening it got really dark on Anglin as there were no city lights to push back the darkness. That made the stars and moon ever so much easier to see. The sky looked like a swath of black velvet with brilliant jewels scattered upon it. I suppose that a few of those sparkling jewels that I admired may have been those other planets, but I was oblivious to that fact. My feet were planted firmly on Earth and that Earth was what I knew and loved.

It was only later that I came to appreciate other planets. Uranus has always been good for a chuckle, but my favorite other planet is one that does not really exist… at least, I don’t think it does. That planet is Bobnanna. When my son Cameron was young, he often claimed that he was from another planet named Bobnanna. We would smile in appreciation of his wonderful imagination. I am ever thankful that Bobnanna sent Cammy to be with our family as I cannot imagine not having our Bobnannian in the family! Thus Bobnanna now holds a special place in my heart.

A few years ago, Pluto was demoted from planethood. I suppose that I have a soft spot in my heart for Pluto as I tend to root for the underdog. Poor Pluto would seem to be one.

As I have aged, my love for Earth has only grown. I realize that Earth’s bounty has provided for my family’s survival over the generations. Ancestors left homelands to cross the vast ocean in order to lay claim to a piece of that Earth. It has provided a place to live and often to thrive. Even in death, Earth welcomes family members into its bosom. Eventually, each of us will return to that Earth and become one with that Earth.

 

                                                                    Dust to dust.

Yes, I love Earth. My family has loved Earth for generations and now they are surely a very part of it.

Aprilized Lubia Polo

My husband taught me how to make lubia polo. He had likely never helped his mother or sisters prepare lubia while growing up. However, he did enjoy eating and when he was away at university, he came up with his own Mohammadized bachelor version of it. He used ground meat in his lubia rather than cubes of meat.

 

 

I have made this a number of years and I have changed it a bit over that time. I believe that my husband only used tomato paste in his version and I have since added diced tomatoes. I prefer the ground meat over cubes of meat so I use 90% lean ground sirloin when making it. I also add a bit of hot sauce.

So this is an Aprilized version of a Mohammadized version of lubia polo. It may not resemble the authentic version at all but my family loves it. Over the years other family members, friends, and friends of my children have also really liked it. So, authentic or not, I consider this version a keeper.



Aprilized Lubia Polo

First, I pour four cups of Royal basmati rice into my Teflon-coated rice pot. I rinse the rice until the water is clear. This requires several rinsings. 

 

I add a lot of salt… about 1/3 cup. That seems like too much, but after the rice is drained and rinsed, it won’t be. My husband says that the salt will cushion the rice as it boils so that it doesn’t break. I am not sure about that but I still add a lot of salt. Many folks soak their rice but I never know what I am going to cook far enough in advance to soak it. 

 

I then set the rice aside until I have the green beans desqueaked and the ground sirloin ready to brown. I guess that I do soak it but only for a few minutes.

I drain three cans of cut green beans and place them into a skillet with a splash of olive oil in it. I cook the green beans/lubia over medium to medium-low heat, stirring a couple of times before I take them off of the heat and set them aside. I do this step because if I don’t, the green beans kind of “squeak” when eaten and I don’t like squeaky green beans. This step is kind of like oiling a squeaky door.

  

 

I use a food processor to grate three small peeled onions. I had small onions so I used three. If your onions are larger, grate two with a processor or using a grater.

 

 

 

I put approximately two pounds of ground sirloin into a bowl, or directly into the pot I will cook it in. To this, I add the grated onion, two teaspoons of pepper, and two teaspoons of salt.

 

 

I use my hand to mix everything together well.
 

 

I brown the meat mixture on medium-high to medium heat. When the ground beef has browned and the water from the onions has cooked off, I add a small can of tomato paste and stir it into the beef mixture. I cook this until the tomato paste color changes from bright red to more of a brown-red. Then I add two cans of petite diced tomatoes and a couple of healthy splashes of hot sauce. I cook this until most of the liquid has cooked off. Next, I fold in the squeakless green beans and turn off the heat

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

As soon as I start browning the beef, I put the rice on to cook on high. When it begins to boil, I turn it down a bit just to keep it boiling. I stir it occasionally and check the rice to see if it is ready to dam/steam. My brother-in-law has told me that it is ready to dam when you can take one of the partially cooked grains of rice and squeeze it between two fingers. When it breaks into three pieces, it is ready to dam. I am not sure of the significance of it breaking into three pieces, but it seems to work.

 

 

 After the rice breaks into three pieces, I pour the rice into a sieve and rinse it. If it seems too salty, I rinse it a bit longer. I rinse my rice pot out and put a bit of olive oil into the bottom of the pot and swirl it to coat. Next, I put part of the drained rice into the bottom of the pot and spread it into a thin layer. I pour the ground beef, tomato, and lubia mixture into the center of the layer. Then I pour the rest of the rice on top of this and mound it up. Some folks alternate layers of lubia mixture and rice but I find that transferring it from the pot to the serving dish distributes everything pretty well.

 

 

 

I poke a few holes down through the lubia and rice mixture and then pour about ¼ cup water around the pot. I place a double layer of paper towels over the top of the pot before placing the lid onto the pot. I cook this over medium heat.

 

 

 

 

After the rice has been dammed for about an hour or until you hear a sizzle when you quickly touch the lower side of the pot with your wet finger, the lubia polo is ready.

 

 

I use a spatula to remove the lubia polo from the pot, fluffing it as I add it to the serving dish. After I have removed all of the rice, I use the spatula to remove the thin, crunchy bottom layer that remains in the pot. I place this crunchy pot bottom or tahdig onto a separate plate.

 

 

Lubia polo is very good served with a salad and yogurt, either plain or mast-o-musir.