family, friends

When the fourh of July rolls around I invariably think of my childhood friend who is still living in Kentucky. Her mother was the organist for our church and my friend learned music and to appreciate it at an early age. I used to play "bob jacks" with her on the concrete walk leading up to our home. She would play her piano in her home and I watched longingly as I wanted to do the same. But alas, with eight children in our family I learned other things instead.

The reason I associate her with the fourth of July is that her birthday is on the fourth. And I remember what she said about that, " fire crackers went off under her mother's bed " and that brought on her birth ! She had a jolly spirit and I do not remember her as a complainer. She married a musician who was a high school band director. She too, taught music and in her retirement years she had her own business . With a portable organ she traveled around the bluegrass region of Ky., playing for horse shows.

Other memories come flooding in as well. Like family picnics on the edge of the Cumberland River in Kentucky. Between Harlan and Pineville there are huge flat rocks along the Cumberland river and we had many picnics there. Brave souls could swim and the parents could visit in lawn chairs brought along for just such activities. My father always selected the watermelon. He would "plug" a watermelon to see how ripe it was before purchasing that important part of the celebration. In case someone out there does not understand what that means, he would use a knife to cut a triangular shape into the side of the melon and lift it out for inspection. I doubt a customer could get by with that today.

Our church would always have a picnic at the boy scout camp ( Camp Blanton) between Harlan and Pineville. Our pastor, Mark Andrews would buy a new galvanized tub and make enough lemonade for the entire congregation. It never occurred to me at the time but he must have used a peck of lemon and no telling how much sugar. Instant lemonade or frozen was not in existence at that time. My parents regarded Dr.Andrews highly and appreciated his sermons. They also were very fond of the bib lettuce he always grew and shared with them.

The picnic that still brings a smile to my face took place in Maryland with my husband and two small children. We had a lot of picnics, even in winter. I still have a picture of us at a picnic table beside the Potomac River when we lived in Maryland. It was in the dead of winter and we all had on coats and scarves ! Back to the memorable event. We had eaten our lunch and went for a walk in the park. Coming back we were all anticipating the chocolate meringue pie we had left in our basket on the picnic table. When I opened the basket, there was no pie,or pie plate, or even a crumb. I was not laughing that day. !! I do know that someone could not resist my chocolate pie, and a lesson was learned. Never go off and leave your cookies on a table for any passer-by.

If you can top that story I would really like to hear from you !! :)