About 20 Years Ago…
Memory Lane by Erin Clark
…I was raising my 2 little stair-step girls, who would’ve been around 7 and 8 years old, in Memphis, TN. My husband Rory worked shift work at E.I. DuPont where he’d been for a number of years.
This was back in the day before DuPont went to the 12 hour shifts. What a wild ride that was! Back then the shift workers worked 7 nights of midnight shift, 2 days off; 7 nights of the so-called 4 PM-11 PM shift, 2 days off; and 5 days of the daytime shift with 4 days off following that. Then it started all over again so that in the course of 1 month’s time he worked one week of each of the 3 different shifts.
I’m sure that some of the DuPont wives handled it better than I but I just did the best that I could and that was all that I could do. I tried to keep a schedule in the house but this was hard to keep up. I remember a friend calling about 9 o’clock one evening and was unable to hide her horror that I was just cooking supper. Often I’d hear the Valley of the Dolls theme song wafting through my mind, “Gotta get off…this merry-go-round…” But those were happy days. We were happy at our church (which is where I met Jean Stockdale whose blog I often mention here at the Cafe–this was before she started her MOM’s group ministry which she is so well known for now–go check her out). We lived in a house I loved and I often said I would never move again although Rory often said he wanted to move to the country.
A year or 2 later my husband’s widowed grandmother ‘eloped’ with a younger man, a cattle rancher…she was 80, he was 78, and they traipsed off to the Justice of the Peace one day and got married surprising us all. He wished to get shed of the responsibilities of farming and offered to make us a deal if we’d buy his cattle. He said he’d make us a deal we couldn’t refuse; so he did, and we didn’t.
Suddenly we were sitting on a 50 acre farm outside of Covington, TN with 42 head of cattle in the process of building our home with our own hands. We fell in love with farm life instantly! What a time that was! The kids combed afar and afield, jumped ravines, swung on grapevines, played in creeks, played on hay bales…the kids had emu, goats, sheep, pigs, rabbits, a duck, a horse (who is STILL with us here on the farm though she is about 28 years old by our calculations!), 7 dogs, and 2 cats.
The kids are grown now but the grandsons love Avignon, our farm, and the saga continues with the chickens we now have for my grandson Micah’s lil’ egg business.
Quite a far place from where I sat in my city home and said I’d never move again…anybody interested in buyin’ farm fresh eggs from a 9 year old with big dancing eyes and a bad cow-lick?
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Savory Monkey Bread Recipe
Monkey Bread
Hey y’all! I’m pretty sure I mentioned seeing a good sweet Monkey Bread recipe with an awesome cream cheese icing over at Jean Stockdale’s place and it reminded me that I need to post my savory one here:
Bread Machine Monkey Bread Dinner Rolls
(Recipe is for 1 – 1 ½ lb. machine — 2 lb. recipe amounts shown in parentheses)
2 ½ C. all purpose flour (4 C. for 2 lb. recipe)
2 T. sugar (3 ½ T.)
½ t. salt (3/4 t.)
1 T. butter, margarine or shortening – softened (1 ¾ T.)
1 egg – beaten (same for 2 lb. recipe)
1 T. milk (1 ¾ T.)
2/3 C. lukewarm water (1 ¼ C.)
1 t. dry yeast (2 t.)
1/3 C. melted butter – reserved (2/3 C.)
Put 1st 8 ingredients in bread pot in order listed. Let stand 5 minutes. If you want to use the delay timer add all liquid ingredients first, piling the dry ingredients high. End with the yeast placed as the last ingredient making an indentation made with your finger or a spoon into the very peak of the dry ingredients for the yeast. This is to keep the yeast as far as possible from the liquid ingredients so that the yeast is kept from proofing either too soon before the kneading begins or proofing unevenly.
Use ‘Dough’ setting; press start. Dough will be done in 1 hour 15 minutes. Remove dough and place in greased bowl (or greased zip lock bag), turning to coat evenly with the oil so that the dough does not dry out while rising. Cover bowl and let rest in warm, draft-free place (inside a microwave or your oven does well) 20-30 minutes.
Punch down gently, form into 30 balls. Dip each in the reserved melted butter. Arrange in layers in 10” tube pan or bundt pan or even in a cake pan with a greased, inverted custard cup placed in the center before you add the dough balls. Let rise in warm, draft-free place 30-40 minutes or until doubled in bulk.
Bake in preheated 350ºF oven 20 minutes. Cool on wire rack 5 minutes. Invert onto serving plate. Drizzle with additional butter, if desired. Serve warm.
Chance Literary Explorations
Two Cherubs Reading, Detail from Madonna and Child with Saints by Rosso Fiorentino (Battista di Jacopo)
Can anyone tell me, who are “Munner Murray” and “Jophus?”
Well, I can tell you who they are; they are true life characters who my little Chance grandbaby reads about with me in his little book, I Learn to Read about Jesus. This is a wonderful little book which was mine as a child, given to me by my mother. Sadly our original was lost when our home burned but blessedly my mother happened across another copy of it and was able to procure it for me to read to the grandbabies. And, boy, do my 3 grand boys love to read!
It has been so much fun to introduce the love of reading to the boys. At this point in time our little Chance is wide eyed with enthusiasm as the literary world unfolds before his eyes and his imagination. He loves his books and I just really feel a desire to record here his favorites and the things he says about them.
His very first favorite book was Good Night, Gorilla, and he was quite taken with the main character, Gorilla, who he called Mawntee (Monkey), and the elephant who he called El-e-phawn-tay. One night he was playing with his baby brother, Thorne, and suddenly his eyes lit up and I could just see a light dawning in his little understanding. Transfixed, I drew nearer to him, studying him, knowing that some realization had hit him about his tiny sibling. Amazed he pointed to his brother and screamed, “Mawntee!” We quickly informed him that Thorne was not a ‘mawntee,’ but he just looked at us like we were crazy and said, while pointing at Thorne, “Mawntee, Mawntee, Mawntee!” Mawntee it is…I only hope the nickname doesn’t follow poor Thorne past his babyhood…
My little “Chance Pance” also loves The Little Engine That Could and for some reason when he was VERY small he noted in the illustrations an obscure little Humpty Dumpty amongst the toys going to the good little boys and girls on the other side of the mountain. “Dumpy Dumpy!” he cries when he sees the book and all the way through it until we get to “Dumpy Dumpy’s” page.
How precious it is to see a child’s mind unfolding and growing like a blossom in the spring. As I watch and enjoy I am often reminded of a conversation I had while walking our first grandson, “Micah Man,” at the park one day. There were two older gentlemen and one commented on Micah and I stopped for a bit of grandmotherly show-off time. The other of the two men began telling me how when his grandchildren began coming he and his wife ‘escaped’ to another part of the country to live. I was saddend over that statement and all it represented; it haunts me to this day.
Thank God I am able to live so near and see my little heritage and have them often in my home. What a blessing to know their expressions and their dimples and their personalities in such an intimate way because they are a part of my everyday life as well as a part of my heart.
What are some of the cute things your youngsters say/said? Feel free to share; I’d love to hear.
Blessed is the Grand Maw who has a quiver full, y’all!
