MY LITTLE GRANDMOTHER WAS A MARCHER...O YES!
"I had a dear grandmother
Who has gone on before
And I promised I would meet her
On that happy golden shore...
O when the saints go marching in
O when the saints go marching in
O Lord I want to be in that number
When the saints go marching in."
-----------------
All grandmothers in old photos appeared to be
"little" by age fifty-five, after a lifetime of
raising kids and hard farm work.
They all "looked just alike" in their calico print
dresses and low heel lace-up oxfords---
their "Sunday best."
Marching their whole lives, and not "spoiled
rotten" by ease and material things, they were
grateful just to live in a free land of liberty.
Where and when did MY grandmother march?
Why she marched to:
The cotton field to hoe and pick cotton...
The chicken house to feed the layers
and gather the eggs...
The pig pen to slop the hogs...
The brooder to feed the baby chicks...
The big iron pot on the bonfire,
to render lard...and make chittlin's...
at hog-killin' time...
The foot-peddle sewing machine
to make kids' clothes from flour sacks...
To the barn to milk, when the men were
plowing...
To the smoke house to cure hams and
sausages....
To the stove to cook...and the sink to wash
the dishes
To the pantry cupboard, to stash the egg money
in a Mason jar...
To the dining room cabinet with a new box
of Vanilla Wafers, for when the grandkids
came...
To the separator room, to the churn to make
butter...
To the mail box, 75 yards away, hoping to find
letters from her sons overseas...
To the garden, for hoeing, and watering, and
picking the black-eye peas, okra, and
all manner of nourishing veggies...
To the stove to cook and bake...and the
pressure cooker to can...
To a quilting party, to trade gossip...and
get a new recipe...
To the bedside, to kneel and pray, for her
family...that "the circle in heaven would
be unbroken, by and by..."
To the grape arbor, to hang the stainless milk
buckets to sun...and sway...and air
in the breezes...
To the sick family down the road, she marched
with soup...
To the church she went, ..to sing and worship---
her family in tow...
Down the church aisle she went to final services,
for friends and family...
She went to the cemetery countless times,
to say earthly goodbyes...
Then after all the vicissitudes of life, the
trials and tribulations, crop failures,
measles and mumps, drudgery and
hard work, victories and defeats,
lack of material things---no
manicures, pedicures, massages, vacations...
She one day MARCHED through those Pearly
Gates, a woman of great faith...to live
forever in Glory...and rest.
Praise God for women like that, who:
"... A thoroughfare for freedom beat
across the wilderness...
America, America, God shed
His grace on thee..."
....Katherine Lee Bates
(1859-1929)
***************
BY MIL
4 Feb 2017
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