WHERE HAVE ALL THE "AUNT SALLYS" GONE ?
"For O my brother so far away,
This is to tell you, she waits today
To welcome us--Aunt Mary fell
Asleep this morning whispering.
"Tell the boys to come
and all is well
out to old Aunt Mary's."
....from "OUT TO OLD AUNT MARY'S".
......James Whitcomb Riley
—————
There was a time in the grand old
USA when every family (and families
were big in those days) seemed to
be loaded up good and proper,
with "aunts,." (and uncles.)
The world seems to have had a lot
of them. Both sides of the family had ..
'em..."aunts..."sometimes up to a
dozen, counting those by marriage.
Now they weren't referred to as
"AHH-UNTS,.."--they were just
pure and simple--"aints." "Ah-unts"
would have sounded hoity-toity
to the simple folks of the 1920's
and 1930's.
In those grand old days when. the
country was more rural, the "aunts"
seem to come back to us little kids
of those times--with farm houses/
porches and rocking chairs, cozy
warm kitchens with pancakes giving
off their aromas at breakfast---maybe
wood stoves, quilts at night (with hot
bricks, wrapped in old blanket pieces
at our feet).
There were grape arbors, and gardens.
Fruit trees and homemade cherry jelly.
Places like this were usually visited
at Thanksgiving and so many came
that people were sleeping everywhere,
a lot of them on pallets.
There was always a much-loved AUNT,
in a perennial wet apron, expertly running
the show, with her husband...a beloved
uncle Fred (or whoever), the avuncular
one, ever helping....often
....bringing in a bucket or two of milk,
on a frosty, cold morning, from Bessie
and Jerseys at the barn.
The aunts today are still with us...only
many fewer: families became smaller
in the later 20TH century. And somehow,
the quaint custom of referring to them
with their titles-"Aunt," faded out, maybe
with our generation, born in the 30's.
Oh, how we miss them...and those
simpler times...
Where have all the aints gone?
Aunt Sally, Aunt Emma, Aunt Mattie,
Aunt Edna, Aunt Hettie, Aunt Wanda,
Aunt Bobbie, Aunt Virgie, Aunt Lucy,
Aunt Willa, Aunt Lillie, Aunt Thelma,
Aunt Polly, Aunt Lessie, and on and
on...BE and I named these real people
this morning. Do you remember any?
(These marvelous people weren't alone.
They always came in PAIRS, with an"uncle,"
as we have noted, maybe as "Uncle Tom
and Aunt Virgie.")
Uncles remembered are Uncle Tom.
Uncle Bill, Uncle Ed, Uncle Pete,
Uncle Ebenezer, Uncle Horace,
Uncle Willie, Uncle George....
Ah, but where did all these people
go? I believe they still live today..."On
Canaan's happy shore..," godly, saintly people,
good Americans.
"Ten thousand times ten thousand
in sparkling raiment bright,
The armies of the ransomed saints
throng up the steeps of light;
'Tis finished all ''tis finished,
their fight with death and sin:
Fling open wide the golden gates
and let the victors in."
I think we've found the lost
aunts....they are saints.
----------
MIL
13 FEBRUARY 2020
