WHERE HAVE ALL THE "AUNT SALLYS" GONE

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.

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MIL

13 FEBRUARY 2020