Where I'm from # 2

I’m from mountains, older than human life; mountains that reach high and fall deeply.

I’m from mountain streams that carve paths to creeks and rivers.

I’m from shacks and ‘lean twos’ built at the bottom of these high mountains; shacks that raised fourteen kids to mostly adulthood.

I’m from barns, raised by hard workin’ men, to house their corn, bakker, hay, and livestock.

I’m from beehives, robbed annually, by men covered from head to toe with protective clothing, carrying a smoker, and trying to remain calm.

I’m from canned beans, beets, corn, and tomatoes; put up on steamy sweaty days.

I’m from cow and horse manure removed by pitch forks and hauled by sleds to nearby gardens.

I’m from chickens, brooders, chicken houses, chicken shit, egg nests, and rich orange colored fried eggs.

I’m from milk cows; slow, lumbering, gentle cows with brown eyes that showed love to a child.

I’m from fresh churned buttermilk that took two days to clabber and thirty minutes to churn; buttermilk that was drunk by families right after churning before refrigeration.

I’m from registered bulls; bulls that were a farmer’s pride and joy and reminded them of their own reproductive role as men.

I’m from long, curving front porches where men cooled down before a dinner or supper meal; porches that showed welcome and hours of shared laughter, and porches where politics was discussed at length along with the weather, crops, gossip and new babies.

I’m from weeds; weeds that grew tall in the summer; weeds that cut your skin, made you sneeze and broke your skin out.

I’m from quiltin’ women.  Women who planned, argued, discussed patterns, sewed signature stitches; women who sunned their quilts annually both as a cleansing and ‘airing out’ endeavor and a bragging rite.

I’m from outhouses; some sturdy, modernized and clean with toilet paper hung on a large nail. Others less sturdy, filled with catalogs, waspers, crickets, yellow jackets and stench.

I’m from hog killings and smoke houses. Long cold days in November filled with the hard work of scalding, scraping, butchering and salting; and a second day of lard rendering and cracklin’ making over an open fire and a black kettle.

I’m from soap makin’ from meat scraps, lye, and rendered lard in a black kettle over an open fire near the smoke house.

I’m from the smell of burned wood.  Wood that cooked food oven an open fire; wood that smoked meat in the smoke house; wood that heated kitchens and cooked food and wood that burned best when it was seasoned and dry.

I’m from sticky dry, dusty, suffocating dirt roads in the summer, and muddy, nasty dirt roads that became impassable in the winter.

I’m from the Spring of the mountains where trees bloom, the air is pregnant and fragrant and all things breathe with life.

I’m from The Fall of the mountains where dying leaves and weeds display their foliage like fireworks on the 4^th of July.

I’m from families; century old families who never knew the outside world, but knew their kinfolks and their heritage and talked for hours about their roots, world wars, diseases and deaths.

I’m from grave yards in woods and pasture fields, some so old that nobody knew who was buried there and only a smooth rock without words marked the spot. 

I’m from around the table discussions at supper where every living relative was tied to some dead relative through a story, and facts about their lives were argued and debated.

I’m from one place thatshaped my total being. A place that remains always within my soul.

The Biscuit and Cornbread Contest

By the time I was 11 and in the 6^th grade at Seal-Mathis Elementary Mama began to insist that I enter the 4-H Cornbread and Biscuit Contest that was held each spring at the high school in Sneedville. I always believed that her interest in this contest was because she loved cornbread and biscuits and felt that it was a skill I should learn.  After all, these were the only two bread items we ever ate at home. Mama seemed to feel that it was her duty to teach me every skill she knew so that I would be adequately prepared to be a wife.

The first year I entered the contest I only did so because Mama said I should; I had never tried to make cornbread or biscuits, but knew that I would probably learn how someday. Upon Mama’s insistence, I entered both contests and went home to tell her I had done so.  Days passed, but Mama never brought up the subject of teaching me how to make cornbread or biscuits.  I thought this was a little odd, but Mama was one to keep her word so I just waited until she got around to giving me my first lesson.  I waited until we were three days away from the contest; I finally asked Mama when we were going to learn how to do them.  To this she responded, “Don’t worry about it,” so I didn’t. The next day I asked the same question and got the same answer. I was getting anxious so on the day before the contest I asked when we were going to do the biscuits and cornbread.  Mama said, “Don’t worry about it; I’ll take care of it.”  I didn’t know what she meant by this, but knew that Mama kept her word.

On the Saturday morning of the contest I panicked when I awoke and ran to the kitchen where Mama was preparing breakfast.  She greeted me with, “There’s your biscuits and cornbread,” and pointed to the counter.  On the counter were neatly arranged bread baskets, one with HER biscuits and one with HER cornbread. I started to protest and ask questions, but she interrupted me saying, “Your Daddy will take you to town as soon as you have breakfast and get dressed; your two breads are ready.” Stunned and confused, I could tell that she had no plans to say anything more.  I ate, picked up my baskets and got in the truck to go to town. 

When we arrived at the high school cafeteria and I joined about 20 other contestants.  I placed each of my baskets where they went and tried to remain calm despite my growing disease over what I would say if the judges asked me whether I made the biscuits myself.  The judges were Mrs. Walker and Mr. Haston.  Within twenty minutes of my arrival the contest started, and by this time I was in a major panic mode about whether to lie or not about who had made the biscuits if I were asked.  Slowly Mrs. Walker and Mr. Haston moved down the line to each basket, tasted a portion of the offering and moved on.  I tried not to think about the process and pretend that I was someplace else more pleasant and less stressful. I heard our two judges ask some random questions or make a few comments, but I was too far gone in anxiety to know what they said.  Finally they came to my offerings and I looked at my feet and prayed for silence.  I don’t remember them sampling my biscuits or cornbread.  I only remember them several minutes later as they came to the end of the table.  Both Mr. Haston and Mrs. Walker walked to the front of the room and announced the winners. I came back to reality when I heard my name called for a blue ribbon on ‘my biscuits’ and ‘my cornbread’. I walked up to the front took my ribbon and felt awful.

Daddy and I returned home and Mama greeted us at the door.  She said, “How did you do?”  I said, “I won on both of them.”  She said, “Good” and that was it.  We never talked about it again until the next year when the same scenario was repeated with me winning again with Mama’s biscuits and Mama’s cornbread.  I did this same behavior for three years in a row; I won first place each time.  Mama and I never discussed the issue, ever.

It’s now 45 years later; Mama is dead, and I sit here trying to make sense of all of this.  The only possible explanation I can offer is that Mama had me enter the contests for her sake so she could have the reassurance that she was one of the best bread makers in the whole county.  It never was about me.  It was HER contest all along; a contest that she had wanted to enter and win when she was a young girl herself but never had the opportunity to enter or win.