Some years ago, a friend gave me a book entitled Sweetly Be! This is authored by Rose Budd Stevens and contains her recollections and down-home-memories of life on a farm in the south.
The author talks of times when no-one locked their doors at night or when they left home. If one was away for a short trip, say to the spring down the hill to get a bucket of water, the owners would place a straw broom across the doorway. If the broom was propped across the door, a-body knew the homeowner would be back soon. If the broom was flat on the floor, yet across the door, the visitor should go on home, for the person living in the house would be away for a time! If chairs or benches were in the yard, one might rest if tired, but enter the house or porch? Indeed not.
Another interesting story was about corn cobs. They were used for making quick fires, to provide games for children, to make doll babies and to outline rooms on the ground when they played house under the trees. Beds and chairs were made from great piles of the cob and shucks.
In my growing up years, the doors were always locked, as we lived close to highway 51. I remember times when strangers would knock on our front door, asking for a cup of coffee or ice water. My sister and I would gather what was requested, add several biscuits from mama, and they went about their way. Mother never turned away anyone who needed a little help.
We are about to enter March and I am looking forward to Daylight Saving Time beginning on the 10th, the first day of spring on the 19th, Good Friday on March 29 and Easter Sunday on March 31.
~Cheerfulness and contentment are great beautifiers, and are famous preservers of good looks.
~Charles Dickens~
