Granny’s canning shelves
“Appalachian people are a creative bunch. They were always just trying to find ways of being artistic in their everyday life, even if they would never have called it art. My mommy would line up her hundreds of jars of home canned food so no two jars of the same color foods…like pickles and green beans….were next to each other, but had tomatoes or peaches in between. When I looked at it all lined up, I saw bands of color, pretty as a painting…but she called it…just making my work look pretty.
Men too tried to bring creativity…my daddy’s eye wanted symmetry and interest in the rough boards that he turned into the board and battens siding of his shack. When he whittled, his little finished sticks were pretty enough to wear in my hair, and I have.
When I went to China as an Appalachian storytelling ambassador with the group People to People in 1997, I noticed small rocks placed in a star pattern in the dirt floor of a house we were visiting because 90 year old Mr. Gin was known as the keeper of the stories for that province. I had our interpreter ask his wife if the pebbles in that pattern had a religious or folklore significance….Mrs. Gin bowed to me , thanked me for noticing the rocks and said…no reason, except she wanted to make that corner look pretty.
It’s universal…this need to use what we have to bring a bit of joy…a little beauty..to our lives. I am so glad I was raised doing this and in my life I have tried to honor that…and when I am tempted to hang a yellow towel on the clothesline next to another yellow towel, I stop myself…reach for the green one to put between…cause mommy taught me years ago….honey, the washing needs to look pretty when you look at it out the window.”
—Kat Swanson
Kat’s writing reminds me of the beautiful chimneys that can be found standing at old homeplaces with flowers blooming nearby. The people who put them there, obviously enjoyed seeing something pretty in their daily lives no matter how primitive they may have lived.
It also reminded me of the very first video I made: Creativity in the Southern Appalachian Mountains. As Kat said from using okry as a decorative tool to crocheting animal shapes Appalachian people are a creative bunch.
Last night’s video: Wilson Holler: 3 Generations Making Traditional Appalachian Music | The Little Green Valley.
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It’s nice to know that no matter we’re we live in this world, we do have some things in common. We all work with what we got.
Coming from a family of artists and musicians, I could so relate to Kat’s article. I never thought of my mother as an artist when I was growing up, but this article makes me realize she was in the true sense of the word. I remember during the Depression years when she’d make a fireplace screen by taking a burlap bag (umm, a toe sack ) and stretch it across a wooden frame she’d hammered together and take ferns from the woods, lay them on the burlap, and use coal from the fireplace to carefully copy the pattern onto the burlap. She’d make bouquets of crepe paper roses, beautiful quilts, some earning her a blue ribbon. She’d dig white mud and dilute it to scrub the fireplace surround and old wooden floors … anything that would add beauty to her home during an otherwise dismal period of history. No one taught her … she just took things that were available and created things of beauty. I never appreciated her creativity as a child, but now as an adult, I am so aware of it. Thanks for sharing Kat’s story and bringing back such wonderful memories!
Doesn’t the Bible say that man was created in the image and likeness of God? (Gen. 1:26) That being the case, it should be a “given” that we each have a bit of creativity within us, as He is the Great Creator. The world would sure be a dull and dreadful place without all of the “creators” who paint the scenery of this world and fill it with music and song. We’re just emulating our “Dad”.
I loved this post. I’ve always been interested in textiles and needle work. It fascinates me to see an old petticoat or other items with beautiful crocheted lace trim, quilts that you can tell were made from what scraps that were available but the maker tried to make as pretty as she could to keep her family warm, but the thing that fascinates me the most are the handwoven coverlets. After growing the flax or cotton and the slow processing required plus raising sheep, shearing and processing the wool, the coverlet was woven on handmade looms. The process of working out the designs that were woven in could be made so simple but they took the time to make a pretty design. And the thought and mathematical skill required to produce those designs amaze me because most were done by what we would think of today as illiterate people years ago. It must have been important to them to take the extra time and effort to make those designs. I’m amazed that with all they had to do just to survive they took the time to make things pretty. So much of that is not appreciated now days. Thanks for this post.
I just love this. There’s no reason “work” can’t also be pleasing to the eye. Goes a long way toward being satisfied with what we have, when we take the time to pretty it up a bit.
What joyous lessons to learn and hear the creation of others…God bless.
I once read a National Geographic article that showed the doorstep of a foreign country that I can’t remember. But I remember the doorstep – each morning the woman of the house would come outside, sweep off the sandy step, then add a colored sand ‘painting’ to the step. Wish I could remember the country, but that custom has remained in memory for many years.
I find the clothesline post amusing. Because I do the same thing, mismatching colors just so I can smile when seeing them hung that way when I look at my window. Reminds me of an artist’s palate.
I think we all like to have things look pretty. I just made the fireplace mantle look pretty for Memorial day and the 4th of July. I will change it out for the holidays and Seasons. I made my garden look pretty with a cute scarecrow in it. It’s fun and satisfying to make things pretty. I think the jars do look pretty on the shelf all lined up by color.
Thanks for sharing Miss Tipper! I really enjoyed Kat’s writing, makes a lot of sense, why not be more creative and make our work look pretty no matter what it is. This would bring self satisfaction as we get to look back at our work at a job well done, plus we gotta work so why not have fun doing it.
I think of your writings here on the blind pig anytime I stumble upon an old home place and see flowers blooming with no house or structure there, wondering who planted those flowers and what it must have been like back then at those particular places and the satisfaction those beautiful flowers brought to the folks that once lived there.
BLESSINGS TO YOU AND YOUR FAMILY!!!! ❤️
Pastor Lon!
I love being creative. I can so relate to pretty canning jars and how we arrange them. It brings joy. I also think of the women who quilted and not only were they used but the tried to make them as pretty as they could with color and pattern, even if it was just simple squares.
I know for me , I really miss being creative when life gets too busy. It always feels so great to get in the sewing room or work on my pantry.
Then of course the garden is a wonderful collaboration between us and the Lord as we plant and he takes it from there. No one tops His artistry.
Oh and music!
“no reason, except she wanted to make that corner look pretty.” As good a reason as any other and we could all do with more of this.
I find myself doing that too. Even such a simple and ordinary task as stacking firewood can and, by my reckoning, ought to be done with a bit of skill and artistic flair so that it looks nice.
Kat’s story reminds me of how my mom used to brag about her pretty snow-white kraut to her small children. She enjoyed the presentation as she held the jars to the light and turned them in every direction to show an audience who didn’t care at that time but copied her actions years later.
The homemade quilts made by the Appalachian women show how creative they truly are.
Sometimes I notice such art in the countryside. Yard art with old worn out farm equipment, planting flowers around mailbox, etc. beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Good story, I see these things and appreciate them too
I love that idea that the washing should look good out the window as a life lesson. I have planted lots of things here for the purpose of being seen out the kitchen window. And I’ve trimmed up the trees to give a look.to flowers out at the garden. If I were a realtor, I would take pictures off the porch and through the windows looking out.
Your post made me realize something today. I have been working for 30 years this year as a creative work to make this little house lot look.good. Through those years I have put a lot of thought and sweat into the arrangement of colors, textures, heights etc striving to have it look good in all seasons. I do not claim to have succeeded, particularly since ‘beauty is in the eye of the beholder’ but I do claim that it is better than it was and will naturally get better still. Land is a canvas to make a landscape picture. The landscape architects among us and the horticulturists know that but I had never thought of myself in their ranks. I don’t have a grand design. I just make little changes here and there as necessity or opportunity arise.
Whoever lives here after us will not know and maybe wouldn’t care anyway. But I have had them in mind just the same. Some things I’ve begun I never expect to see in their glory. Those plants around the old house places have some degree of that kind of thinking in them as well, trying to add touches of beauty and leaving a place better than they found it.
I’m like you Ron. I have worked for about 16 yrs at my home to make it look beautiful. It is my family’s homestead from the 1850s when they arrived from Ireland. I grew up in it & it was a failing, falling down, decrepit, derelict dairy farm. The house was about to go in. The barn across the street had gone in. The barn & milk house were leaking like a sieve, & would’ve gone in had we not repaired. Along with the derelict buildings, came junk piles, junk cars, hay lots gone bad, brambles covering the barnyard & weeds & brush everywhere. All my great grandmother’s beautiful flowers – gone. We completely renovated the inside of the house – the hardwood floor in living room & studs are the only original thing remaining. Just sided it & new windows last year. But in the intervening years, we cleaned & cleaned the yard & buildings. It is a thing of peace & beauty now. Huge vegetable gardens, chicken coops, new roof on barn & milk house, flower beds, junk piles gone, falling down buildings gone, etc… We get compliments all the time about the slow & steady change. I look around & can’t believe that the house I grew up in soooo ashamed to have people know we live here, is now a thing of pride for my own children. I wish my granddad could be alive to see his mother’s house. I think he would cry.
Good for you, Patty. Your forebears are proud to look down on your work, I am sure. 🙂
Tipper, the beautiful things you come up with astound me and boggle my pea size brain! I think there’s art and creativity in everything that is homemade no matter where in the world one may go. I think it’s because home is love. God shows us His love for us through his beauty and so by making things aesthetic and pleasing to the eye, we not unlike Our Father, reveal our love as well. After all, what child DOESNT mimick his dad who he adores? I think your beautiful jars all lined up and gleaming are prettier than any store I ever went in and that’s the truth. You’d never have to say you love your family cause it’s obvious in all you do (as well as each member of your wonderful family.) I have a 1950 Good Housekeeping cook book and it tells of the importance of flower arranging and making your home and food look pretty and bright.
Beauty is in the “eye of the beholder”. ❤
We are a creative bunch! Every one of us is a master Storyteller!
That’s funny about the symmetry! That’s been a theme in my own life that I got from my dad. I’m not particularly organized or detail oriented but I love symmetry in everything from my sock drawer to my bookshelves.
But, boy oh boy, do I love a symmetrical fire! That is one of the most beautiful things one can experience made and having made!
Edward, I believe that is called OCD..obsessive compulsive disorder. I have it too. I caught it in the U. S. Army.
Now, see….my laundry line don’t look pretty unless everything is all matchy-matchy. I put all the red washcloths, then all the green ones, etc… All the socks get paired up. Each persons’ clothes go on a line. That way when I fold, off the line, into the basket, everyones’ piles are separate! To me the symmetry, orderliness is what is pretty. I even line up all the tags on the washcloths to the same side. Now my garden is another thing! Mostly everything is going ever which way. I like it to kind of look jumbled up and natural! In my house, I like things set to an angle & in sets of threes. I also want lots of handmade things around or old things. I have never had a lot in my whole life, so we were naturally encouraged to be creative. In the past, if I didn’t make it, I couldn’t have it for lack of money to purchase it. I wonder if creativity is somewhat genetic as well. I have 2 very creative kids.
Those canning jars full of fine food and beauty never fail to catch my attention, Tipper. I don’t can much any more but I get great joy at looking at the beauty of your canning shelves. You grow those vegetables then can them in jars and store then in a cool dry place to provide food for the coming winter just like my grandmother did and your mother before you.
It’s more than fine food its a southern mountain tradition.