April 30, 2019
Granny
The other evening I asked Granny what she remembered about spring of the year when she was a girl.
When the state built the four-lane highway that runs through Cherokee County it went right through Granny’s family’s garden so Granny didn’t have a whole lot of memories about gardening in the spring. Although, she did share one funny garden memory from the days before the four-lane.
She was just a little bitty girl and they sent her out to the garden to pull up onions for supper. Not knowing the difference, Granny pulled up a bunch of garlic and took it inside. She said her family got a good laugh out of that mistake.
Granny said every spring her mother, Gazzie, would get out and hunt poke salad to fix. Being a picky eater, Granny never cared for it, but she said her sister Fay and her husband Woodrow just loved it. She said they’d cook it with eggs and eat it like it was the best thing around.
There was one thing Granny dreaded every spring.
Gazzie’s annual spring tonic for all the kids was a spoonful of castor oil. Granny said “I couldn’t take it with nobody looking at me so I’d have to take mine around the side of the house where no one could see me.”
I asked Granny why she didn’t just pour the castor oil out when she went around the side of the house. Granny said “I knew better than to try that trick.” 🙂
—April 30, 2019
Granny’s memory of the dreaded spring tonic still makes me smile. Today lots of people are talking about the health benefits of castor oil.
Last night’s video: Matt Got a New Toy & I Planted a Million Flowers (It Felt Like it).
Tipper
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I was a sickly child. Puny is what my little Granny called me. I had Scarlet Fever in second grade. I had to take vitamins and I got by. I was frightfully skinny. I’d walk around town, visiting the shops and stores when we lived in Mountain City, TN near my Grandmother, Bonnie “Mama Warren” while Daddy was overseas with the Army. In the Drug store the always fed me a grilled cheese sandwich or bowl of vegetable beef and barley soup at the grill. If I was at little Granny’s I’d walk the dirt roads for miles with Paw and we would visit Clate Testers country store. Where Clate would treat me to a poke of Paw’s favorite candy, Coconut Bon Bons and a bologna Cracker Sandwich. Did any of y’all ever eat the saltines where 4 were joined in a square and fit a slice of cheese and bologna just perfect. I still eat crackers on my bologna sandwiches stuck to the bread with mayonnaise. Later in the summer before 7th grade, I took double Pneumonia (Granny called “Pumonie”) and nearly died. I was in the ICU in the big hospital in Johnson City for 3 weeks. I was in a plastic oxygen tent. I got shots of something black that I think must have been Iron. I weighted 40 pounds and was 11 1/2 yrs old when I left the hospital. When I got home I took a nasty black liquid every day, It tasted heavily of the iron and made me so sick. The doctor finally changed it and the friendly Pharmacy man that fed me the soup and sandwiches formulated a golden syrup that was “mediciney ” but strangely nice and syrupy. I took it for 2 years, till I started high school. I ended up with Rheumatic Heart Disease. Praise GOD I never felt sickly from it till 3 yrs ago when I dropped dead in my yard. I never had to take that nasty black stuff again. I’m so blessed to be here for my son thru his illness. Some days it is like the blind leading the blind, but we are blessed and happy. We have GOD, The Holy Spirit and Christ at our side. I keep everyone here and up Wilson Holler in my prayers. I thank you all so much for prying for us, we feel them at work in our lives. I love y’all.
My mother grew up in Culberson, NC. Each spring, her mother would give all the children a “dose” of castor oil–in coffee with added cream and sugar. I never knew Mother to drink coffee (and she was a coffee drinker!) any other way than “black”–because she couldn’t forget the taste of that “spring tonic in coffee!”
While Grandmother’s tonic might have tasted bad, her children were quite healthy growing up. (I’m glad Mother didn’t keep up that tradition with my sister and me, though!!)
Thank you, Tipper, for keeping the “ways” of Appalachia going!
Hi everyone, . Well, since I live in Oklahoma, the tornadoes (2) of them is north of us about a 45 minute drive. Since I live with my daughter and live right of of hwy 81, as soon as it was safe, there was a huge call out from Enid, Oklahoma needing ambulances, sheriff depts, Oklahoma Highway Patrol units…in minutes all of a sudden there were 15 ambulances and at least 50 patrol cars flying by the house lights and sirens going, all going north.
What is truly amazing is God’s grace protecting everyone in the path, no fatalities and just 12 people with minor injuries!!
God even kept Vance Airforce Base safe. There is another air base east of Oklahoma City, which was just fine!!
The volume of jets having to get out at a drop of a hat is way to cool to watch.
As of right now the tornadoes are in the southern part of the state. YIKES
This girl (me), I have a HEALTHY RESPECT FOR TORNADOES!!
Norman, since the fires are a ways from you, I wanted to share an app called “watch duty”. The app is free and we all have it on our phones to track wildfires!! We severely need the rain here in the wheat buckle. Not a drop from last night’s storms. Around Enid they got 3 to 5 inches in just minutes….some flooding.
Everyone have a safe weekend..:-)
Donna, I’m so glad everyone was okay. I’m praying for everyone suffering from the weather.
Hi Tipper, thank you for your response!! This time of the year really creeps me out!! In 1999, I got home early from work because they were tracking the largest recorded tornado EF 5 down in the south of Oklahoma. That tornado sadly went through a sub division in Moore, which was 1 1/2 mile wide on the ground! So many people were trying to get home on interstate 35, took shelter under bridges, storm drains, most just sat there in their cars. The death toll was huge.
I lived out in the country 8 miles west, was trying to get back to my daughter’s house in town. When it was time to leave it started hailing softball size. Bottom line God stopped me from leaving, because when the lightning flashed there was a tornado 1/2 mile east from me, i would have driven right into it. The next day I was told another one was west of me at 1/2 mile.
No damage that I could see. YIKES
So this time of the year I have anxiety really really bad.
It seems the weather patterns are much more intense!!
Take care love everything you do and family. Stay safe.
Sweet Granny! How dear that she knew she couldn’t trick her mama like that.
I feel bad for those kids, though. Castor oil, in my opinion is awful. My little boy born a little over a year ago was overdue, and my midwife had me take castor oil to induce labor. It was awful. I can still taste it. Ugh! It did work though, so I guess it has its uses.
My mother who was born in 1923 said all 6 of the children in her family had to have a weekly dose of cod liver oil. She couldn’t stand the thought of eating seafood the rest of her 94 years!
The only spring tonic I remember was having ramps and fried potatoes for dinner. I have always loved them and ate them even if it was a school day—never raw—that’s too powerful. I am sure we smelled like ramps in school sometimes, but I think most kids ate them around the same time. At our house, my mama made one dinner—you either ate or went hungry. She just couldn’t really afford to cater to everyone’s likes or dislikes. So we all learned to eat and love everything—she was a great cook. We usually had ramps a few times along with potatoes and biscuits. Mama canned ramps to have in the winter too. She canned or froze anything we could gather…walnuts, apples, pears, blackberries and wild strawberries. Then, of course, she canned and froze many vegetables from the garden. I can’t imagine how terrible it was for Granny to swallow that castor oil. Just the thought makes me feel a little ill. I enjoyed watching you plant a million flowers last evening. I can’t wait to see them growing through the summer. Have a wonderful day everyone.
Great post. Always enjoy reading them Tipper. I never have cared for the spring poke salad myself either. But I have family that can’t wait to have it and with the bacon grease.
Sarah
The castor oil I remember had something else mixed in, like alcohol. Does anyone else remember it that way? We also were given this thick, dark brown liquid vitamin that was nearly as bad. We thought Mom was awfully mean lol.
What a sweet picture of granny as a little girl. I love the stories that you shared about granny going to the garden and getting garlic and instead of onions by mistake. I know and understand all too well about taking that spring tonic. My mother would make us kids take a spoonful of castor oil every spring, and it was the most grossest thing I’ve ever tasted. After her doctor told her she was killing us kids by giving us that castor oil. She got so upset she stopped and we never had it again. Now people are saying it is great to take castor oil. Go figure!
I was never blessed with a required dose of castor oil, but Grandma Smith dosed us cousins as appropriate with milk of magnesia in our buttermilk. Not all that bad.
Castor Oil was the way to go! Yikes!
I remember those days of castor oil and being told it was ‘good for what ails me’ only I wasn’t ailing until I had to take that stuff! Another thing I never figured out was this – as a picky eater I was often told to ‘eat up’ as there were children around the world who were starving’ – like how did my eating something help them? Randy – re: ‘count your blessings…’ I recall hearing that same phrase and a similar one during my growing years: “count your blessings as there is always someone worse off than you!’
praise God for the memory of Granny, thank you for the story, I like Poke salad, but I don’t have anybody to fix it for me now, castor oil I’ve heard talk about it, God bless you and have a great day
I am a fan of castor oil and believe in its benefits, though I’ve never taken it internally! Judging from your post and others comments, I maybe should be! 🙂 I enjoyed the stories about Granny as a wee little girl. Thank you, Tipper.
Funny you should mention both pokeweed and castor beans in the same article. Those are two plants that you need to know what you’re doing with them when you use them. Both are toxic and possibly lethal if you don’t know when to pick them nor know how to process them. I shudder to think how the trial-and-error went in finding out the knowledge that was arrived at.
Thank goodness mother didn’t make us take castor oil but would give us Fletchers Castoria. I worked 38 years for Michelin. I would often see large plastic containers of castor oil on the receiving dock. I never saw it used in my plant. It was probably sent to another plant that mixed the different qualities or mixes of rubber.
I sure remember the days of Castor Oil. Momma had 7 kids and her little brother to contend with every day. We knew better than to fuss and fight. She never allowed that. On an occasion in the Springtime we would give it another try. We would start up with being fussy and dreading going out and working. It was always in the Spring and when school was out. She would line all of us up and give us a big dose of Castor Oil. She would tell us that if we cried, we would get a whooping. That stuff is the most awful stuff out there. I swore that when I left home to marry I wouldn’t give it to my kids. LOL. But, those old people knew more than we think. I don’t remember us being sick with many times. Not a narry one of us except Connie my brother. He got billed ears a lot. If we stared acting back up, she would ask us if we wanted some. Daddy and momma loved Poke Salad and Watercresses. I liked anything momma made. Most everyone in the church and community did to. I think we lived in the best of times if you could bring modern medicine into it. We are dry here to. We have a good chance of rain this week. We have been watering what little we planted to. For the most part, it is the two of us who eats it. When my kids were growing up it was nothing for me to put up at least 400 cans of food. I pray that God will send us all who need the rain a good ground soaking rain without the strong storms especially for Randy’s friend that plants his sweet potatoes. We need to remember all those that are in need of prayer. I see some many in the OB’S that are leaving this world without Jesus. Please don’t be one of them. He loves you so much. God bless you all.
Drama, I enjoy your comments, my mother in law along with my father in law would “put up” hundreds of quarts of green beans and tomatoes and would fill up three of the largest size chest freezers with corn and other vegetables. Every Sunday she would feed 5 daughters and son in laws along with their grandchildren after the morning church service. Some of us would go back after the night service and clean up the leftovers. Very few Sundays went by when all their children didn’t come by to see them at some time. Many times I couldn’t go because of having to work 3 Sundays a month. Maw as we called my mother in law would always fix me a big plate/ more like a platter and send it to me by my wife. Maw and Paw were the best and dearly loved by all of us. Sometimes during the week, I would tell my wife I am going to see your Mother and Daddy, do you want to go with me? My father in law would joke and say when he would see us “there goes my week’s worth of groceries.” Anything I might have gain by moving away was not worth giving up time to spend like this with family.
I look at the OB’s on 5 local mortuaries each day, it bothers me when I read one and it tells about what they done but there is no mention of church. I know going or being a member of a church does not necessarily mean they have been saved, but I think the odds are they were.
Great post. Brings back memories of my younger years and my parents giving my brother and I cod liver oil every Spring to prevent illnesses. Boy did we hate that stuff. Did it work? Well we did not tell our parents if we were feeling a little down for fear if another dose of that evil liquid. I now take cod liver pills on a daily basis. Older and wiser.
My sister and my aunt have both cooked polk this week—can you believe the gall of them not bringing me any lol’
I was like Granny when it comes to greens. If a cow won’t eat them I won’t eat them. If a cow will eat them then I’ll eat the cow.
My mom would give us a tablespoon (to me it seemed like a ladle) of cod liver oil with an orange slice. For years I could not eat orangesfor fear that taste! Then one day she started giving us these little yellow pills. We were all thankful for the day they started putting cod liver oil in pill form!
My mom was born in 1938 and her parents whose parents were from Germany, made her drink a spoonful of Castor Oil every morning They always touted the health benefits, but mom was not a fan ;). Everything we think is new, our ancestors already knew about!
Your stories are wonderful! They remind me of my childhood, when it seems that the world was a kinder place and home was a safe haven for us all. I believe we can return to those days in small ways. A kind word to a stranger or a helping hand to a neighbor would be a way to start returning to a more caring and uplifting environment. Thank you for reminding me of happy times!
This does not have anything really to do with today’s post. I have been awake for the last hour and looking at the news on my iPad. Seeing the news about the tornadoes in Oklahoma has me thinking of my father in law and something I heard him say during another dry spell for our area “ count your blessings, we may not be getting rain but we are also not having the bad storms other parts of the country are having.” These tornadoes made me think of him saying that. Oklahoma got rain but at what cost. I was “jawing” with my sweet potato friend yesterday and he said he had only planted some sweet corn, one patch at the first of the month that had came up but was just sitting there not growing and another patch last week in the dust that was not even trying to sprout/come up. He said he didn’t know what he was going to do this year about his sweet potatoes if the weather did not change and begin to rain. He usually plants about 30,000 each year around Memorial Day. They are a big part of his yearly income. Looking at the long range weather forecast, there is very little rain predicted. For me, I only have to think of a few tomato plants but for him and other farmers like him it is a big part of their income. They area he farms has no source of water he could use for irrigation, many area farm ponds are drying up. I pray that any members we may have from these areas having these tornadoes are safe and have not had any damage.
I also feel so sorry for those who experienced tornado devastation in some parts of the country yesterday. 🙁 Praying for rain for your area and others who need it as well.