“Can you imagine an ear of sweet corn as big as a saw log? I’d put a deacon at each end and they could turn it and all I’d have to do is gnaw.”
Last night’s video: Watermelon Hill 15.
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“Come go home with us and we’ll stir up something to eat.” Tipper Overheard: snippets of conversation I overhear in Southern Appalachia…
“All I had to play with was a stick and a pile of dirt and that was enough.” ——————-…
“She caps the stack on that one.” —————- I’ve heard the phrase caps the stack at least a few times…
“It’s hotter than 4 barrel hell. I’m ready for blue snow to be flying.” ——————- Tipper Overheard: snippets of conversation I…
“You don’t have to tell everything you know. It took me a long time to learn the true meaning of…
“I’ll beat you like a dusty rug.” Tipper Overheard: snippets of conversation I overhear in Southern Appalachia
Concerning the song “Hand me down my Walking Cane” there are apparently a lot of different verses. On YouTube there is a version by Norman Blake from an album Whiskey Before Breakfast. His guitar playing made me think of your family’s talent. Thanka
Tipper – it was so wonderful to meet you and your family this morning in Murphy. Can’t wait to dive into the cookbook. And when hubby and I walked around Murphy, saw lots of women carrying your cookbook!
So thankful for stirring up the wonderful memories of my Appalachian life in North Alabama.
Praying for Granny.
My friend Tipper…
Nita-It was so nice meeting you too! Thank you for coming out 🙂
Just wondering if y’all have ever played a song called “Hand me down my walking cane”? Seems it would be perfect for the skills y’all have with stringed instruments. I only heard my daddy sing twice in my life. That song and once in church. Hope your event went well today!
Robert-thank you! I’ve never heard that song but it sounds like a good one. I will try to find it 🙂
Tipper, I’ll bet you have heard it! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmqfZ0k2mxQ
Ed-thank you! It is a great song!
TIPPER, I ENJOYED YOUR STORY ABOUT PLAYING HORSESHOE. MY DAD WORKED FOR A COMPANY THAT MADE CREAM OF WHEAT AND HE UST TO TELL ME THAT WHEN THEY WENT TO THEIR 30 MINUTE LUNCH A NUMBER OF MEN ATE THEIR BOLOGNIA SANDWICHS FAST SO THEY COULD PLAY HORSESHOE. DAD LOVED TO PLAY HORSESHOE AND HE WAS VERY GOOD. NOT JUST AT WORK BUT WHEN A FAMILY REUNION HE ALWAYS KNEW JUST HOW TO MAKE RINGERS. I PLAYED OCCASIONLY BUT WASN’T VERY GOOD. I WOULD LIKE TO SHARE A FEW STORIES ABOUT OUR TWIN BOYS. WHEN THEY WERE 4 OR 5 YEARS OLD, WE LIVED IN RICHARDSON TEXAS A SUBURB OF DALLAS. EVERY DAY WHEN I WOULD GET HOME FROM WORK THE FIRST THING, I ASKED KAREN WAS (WELL WHAT HAPPENED TO TODAY?) BEFORE WE WERE MARRIED, I BUILT BALSA WOOD AIRPLANES AND HAD ABOUT FIVE. SO, ONE DAY MY WIFE MET ME AT THE DOOR AND SAID I AM SORRY BUT THE BOYS GOT A BROOM AND KNOCKED DOWN ALL OF YOUR AIRPLANRS. I HAD HUNG THEM UP OVER THEIR BEDS. AS THEY SLEPT IN TWIN BEDS IN THE SAME BEDROOM. ANOTHER TIME THEY WANTED WALKIE TALKIES SO THEY CUT THE CORDS ON OUR ELECTRIC BLANKETS AND THE ONLY THING THAT SAVED THEM ALONG WITH GOD AND THE RUBBER COATED CHILD SCISSORS WITH THE BLANKET PLUGGED IN WHEN THE ELECTRICITY RAN THROUGH THE METAL OF THE SCISSORS IT WELDED THE SET OF SCISSORS TOGETHER. ANOTHER TIME I WALKED IN AND ASKED MY WIFE WHAT HAPPENED TODAY. IN THE HALL THERE WAS A CLOSET AND TWO PIECES OF WOODEN SHELVES AT THE TOP OF THE CLOSET JUST ABOVE THE ROD WHERE COATS COULD BE HUNG., THEY KEPT ASKING ME WHAT WAS UP THERE AND I KEPT TELLING THEM NOTHING. I JUST TOLD THERE WAS JUST ENOUGH ROOM FOR ONE BOY TO STAND ON HIS BROTHERS SHOULDERS AND WITH THE TWO BOARDS ABOUT 8 INHES APART THE BOY THAT WAS ON HIS BROTHERS SHOULDERS KEPT ASKING THE BOY ON TOP WHARE WAS YP THERE. SO, AFTER HIM NOT RELLING HIT. HE GOT TIRED OF HOLDING HIS BROTHER UP SO HE LEFT HIM HANGING BETWEEN THE TWO BOARDS. A FEW MINUTES LATER HE WENT INTO THE LITCHEN ND HIS MOTHER ASKED WHERE IS YOUR BROTHER? HE’S HANGING IN THE CLOSET. SHE SAID SHE SCREAMED AND RAN TO WHERE ONE BOY WAS ACTUALLY HANGING BY HIS CHIN AND THE BACK OF HIS HEAD. HE HAD BEEN THERE JUST A FEW MINUTES BUT KAREN SAID IT SCARED HER TO DEATH AND WHEN SHE GIT HIM DOWN HE WAS CHOKING. BUT AFTER AWHILE HE WAS OK. ONE BOY WAS THE LEADER AND HE CAME UP WITH ALL OF THE IDEAS OF THINGS TO DO. ONE NIGHT WHEN HE WOULDN’T COME IN FOR THE EVENING, WE FOUND HIM HIGH IN A TREE IN THE BACK YARD. SO, I TOLD HIM TO COME DOWN ITS BEDTIME. DADDY, HE SAID I AM GOING TO SET UP HERE AND TRY TO SEE AN OWL I WENT BACK IN THE HOUSE AND ABOUT 15 MINUTES LATER I WENT BACK OUT AND HE WAS STILL WAITING FOR AN OWL SO TO GET HIM DOWN I TOLD A LIYYLE WHITE LIE. SON IF THAT OWL CATCHES YOU IN THE TREE, HE WILL PECK YOUR EYES OUT. I WENT BACK IN THE HOUSE BUT LEFT THE SLIDING DOOR OPEN AND IN A FEW MINUTES HE SHEEPSHILY CAME SNEAKING BACK THROUGH THE DOOR. HE ALSO LEARNED THAT IN THE BATHROOM THERE WAS A DOUBLE WINDOW THAT COULD SLIDE UP AND DOWN. SO, BOTH BOYS FIGURED OUT HOW TO GET BOTH WINDOWS DOWN AND CLIMB OUT ONTO A TREE AND JUMP ON THE ROOF. OUR NEIGHBOR ACROSS THE STREET SPOTTED THEM ON THE ROOF OF OUR HOUSE. SO, HE QUICKLY GOT HIS LADDER AND CAME OVER AND MADE THEM CLIMB DOWN THE LADDER THAT EVENING I ASKED THEM WHAT WERE THEY DOING ON THE ROOF. BOTH BOYS HAD TAKEN THE SHEETS OFF OF THEIR BEDS AND WAS GOIING TO TRY TO FLY AND USE THE SHEETS AS PARACHUTES. TIPPER DID YOUR TWIN GIRLS TRY ANY OF THESE KIND OF THINGS WHEN THEY WERE LITTLE GIRLS.? AT OUR HOUSE IT WAS SOMETHING EVERDAY AND YES, THEY WERE IDENTICAL TWINS AND HAD THEIR OWN LANGUAGE. KAREN AND I COULD NOT UNDERSTAND THEM SO MY WIFE HAD TO TAKE THEM TO A SPEECH THERAPIST. AND THERE THEY GOT IN TROUBLE. WHEN THE TEACHERS WOULD HOLD UP A SIGN THAT SAID RUN; THEY BOTH WOULD STOP AND VICEVERSA WHEN THE TEACER HELD UP A STOP SIGN, THEY WOULD START RUNNING. LATER IF ITS ALL RIGHT I WILL WRITE A STORY ABOUT SQUARE DANCING. I NOT ONLY PLAYED BASKETBALL BUT SQUARE DANCED FOR A NUMBER OF YEARS IN SCHOOL.TIPPER THANK GOD YOU HAVE PROVIDED A PLACE WHERE I CAN SHARE MY MEMORIES. ONE OF THESE DAYS I WILL TRY TO SEND YOU SOME SILVER CERTIFICATES. MAY GOD BLESS EVERYONE WHO TAKES TIME TO READ MY STORY. I HOPE ALL OF YOU FOLKS ARE CHRISTIANS AS JESUS DIED ON THE CROSS AND SHED HIS BLOOD SO WE WILL ONE DAY MEET IN HEAVEN. RAISING TWINS WAS A REAL TOUGH JOB AND AS I HAVE ALREADY SAID MY FIRST BORN COMMITED SUICIDE BY FALLING BACKWARDS OFF OF A PARKING LOT GARAGE AT A HOSPITAL 11 29 2021. IN CLOSING, PLEASE KEEP ME IN YOUR PRAYERS. MY NAME IS ALLEN SMITH.
Allen-I will pray for you! Thank you 🙂
Allen, I’ll take a few of them silver certificates if you have plenty. I used to have a few but my wife needed some money and took them without asking. She replaced them with federal reserve notes of the same denomination thinking I wouldn’t know the difference and still didn’t say anything. It was a couple of months later when I looked at them. I knew immediately that they didn’t look right. My wife was diagnosed with early onset dementia and I don’t think she knew the difference. Our marriage vows said “in sickness and health”. She didn’t have much health. She died in suddenly in 2018 of sepsis at 66 years of age.
We love you, Tipper, and your Family! Keep up the good work, God Bless you all! From Pennsylvania <3
I’ve never been able to eat corn on the cob. My chompers are not good enough so I have to cut it off.
I Love watermelon Hill !!!!!
I’ve been eating tomato sandwiches for weeks now. Sometimes with fried bologna.
My mama always called freah ears of corn “roast n ears”. After all us kids left home, and she and dad had lots of fresh corn from their garden, they would sometimes make a whole meal out of a big plate of boiled “roast n ears”. What a summertime feast!!
Now that’s one big ear of corn! ;D LOL
I’m assuming a pastor said that.
A good bet it would have been a Baptist preacher if there had been any mention of fried chicken to go along with the corn!
Our corn is in and we are struggling to get it picked and processed. My husband has tried everything to protect our garden and we have a high fence but I don’t trust the raccoons. We’ve had a whole family of groundhogs and they tunnel in under a storage shed–little one ate the tops out of my brussel sprouts. We’ve got a trap set but think they are wise to that. Anyway I love the corn! My son has made a corn salad that is delicious! I remember my brothers and I leaving a tower of corncobs behind us and those little bitty cobs at the grocery wouldn’t have fed one of us.
Thinking of Miss Granny every day and saying a prayer for her.
There is nothing like the taste of a fresh ear of corn on the cob dripping with butter and salt! There is a mennonite family a couple of hours from us that grows acres and acres of corn. Every year you can always find someone that is going to pick up a load of Esau’s corn! We orderd two bags this year! We gave some to our kids, and put some in the freezer!
The wind got into my corn and twisted it all up yesterday afternoon. Some fell over onto the bean, some fell the other way on the tomatoes and peppers. Even my handful of potatoes got flattened. But I’m not mad or even upset.
“What good is gained by cursing the wind?”
Who said that?
Maybe it was me!
©
That would have to be some cob of corn indeed! Lol We did get rain yesterday when I went to the grocery store. I had to laugh cause I prayed for rain. I left the store, drove home and got out soaked groceries in soaked clothing and hair, laughing all the while because the rain sure felt good soaking and cooling everything including all live critters like me. Have a blessed day and give my kindest regards to your momma!!!
““Can you imagine an ear of sweet corn as big as a saw log? I’d put a deacon at each end and they could turn it and all I’d have to do is gnaw.””
Tipper, the humorous, sometimes sharp hyperbole of Appalachia and the jaw-droppingly vivid ‘word pictures’ of Appalachia lift my heart. Thank you.
Someone sure likes their corn! LOL.
Never heard anything about big ears of big corn , it was usually about big watermelons. One about a watermelon growing so big it pull the vine up out of the ground, and another one about a watermelon rolling down a hill and falling in a creek and busting open causing the creek to flood.
Sure wish we could get a good rain, everyone’s gardens around here have dried up, my grass now crunches when you walk on it. There is a pretty fair chance of storms today, but if it is like it has been it will be in areas around me and not here. After all of these hot days, the storms will most likely be bad. Everyone be careful on these hot days, the heat can sneak up on us before we know it.
Another storm is pass through here right now! We got one yesterday. The one yesterday blowed over some more of my corn and my squash and my potatoes grown from peeling. I copied Granny Wilson. I’m right proud of them and I’ll bet she’s right proud of me.
Ed as I write this I have just had about a 5 minute shower going by the weather radar about a half mile away it raining so hard the radar is red. It is still thundering so maybe we still stand a chance. My garden has dried up, and the small patch of corn I had only has a few ears that are not completely filled out.
cousin Cathy brought me squash, cucumbers , local Honey, and tomatoes from her garden yesterday God bless cousin Cathy and 4 ears of corn Hallelujah praise God I am grateful to God and Cathy
Don’t want this one to end..God Bless