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Blogging about Appalachia since 2008

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  1. B. I believe your bird prediction was accurate! Now you’ll have to share what sort of bird goings on you see all winter so we’ll know a snow is coming our way : ) So sweet that your grandchildren liked your costume! Wish I could have been there to see it too!
    Tipper
    Blind Pig The Acorn
    Celebrating and Preserving the
    Culture of Appalachia
    http://www.blindpigandtheacorn.com

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  2. I remember a hand game where you interlaced your fingers making a flat area, then put your index fingers up making a triangle — while reciting “here is the church and here is the steeple.” Then you turned your hands upside down (fingers still laced)and wiggled your fingers saying “Come go home with me, come with me.” Hope you can visualize my goofy directions. Stay warm and dry. xoxo

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  3. Tipper,
    My daddy use to say “go home with
    me” alot after Church. The preacher and his wife took him up on it several times till we ’bout run out of Pullets. Besides, me and my older brother had to wring them chickens’ necks and clean ’em for dinner. Mama could really fix fried Chicken. What nice memories!..Ken

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  4. Oh, who can talk about food today? Look out the window. There’s snow everywhere! (We got two inches.) What a change! I knew it was coming but I would have put it off if I could have. Early in the month, a few spots got a light frost but we were spared and the garden kept producing. Yesterday was a rough one. I worked hard all day in the misty rain to protect the plants that I could and bring in the harvest that remained above ground. I now have tomatillos running out my ears so I guess that in addition to baking, I’ll be making salsa today. I also picked all the sweet Red Bull Horn peppers, the last of the Blue Coco and Cherokee Wax beans, six tomatoes (one was actually ripe) AND (for my final squash report) a single Seminole pumpkin. Next year will be better. I say that every year and most of the time I’m correct. For dinner last night I had to “whip something up.” It was turkey soup with everything in it. It wasn’t any faster than stirred but it sounds that way.

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  5. Tipper,
    WOW…done broke the record for snowfall on Mount LeConte and the weather forecast is for the snow to double by the end of this very day! Oh how I wish I was in a cabin on the mountain! The pictures showing up on TV, Facebook are beautiful!
    I was planning on slippin’ on over to Murphy for a stirred up bite to eat, but all the park roads are closed! Of course I could come in the back way through Madisonville, acrost Coker Creek, etc. but those curvy roads may get some snow as well.
    I knew my “flocking bird omen” wouldn’t lie to me! Some of the birds are still feeding heavy this morning. The Jaybirds screaming, “Thief, thief”, scaring the smaller birds away, hoping to get their greedy belly fill! It looks as if they are putting off baths in favor of just getting a drink and waiting until the sun shines warm again on the water! I saw a few Chickadees “fluff up” on a limb, this cold shock causing them to shiver! The Joree birds are bouncing from the ground back up to the feeder, in hopes some seed get knocked to the ground, they are mostly ground feeders, but will eat from the feeder if hungry enough!
    It was such a shock when we came out of the warm, hot cocoa odiferous laden kitchen and walked into the freezing cold misty rain last night from my sons home. The grandchildren managed to trick or treat a few neighbors before the cold wind and mist chilled them all. I think the Mothers and Granddaddy are the ones that gave up the ghost, so to speak! They came in shivering cold! The kids came in the door screaming, “We still got lots of candy”, while running around showing off their loot! We all stirred up a bite to eat and now today have settled into the cozy corners to wait out this cold spell.
    Do you have snow Tipper?
    Stay warm on this cold snowy day!
    PS…The best part of the fun was when I put on a checked shirt, heavy overdone (clown like) make-up and pulled a red straw hat down covering my face somewhat, and watched the reaction of my grandkids when they opened the door…”Mammaw, you look like a scary clown farmer!” “I am, I am, I said! “Goosing and booing” at them toward their bellies!
    When I was giving bye kisses, the least one came up and said. “Mammaw, I loved your Halloween outfit!” This was the first time he had seen me dress up for the occasion!

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  7. for me it is “find a bite to eat” or “fix a bite to eat”
    When I was a child we didn’t invite people home with us much because we were always on foot and we lived the furderst out. “Yuns drive on over to the house and wait for us. We’ll be there after while” just don’t sound right. “Just leave yer car here and walk home with us” sounds worse.
    Not to say we didn’t have visitors but it is difficult to bring them home with you when you are hoofing it.

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  8. I remember as a small child when our family would visit my grandmother, she’d say “Youns stay and we’ll scare up something to eat.” Since my grandfather was a big hunter of wild game, I imagined my grandfather going out into the woods and scaring something out like a deer, squirrel or turkey for dinner.

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  9. Stir up something to eat was a big part of life in Appalachia. Everyone expected you to stay and eat if you happened to stop by around meal times. I still do that. Even if I already ate I will ask my company if they are hungry and happily stir up a bite for them.

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  14. “Stir up something to eat,” was a common invitation after church in our community–especially those weeks of revival or “protracted meeting.” Those times were a sort of “vacation” without leaving home, because crops were “laid-by” and the afternoons could be devoted to “sitting a spell” and talking to whoever accepted our invitation to eat at our board at whatever we “stirred up to cook.” Maybe that meal had already been planned and cooked before we went to 11 a. m. meeting (revival service) at the church. Or maybe it was an extemporaneous invitation, anytime, because cooking was almost “second nature” to the housewives of our community. It was a matter of pride to turn out a good meal ably and adeptly. We didn’t have to go by recipes, either, at least having them before us. We just had learned “how” to cook the food which we had grown on the farm. “Come and we’ll stir up something to eat” was usually followed by “and then sit a spell and talk.”

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