Our independence it tempered by our basic belief in neighborliness and hospitality. Survival on the frontier sometimes required people to be hospitable, to take people in when night caught them on a journey or keep them indefinitely if their house burned down. Until recent times, neighbors joined in to help build houses and barns for those who needed them. No greater compliment could be paid a mountain family than that they were “clever folks,” meaning that they were quick to invite you to visit and generous with the food. My father told of eating at one home where the only food was sorghum and corn bread, but the host said graciously, “just reach and get anything you want.”
Those receiving hospitality were expected to reciprocate. In the ballad, “Jesse James,” known throughout the mountains, the most damning thing said about “that dirty little coward” Robert Ford who shot Jesse was that,
He ate of Jesse’s bread, and
he slept in Jesse’s bed,
Yet he laid poor Jesse in his grave.
We who were brought up on the value of hospitality will always have the urge to invite those who visit to stay for a meal or to spend the night, even though this is not the custom over much of America now, unless a formal invitation is sent out well in advance.”
—Appalachian Values written by Loyal Jones
The excerpt from Appalachian Values reminds me of how we always try to feed people when they come for a visit. It also reminds me of the wonderful generosity from all areas that has been shown to those suffering from hurricane Helene. Please continue to remember all the people struggling in prayer and also those who are giving aid.
Today’s Thankful November giveaway is a used copy of Appalachian Values written by Loyal Jones. To be entered in the giveaway leave a comment on this post. Giveaway ends November 10, 2024.
Tipper
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I was raised in a family and community of hospitality. We just called it a neighbor helping another neighbor. Tipper, thank you for all your wonderful November giveaways.
I love reading your posts. It makes me appreciate my heritage all the more. Hospitality was a part of my upbringing and is still practiced in my area. I live in SC but was raised in TN.
❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
Not only did I enjoy your post but I read the stories in the comments! What an uplifting and encouraging time spent reading! I was born and raised in east central Indiana and I was raised the same way! We always had food to offer, a place to stay if needed! It is just what my Mom and Dad taught us by example. We lived in the country and had a rail road track within 1/4 mile of us, every once in a while someone would knock on the door, asking if we had anything to eat. Mom always made sure they got a meal etc. I’m 73 now and have health struggles but if someone comes I will offer! God bless you and yours❤❤
Hospitality/generosity are often found in the least expected/expensive places. I have had car trouble before and be on the side of the road and it is not the ones who have the better autos that stop to give assistance, but the poorer folks in the most humble of rides. Appalachians have been known to give half of what they had for a meal.
Mom always invited everyone to eat if they were hungry, most people don’t have a dinner on the table every Sunday like they did then.
My Mommy always fed everyone that came to our house. I do t know how she did it but she could always come up with something tasty! We always had people stopping in to visit.
I do remember folks from out of town coming to visit with my grandparents, and staying for several days to go fishing or hunting, depending on the season. The kids gave up the bed for the elders and slept on the floor on cushy quilt pallets.
My grandmother would start cooking before anyone woke up, and the smell of coffee and bacon and OH! those biscuits! were a welcome sign of her hospitality. She would cook three meals a day (and clean up after) all with a smile on her face.
I have never since felt the warmth of the welcome she presented.
I am so thankful for those times, and try to replicate the feeling for others when I can.
There is nothing much better than Appalachian Values. It seemed that perfect way of life kinda slipped away slowly, and we barely noticed. Your posts remind me, sometimes jolt me! Those wonderful days when family and friends visited, and room was made for children on pallets. No particular bedtime, as everybody stayed up late. Those were the days I heard my very best ghost tales from cousins a bit older. People had a gift for telling stories back then, and sometimes we could hear the grownups on into the night. I loved to evesdrop, and learned more than I should sometimes.
Sunday was usually for fried chicken or chicken and dumplings whether we were home or visiting. I really enjoy the simple things in life nowadays, and so thankful God has blessed me to stay here longer than so many I knew.
I think that would be a wonderful read.
I would enjoy reading this book.
My hubby said his grandpap would always invite anyone in who came to the door. It didn’t matter who they were, or if he knew them…he would say come on in and offer them something to eat…made by grandma of course. She never did mind, except one time when he invited a sweeper salesman in, and she didn’t want a sweeper. Lol
I’ll not repeat what we used to say, and instead repeat one of the nicest, kindest things that was said to us…”Come back when you can stay longer!” They really meant it to, and it filled me thanks to know they meant it!
Hospitality is not only an Appalachian value, but an evidence of quality character. Cherokee County native Loyal Jones sees through the forests and the trees right to the heart of our beloved neck of the woods ( LA-Lower Appalachia).
My mom taught us hospitality. Anytime someone came to our house the first thing she did besides offering them a comfortable place to sit and a glass of lemonade, tea or whatever she had made up in the fridge. If the visitors stayed longer than a couple of hours she offered them something to eat. If someone dropped by close to lunch or dinner then she insisted they have a meal with us. I know my sisters, brother and myself still do that today when someone comes to visit.
So Beautiful. Wonderful stories / conversation . Food for thought . (And action )
When we moved north I didn’t know what to expect from Yankees and for the most part they haven’t changed my attitude about them in general. At my job, we often had many co workers from other countries. I tried to make them feel welcome and took them after work hours to visit sights or shopping. I was surprised to see how others in the office simply went home after work and left them to fend for themselves.
Especially since these same visitors went out of their way when we were in their country.
My neighbors here know if they need help all they have to do is call. One day one of my older neighbors told me he was so grateful to have such a good neighbor. I told him that I was just doing what a neighbor should do. It makes it so much better to be friendly and helpful than uncaring. It is really a whole lot easier than living next to someone who is at odds with you.
Tipper, today’s excerpt from “Appalachian Values” written by Loyal Jones brought tears to my eyes. What a privilege we have to give and receive hospitality. Thank you!
I really enjoyed the passage from the book. Simpler times remembered again. Everyone is so busy nowadays, being a good neighbor isn’t as popular as it was. Between our family, church family, and neighbors, we have many blessings to be thankful for. Many times people are surprised when you do something for them, not being accustomed to just being neighborly, I suppose. Love and prayers to all of you and Granny too!
everyone ho knows me knows i have an open door policy in regards to meals, visits, etc…Don’t have a place for Thanksgiving or Christmas eve dinner? they know they can just drop in at my house and they’ll be welcomed…no phone call ahead needed…need someone to talk to or visit with? well always welcome here…my house has ALWAYS been the one everyone was welcomed, need a “mom” to thrash things out with? sure come on by…no need to knock just open the door and holler…need a place to stay for a few days? we’ll find you a bed…might be just a couch or pallet on the floor but we’ll give you a place to lay your head…just the way i was raised and the way i raised my younguns.. and if a person is going through a rough period and have lost their home etc and is willing to work for help in getting a place to live, i’ll do my best to do that too…i don’t randomly hand out cash to whoever but i’ll certainly give a hand up all day long…its just who i am and the way i was raised…
Well, both food and sleep are common currency of life. Can’t hardly go wrong offering either. And one great advantage of a garden is having food to give. When eating is a gathering and a gathering is family, friends, neighbors or all three in one there is community. Years ago, a child at our church called the fellowship hall “the eating church”. He wasn’t so very far wrong. It wasn’t easy to leave my Grandma’s place without being given something to take with you. Though my brother and I lived with her some years, I never knew her income nor her expenses. She never spoke of it but I’m sure it wasn’t much. I’m like her still. I feel like a poor host if someone leaves without something, even if it is just an invitation to come back. We all have to be reminded over and over what we truly value. Tragedy will do it but it’s best if loss is not required.
My father gave up a very successful pharmacy practice and went back to school to be a doctor with two little boys in tow. As they reached the hills traveling towards Missouri their “trailer” packed with precious possessions could not handle the climb. Removing the heaviest cargo my mother had to leave on the roadside her precious piano. Once they were settled and medical school began my mother was to teach to bring in income on which they would survive. However, my sister was to become a part of their four year journey and mother was unable to teach. My brothers told people their daddy was going to school to be a milkman. Reality he got up in the wee hours of the morning and did a milk and ice route before heading to classes.
Through their poverty…my brother tells of mother finding rabbits for sale at 10 cents a pound and it made the tastiest meals as long as the money held out. To supplement my father and uncle built crude structures that were not more than a tiny shed and provided a roof over the head of travelers.
But the thing that has always meant the most to me….my brother retelling of hearing someone knock on the back door and my mother going to the kitchen and finding something to give them to eat. She knew the pangs of hunger as a child and always trusted thatGod would provide and stretch whatever she had, as long as she didn’t hold on with a tight closed fist but to share with one in need.
I miss my mom so much. Last week my sister joined her. I pray that when she tells mom how I am doing she will say….I am carrying out her legacy and helping those in need.
Continued prayers always for your beautiful family and nonstop prayers for all the victims of Helene and the volunteers and supporters. May God bless them. God bless America and shed His Grace upon us as we look to Him.
Kathleen-thank you for sharing your family story. I’m so sorry you lost your dear sister.
I won a book last year, so please don’t consider me. But after reading some of the stories here, I must share another story. My husband and I were married only nine months when we planned a camping trip to Eastern Tennessee. My husband was a CPA practicing in Atlanta and I worked for a large law firm in Atlanta. It was OCT, 1982. We dined at the first Cracker Barrel in the U.S. in Chattanooga, visited The World’s Fair in Knoxville, and found a primitive campsite on the Foot Hills Parkway outside Townsend. The weather was chilly and the wind on the mountain blowing through the crisp fall leaves sounded like a waterfall, lulled me off to sleep in our little tent. On Sunday morning, we packed to head back home and our car would not crank. We were stuck, most campers were already gone, and there was no Ranger on site. The day before we had chatted with a friendly couple when at a Lookout. They lived in Maryville and pointed out the town from the Lookout. I set out to find them. This couple and their friends were about the age of our parents. They were extremely hospitable, somehow contacted a wrecker (satellite phone maybe?), gave us the keys to their camper and their house and told us to follow the wrecker driver! Yes they did! Once we arrived at their house, we showered, as we don’t shower when primitive camping, lol. Then their son and his friend arrived and took us out to dinner, and insisted on paying for it! The gracious couple arrived that night and we enjoyed friendly conversation before turning in. The next morning, the man, a business owner in town who knew everyone, took my husband out to buy a new car battery. We were soon on our way back to Atlanta. We’ve been married 43 years now, and this story of extreme hospitality, mountain/southern hospitality, still blesses me! I shared the story with the local newspaper in Maryville. My closing remark was “The Good Samaritan isn’t just ancient history”. Thanks for listening. I hope someone is inspired by my story. We see this playing out in NC now, post hurricane Helene. God bless all those in need, and the Good Samaritans.
Vicki, what a beautiful testament to the wonderful people of Appalachia. We live on a little street outside of “town” in Northern Michigan and we feel so blessed. There are 30 families here and all are friendly and you know you could go to any one of them if ever in need. Our next door neighbors are like family and we share our holiday meals together all through the year.
This made me think of something I read this morning regarding being grateful and not grumbling. We need to be grateful and share, not grumble and complain.
No one ever left our house hungry, and neighbors were always willing to lend a hand to anyone in need. I remember family, friends and neighbors coming together for hog killings. Here at home, we always look forward to having company, whether it be family or friends and we also enjoy going to their homes as well. Southern hospitality is a normal part of our lives I am proud to say.
When I was a little girl, I rode in the truck with Granddaddy, Blue, to deliver a box of food to a “widder woman” that lived nearby The Farm. The lady looked scary to me, very old and feeble. My grandparents’ compassion and generosity made a lasting impression on me. Now, in my late 60’s, I enjoy taking a meal to shut-ins or someone recovering from surgery or coping with an illness. Mountain hospitality and Southern hospitality will always be expressed in my home here in NW Georgia! Thanks Tipper! And God bless America on this Election Day! Vicki Davis
Enjoyed this so much! We have so much to be thankful for, we should all be as hospitable as we can.
Hospitality has fast vanished from our way of life. Today most people don’t even know who their neighbors are. I remember when family or friends would stop, while I was growing up, food was always offered. I can hear my parents or grandparents asking “Have you eat” or if they came at meal time “get a plate fill it up and join us.” I pray we can return to those days again. Enjoy reading your blog each morning.
Please leave me out of the drawing as I have won previously. Hospitality is important to my husband and myself. We had a place at a campground for several years, and we often had community dinners. We cooked, served, and fed our neighboring campers who also had seasonal spaces. We have neighbors in poor health with thin wallets, and we take them a home-cooked meal at least once a week.
In the old days neighbors were like family.
I have always enjoyed reading books about pioneers moving westward in the early days. Many of these traveling individuals or families would spend the night with total strangers along the way, their “hosts” tucking them in on the floor or anywhere there was room, often sharing food from their own meager supplies. It seems we’ve always been a sharing & caring nation.
I don’t believe hospitality is on its death bed today, or that neighborliness is geographically limited to rural areas or hill country or even to America. From the terrible floods in Spain to the typhoon in Taiwan, humans have demonstrated time and time again through time that we do most often come to the aid of our neighbors, and show hospitality to strangers. But every one of us has the potential to let our inhumanity rise to the surface. I can become blinded by fear, isolation, and self-preservation. I can convince myself that turning my back to “them”, the others, is necessary and right. We all live in polarized spaces. We can convince ourselves that a neighbor’s yard sign brands them as a bad person, and that a stranger brings great danger. We are all human, and we each have within us potential to be good neighbors and show hospitality to strangers in need, but we also carry the seeds that can grow the opposite in us.
“Just reach and get anything you want.” Something you’d hear at our supper table! Southern hospitality at its best!
Great read today from Loyal Jones!
Sally Jo-praying for your friend Cate, you and the family.
My dear church friend, Ms Ruth, is mountain hospitality personified. I never leave her house without something to take home: garden vegetables, apples right off the tree, or a small baggie of bugles (her favorite).
I grew up with a house full of people. I’m the oldest of five. Dad’s seven brothers and sisters and their families were always visiting along with neighbors and church friends. Mom always had food cooked. Pinto beans, fried taters, Cole slaw, chow chow and other foods usually were available. If she needed to cook, she would sometimes fry up chicken, or make chicken and dumplings, and banana pudding. I always helped her cook. We would also visit relatives and other friends and eat with them. I remember once when I was around ten, I think, that a ragged, bearded man arrived at our back door. He asked my mother for “something to eat.” She told him to sit at the picnic table and she would bring some food to him. I can’t remember what she gave him to eat but later when she was talking to Daddy about the visit, he remarked that he could have gotten off the train which was close by or maybe he was an angel. The Bible does speak of that. Hebrews 13:1 says, “Let brotherly love continue. Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.” We need to be friendly and look out for those who need help.
Hospitality is a dying art. It’s so very important though. I hope we can keep it alive.
Where would we be without church, neighbors and family. It is the American way.
God bless America.
Where would we be without church, neighbors and family. It is the American way.
When I was a child, I can remember several times when a family (friends of my parents) would come to visit us on Friday evening for supper and end up not leaving until Sunday evening when they ultimately had to return to their home to prepare for work on Monday. Those were some wonderful times.
This was my Grandma. As soon as you came in the door she would ask Are you hungry?. Whether you said yes or no she would have a table of food ready in no time to feed ya. I guess becoming a widow at 35 with 8 children to feed she got good at putting food on the table fast.
Love this
i look forward to your posts every morning after I read my Bible and have Coffee!
Joanna
No one ever left our house without being offered something to eat. My mom kept fried apple pies baked for that purpose!
I was down south at my Grandparents every year and I heard those sweet words so much there when visiting or when visitors stopped. Ya all stay the night with us or we would say come on home with us and I remember my friends from up north coming for a visit and when we went to church that Sunday morning my Aunt said, Ya all need to stay a month with us:) Hospitality and showing kindness was always displayed. I do believe my Grandparents and Parents lived their lives as a example to me and that the happy desire to “help” where needed is certainly in me and comes from watching them. I will check and see if I can get this book on Audible.
growing up we had a very small house. I can remember Dad saying “just stay with us. if we don’t have enough beds we’ll drive up a nail and hang you up for the night” as a kid in my mind I always tried to figure out how that would work… lol. but what he we really saying was we’ll make room for you! Southern hospitality needs to come back!!
always willing to share what little you have.
I start my morning with you and coffee!
What a wonderful excerpt! I’d love to read it. It makes me long for a different time. Thank you, Tipper!
The world certainly needs more southern hospitality. This book sounds like a wonderful read and the author has a great name.
Hospitality is definitely one of those things you can never really go wrong with!
Good Morning Tipper,
As I age, the Bible and good books are a constant friend along with all the good memories I have of a different era when helping a neighbor or stranger was the norm. My mom didn’t drive, but it didn’t stop her from extending help when needed. With 8 kids to take care of every day, she would fix a meal and put it in that old bent up Stanley pack and walk us kids down the road to take food to a family tn need. We were poor ourselves, but that didn’t stop my dad and mom from sharing what they had. As Christmas is fast approaching I remember my dad and us in an old car seeing a little boy in our neighborhood walking in cold weather with no shoes and dad bought him a pair of shoes. I only had one pair of new shoes in my life. it breaks my heart to think of the devastating effects left by these storms, but I know mom and dad would have helped any way they could have if they were still alive because that is what we do and the way we live and we’re taught to love our neighbors here in Appalachian. God bless.
When my oldest daughter was a toddler she would often ask friends who came for a visit to stay for lunch before I had a chance. We were pretty broke, but I wanted to cultivate that hospitality so I made sure I always had a box of pasta or some tuna on hand. It’s always been a blessing to us as well to have people stay for a meal. My grandpa always says “don’t run off now” no matter how long a visitor has been there.
I was raised in middle Tennessee, and I remember my granny always trying to feed anyone who stopped by. There was always something sitting on the stove to eat. I also remember my grandfather always saying, “Y’all better stay with us” anytime somebody got ready to leave. I’m loving the posts because I’m remembering things I haven’t thought about in years, or realizing they are common sayings in Appalachia. Thank you
One of my grandmothers always wanted to feed anyone that entered her house. I could say, “No, Grandma, I just had a big meal and I’m full.” She would name everything that was still warm from their meal, then things that she could warm up quickly. I used to tease her that if I wasn’t interested in what she had on hand she would name everything in the store that she could send Grandpa to get.
We had a friend that always had one more bed than her family needed and left a key out for us to use if we arrived after she was in bed or even when she wasn’t home. Many times we would think we would surprise her with a visit only to find she was away from home. We got the key, went in, raided the refrigerator and went to bed. We always left her a note to tell her we had been there.
Good morning Tipper,
last year I spent Thanksgiving with my best friend, just the 2 of us , because her cancer had come back after 4 years and she was unable to be around All the family with her husband and daughter. She cooked EVERYTHING! Wouldn’t let me do anything. it was all so delicious. inside I was so sad but we smiled and laughed and reminisced about how we met 13 years ago and our instant connection. she is a beautiful soul. she is in hospice care now with only weeks to live. I visit her all the time. I’m never afraid to wake her up and get her talking. we continue to talk about our incredible relationship and now her 10 year old daughter and my 10 & 7 year old grandsons who are all friends their whole lives.
I don’t know how life will be without her, she is such a light in everyone’s lives.
Sorry to be such a downer, I’m just really feeling it today.
Would you mind please praying for all of us especially my beautiful Cate?
We planned to make everything for this thanksgiving from your and Jim’s cookbook. As soon as I got it we read it cover to cover. I will still be doing that, only without my girl.
I would really appreciate your prayers.
Thank you Tipper
Sally Jo-I’m so sorry. I will pray for Cate and for you and everyone else too!!
Miss Tipper and Sally Jo, I too will be praying for your beautiful friend, Miss Cate. I too had a friend like her. I lost her a few years ago this November. She had a beautiful, generous soul. I miss my wonderful precious friend, Sharon. I’m still feeling her loss, every single day and talk to her through prayer and love. Please give my hello to Cate and let her know she is so special and people are praying for her. God bless you all. Miss Tipper I wanted to also say I remember many times by mama and daddy opening our home to family and friends. Food on the table, big old pot of fresh coffee and a warm bed for or them. Of course g to he bed might have been a pallet on the floor. Ha. Hospitality has changed these days. Thank God for wonderful memories. Have a good day y’all. May God bless y’all today, tomorrow and always. Remember the all the states on the Gulf Coast in prayer. Another hurricane is developing and we’re all hoping it goes away. Thanks. Jennifer, South Mississippi.
Prayers said for dear Cate.
Sally Jo, I am so sorry for you and your friend, Cate and I will be praying. What a treasure of friendship you share. And I smiled when I read you you do not hesitate to wake her and share more of life together. Precious precious memories to hold close.
Appalachian Values and each reader’s comments bear witness to many ways that are mostly memories. Aunts and uncles on both sides of the family lived these ways of helping and generosity.
Appalachian Values is a wonderful book that I recently bought. Loyal Jones perfectly describes the ways of the Appalachian people.
I’m not from your area, but I am plum foolish for Appalachia. There must be some Appalachian in my family because my maternal grandmother’s people came from TN and they always did try and feed and shelter everyone who visited them. Jesus told us to love our neighbor as ourselves, and I think your culture lives that.
Appalachia is always on my mind and in my prayers since the terrible storms. So thankful I grew up with a precious grandma whose door was always open and table of food was always shared. I need to remember to be more like her.
Your posts and blogs always take me back to my childhood. I miss some of those days and wished I could go back once in a while.
Things are sure different now days
Here in northwest Ohio we must schedule an appointment to see our grandchildren
Never forget to be thankful for the small things. If you are hungry cornbread and sorghum are a huge meal and a blessing to have friends that share what they have. Hope all is well with your family Tipper. I don’t comment often but appreciate so much what you do.
I remember those days all too well. Sad that they are now behind us. Thanks for all your hard work Tipper!
I’ve never heard the phrase “clever folks” used in that context before. Love it.
Cornbread and soup beans always
there to share at my Mama’s house along with a place to stay if you needed it. When you are a tiny child and you get to grow up around such generosity like Loyal wrote about, it is part of you and stays with you your entire life. Even when you move to a big city where that kind of generosity and kind spirit can actually shock people. Love, Teresa
I agree that being neighborly has gone by the wayside. People don’t gather at their homes as much, but at places and destinations. And we are not as trusting of each other as we use to be. Here where we live we are more suspicious of those we don’t know, which unfortunately is understandable. It would be so much nicer to be trusting of our fellow man.
I have been told that my Great Great Grandmother would feed anyone in need. I don’t know how she did it being that there was very little available.
My mother always cooked big meals because she never knew who mightv stop by right at dinnertime which was the noon meal. There were 10 children in our family and no one was ever turned away.
My Daddy grew up on a farm in Alabama and moved to Memphis to find work, after the Navy. There he met my mom, a “city girl”. When we would go back to Alabama, lots of relatives would come see us and we would go visiting as well. When it came time for visitors to leave, my grandmother would say “Y’all better stay the night”. When we were leaving someone’s house Daddy would say,
“Y’all better go home with us”. I always thought it was funny cause nobody ever stayed the night nor did anyone ever go home bc with us, yet the invitations were always made.
During our visits to Banner Elk we are always reminded of the thoughtfulness of many people we encounter. It’s a wonderful feeling!
My Mamasnd Daddy always welcomed guest and naturally they were going to be fed and take something home from the garden.
I would love to read this book. Thank you for sharing!
My Dad was from the Midwest my Mom from TN. My southern relatives definitely showed their love and hospitality through food. No one could make fried chicken like my maternal grandmother!
Old stories like this make me yearn even more the old times like that.
I remember as a child running in and out of neighbors homes, meals at grandmas house, all kinds of gatherings…today, if someone knocks on our door, we step outside to see what they need, if we even answer..We can’t allow our kids in anyone else’s home for fear of what might happen to them. Families hardly speak to one another,much less gather together….where did the simpler times go?
Kelly, I am happy to say I not only grew up as a child but have lived my adult life (70years) being able to do the things you wrote about in your first sentence. I can not comprehend living in families that are always fussing and fighting among themselves. This never went on in mine or my wife’s families, this includes our extended families. Both of our families were always looking for a reason to have “get togethers.” Sometimes in my wife’s family there would around 40 of us together along with some invited neighbors and friends. I think one secret for being able to do this was because of our families being church going people and no alcohol was ever involved in any of our gatherings. I preach about the importance of spending ever minute you can with your families, for me nothing in my life except for my relationship with God is more important. I wrote yesterday about being with my two grandsons and son this past weekend, I would not trade this time spent with them for any amount of money, career, or anything else. I will get out of the pulpit with this, in the old days I think people were more content with having their necessities, nowadays that is no longer true, they are more interested in wanting better or more of their wants. Many of both mine and my wife’s family have passed on, my wife and daughter both died suddenly, they were both gone in the blink of an eye. Ask yourself just how important is your family to you? What are your priorities?
I very much enjoyed today’s post! Hospitality is very much the norm in North Carolina. I look forward to your posts everyday.
This brings back many memories of always welcoming people to the table whenever they visited.
when I was a kid–many many years ago–just a few miles from us lived a gentleman who made sorghum and daddy would at some point make a special trip to buy 3 or 4 gallon or more sized jugs (he always gave one jug away to somebody-my grandparents or a neighbor). the jugs were a see through green and I think at one time they must have been used to put homemade booze in as the opening was no bigger around than a quarter or little larger with the glass having been molded down from the opening with a round finger hole (hold) for slipping your finger through it and hoist it up on your arm in order to tip it up to your mouth to take a drink, often a cork was used rather than a lid—I poorly described the action I am sure you have seen done before with these types of jugs especially in old westerns…..on that same sorghum ‘run’ daddy would go on down the road a few more miles and get two fifty pound toesack bags of peanuts–again he gave one away and we kept one….so now we were set for the winter to have enough sorghum for our biscuits and cornbread for 9 people, and peanuts for roasting on special nights as a great snack and of course mama used some of the raw peanuts for making brittle come Christmas time. Long after the old man who made sorghum died and I was growing up you could still see the wood though slightly falling apart from the ‘mill’ I presume it is called where the mule would walk around and aroung in endless circles until all the grinding was done and in my minds eye I see it still today and could probably take you to the exact spot in his pasture where it stood….many jugs of goodness came out of that man and mule’s hard work to delight tastebuds all around our county
I grew up in West Virginia (Wayne Co.) and as a kid loved going to watch molasses being made. I have friends there who still make them today. Nothing better than molasses on a hot biscuit. Kids today miss so much. Yes, hospitality was truly a part of my growing up and I try to keep it alive in my home today.
Gaylia, CocaCola syrup used in soda fountains came in jugs exactly like you described down to the green shade of the glass. Those jugs were trash to the soda fountains and easily obtainable for other uses. They came 4 in a box and were often discarded in the same cartons.
Perhaps they were what your dad’s friend used for his syrup.
I remember the time when neighbors would help out one another. I am proud to say the native neighbors in my area still do this and expect nothing in return except your willingness to help them out if they ever need you. Almost 50 years ago, I helped a man get up his hay (square bales) of hay and would not take any pay even though a few extra dollars would have been handy. Many years later he helped me out with something and when I tried to pay him he would not except any pay. He said he remembered the time I helped him. I think God wants us to have this type of attitude of helping out one another. I would love to read this book, I will be putting this on my list of books to buy. Reading is one of the things I still enjoy doing.