“My Mother’s reply when someone asked her if we needed anything would be, “No, we’ve got a plenty.” Daddy and Mama took care of us. We never had a lot but we had a plenty!”
—Barbara Parker
It’s been a good long while since Barbara left the comment above, but I’ve been studying on it since then.
Pap taught me so many things, but one of the best things was to be thankful for what I had for there was always somebody just down the road that was worse off than me and if given the chance would gladly trade places with me.
Pap wasn’t pointing out that I had an over abundance of everything, he was simply reminding me to be thankful that I had enough and shouldn’t be worrying about whatever it was I was fussing about.
I never liked to hear that wisdom when I was a girl complaining about this or that, but as an adult it is something I’m grateful to be aware of.
I never leave Granny’s house that she doesn’t ask me if she’s got anything I need. She usually asks two or three times before I get out the door.
Almost 99% of the time I say “No I don’t need anything.”
I think I’ll borrow Barbara’s mother’s words and start saying “No, Granny I’ve got a plenty.” Because I truly do have a plenty of everything I need. The older The Deer Hunter and I get the more we clearly see we don’t need much to be satisfied and happy.
Last night’s video: Catching Up on the Porch in Appalachia – New Cookbook, Gluing Rocks Together, & Kefir Water.
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I love you Tipper, you really are like kin folks to me. I love your posts, videos, cooking shows, your precious daughters and fun, hard working, husband. You all remind me a lot of what times were like for us when we were younger. Enjoy and relish every moment, and with all my heart I thank you for sharing your lives with me and so many others. My husband and I went to the Foxfire museum the other day and it thrilled me to see some of the very things you have told us about and that big picture of Alex Stewart made me feel like I was seeing a picture of more of my kin folks. Life sure is good and it’s good to know that God is watching over us and providing for us so that we know “we always have a plenty!” God is Wonderful, Loving and Kind and I’m so thankful to be part of the family of God. – Hebrews 13:5 He will never leave us nor forsake us. ( Mama used to tell me that too).
I always say “I’ve got more than enough”. I feel funny if someone is trying to give me something that I know they can’t really afford to do without. I don’t like to be beholden to anyone either. I can accept a gift, graciously, when I know it means something to the other person. Country folk are usually ok with ‘gifts’ of food – veggies, jam, pickles, etc.. because we know that the giver usually has an abundance. But I don’t want to feel I’m shortchanging somebody of a necessary item, or especially $. I don’t like to be paid for help I have offered. If someone expresses a desire to HIRE me, then that is a different story. Otherwise, I tell the person, no, I have more than enough. Being happy with ‘enough’ is a hard thing for a lot of folks. I love getting homemade gifts from my friends, but I’d rather have their time! That is something you can never have ‘a plenty’ of – time with someone you really love!
Me, too.
Seems today, in our consumer dependent economy, we are constantly bombarded with messages telling us that we need things that we don’t really need & trying to convince us to want things that we don’t really want.
I am not one who needs or wants much at all, and I’m fully aware of the advertising tricks being played, yet it’s still sometimes difficult not to be sucked into the manipulation.
Amen to that! We’ve got a plenty to be thankful for! 🙂
It was 12:00 PM before I could even get on here and it didn’t have a comment box at the bottom. I tried off and on all day to get on and write something that had come to mind. It’s 8:00 PM and now it finally has a comment box but I’ve forgot what I was going to say. Has something been going on on your end or is it mine?
Ed-it’s on my end. Website woes 🙂 Hope to have it fixed soon but may be next week.
I have already said too much, but I want to add this and brag a little bit too.I am proud to say that I have been able to pass the work ethics taught to me by my parents along to my children and now my grandson. He went to a tec school thinking he wanted to be an auto mechanic as part of his schooling he had to work so many hours at a dealership, when not working at dealership, he would work for the Cabela’s Greenville SC store . When he finished with his schooling both places were begging him to go full time with them Being a mechanic was not exactly what he thought it would be, so he went with Cabela’s and was immediately promoted to a manager position. This was when he was 20 years old.The car dealership told him if he changed his mind, come back and there will be a job waiting for you. My daughter would go to work when she was so sick she she could hardly hold her head up and my son is carrying on in my footsteps with Michelin. You appreciate what you have a lot more when you have worked for it than when it was given to you. Use what you have but don’t abuse it.
I agree 100% with JimK’s comment above. Growing up, we always had what we needed, maybe not an abundance of anything,
but our basic needs were provided for. Certainly with age comes wisdom (if we’re fortunate) and discernment between what is important to our lives and what is just a lot of fluff!
Barbara Parker’s mother happens to be my Aunt Viola, and I can just hear her saying that. She was one of the kindest, sweetest people I’ve ever known. She was always laughing and smiling and would light up the room whenever she entered. She taught me the song, “You are my Sunshine” when I was a little girl. I loved her dearly and wish everyone could have an aunt like her.
My dear cousin, you always were Mama’s little sunbeam. She loved you so much. Back then all our aunts and uncles were like Mamas and Daddys to us and loved their nieces and nephews like their very own, even if they had children of their own. Your Mother, Aunt Lydie to me, was like a second Mother to me too. I loved the dresses that she made for me and for the good times we all shared quite a few years ago. Our roots and memories will always run deep and wide in our hearts and precious memories.
Having a plenty usually was said in reference to food when I was growing up. If my parents ever said they had a plenty of money nobody would have believed them.
Barbara’s saying sounds just like home folks to me. That’s the saying I recall folks using when they were trying to persuade somebody to take a gift from them. Sometimes it was “a gracious plenty”. The more generous they were, the less it took for them to call it “plenty”.
That’s one of the good things about a garden. Folks could give away garden things if they didn’t have a dime because nature (the good Lord) was providing the plenty. Why is it, do you reckon, that it seems so hard to learn that each of us have some kind of “plenty” we can give out of and never lack ourselves; a cheering word, a smile, some kind advice, a willing hand ? As the bible says (if correctly remembered), “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh”.
Thank you for your reply Don. It got me to thinking some wonderful thoughts. What if everyone had plenty of cheerful kind words, friendliness, smiles, wise advise, and a willing helping hand and shared them to everyone we meet!!! Wow! What beautiful thoughts. I believe we all have those gifts from God within us to share those kinds of gifts to others but we sometimes get bogged down and forget just how many precious gifts God has bestowed on us. Your reply lifted me up and I sure do appreciate it. Now I’m going to try to share more of my gifts to others. The other day a lady that I had just met told me that I sure was friendly!!! LOL! I smile just remembering her statement. My dear Daddy was a friendly person and people would tell me that I was just like my Daddy, that we never met a stranger. My Mother had a plaque that read, “Make new friends, but keep the old. The new are silver and the old are gold.” She was so wise and wonderful, Daddy was too. They had a plenty of good friends too. I hope you are having a wonderul day my friend!!!
An attitude of gratitude gives us a plenty for life.
Tipper,
This post brought me back to my own childhood in Jackson County NC. I also had a wise granny who taught me many important lessons about life, especially about being thankful for what you have. My granny always had food for anyone that was hungry and the mountain wisdom to help a sick child. We had a big garden every year and put away food for the winter. Granny collected yellow root, canned black berry juice and tried to pass her wisdom to me as she was doing it. I left my mountain home many years ago, but thankfully her lessons on being kind and preparing for the future have (mostly) stuck with me.
This concept was very hard to explain to my daughter-in-law who grew up north of the Mason Dixion Line. Personally, I use this phrase very often and always preface it with the words more than a plenty. Your posts of Appalachian vocabulary is very helpful explaining to her what and why we say certain words or phrases. Thank you for your posts.
Us Rural Northerners are more likely to use the phrase, “more than enough”. My MIL is always trying to send me home with this or that & I don’t want her going without. Or she is always trying to pay me for things I just do out of love or my wish to give. She’ll try to pay me & I’ll tell her ” your money’s no good to me” and laugh. If she’s trying to send me home with things I know they need, I tell her “no, I’ve got more than enough”. I truly appreciate her generosity. But it can be a fault of a country person to give away something they really need.
Amen, Miss Tipper!!! You said a complete mouthful right there!!! When I think about a warm house, a dry, clean bed, food enough, my health and bills being paid up, a vehicle that runs fine, healthy children (although they’re in Mexico,) a wonderful adopted son going to engineering college and working, a wonderful husband, dear friends like the Pressley and Gods mercy and His love—- I’m with the lady who’s got aplenty and I will round out here by saying MY CUP RUNNETH OVER WITH GOOD THINGS AND I THANK GOD in 3 persons for that!!!! Just keep praying, don’t give up or in and realize reality and tv are TOTALLY not the same…. reality is found outside any social media- it’s something we all must seek to find…
I’ve heard “we got plenty” and have said it at different times in my life, but I mostly say “I don’t need anything, or as my granddaughter says, I’m good, but it all means the same. My mom taught me the same as your Pap taught you, to be grateful for what I have. I’m thankful she did!
You so right Tipper, me and my husband feel just that way too. My kids ask me a lot you want anything or don’t you want this new thing and I seem to tell them more than not no I’m good, as long as they are happy, healthy and have what they need I’m ok. It seems we just don’t need much after that, I’m sure you and the Deer Hunter feel that way too. Aren’t we all fortunate in that.
You so right Tipper, me and my husband feel just that way too. My kids ask me a lot you want anything or don’t you want this new thing and I seem to tell them more than not no I’m good, as long as they are happy, healthy and have what they need I’m ok. It seems we just don’t need much after that, I’m sure you and the Deer Hunter feel that way too. Aren’t we all fortunate in that. Have a great weekend !
With all the stuff we accumulate I think we could actually say “we have MORE than a plenty”. Seems these days the emphasis is to have “more than a plenty” of material things and less than plenty of the things that really matter. It is so refreshing to read your blogs because you emphasize the things that matter. Thank you for that!!
“My God shall provide all my needs” – I am very blessed indeed as He has provided.
Pinching pennies was a way of living. Taught all five us to be frugal and to do without. We are all grateful. We have passed that mindset through to our children. We never “wanted for nothin'” God bless you and yours!
My life has been so much easier than my Daddy’s. I often wonder how he managed to do what he did with only an eight grade education working of a cotton mill working on a job that paid very little more than minimum wage and mother being a homemaker. We had a large garden -as large as 2 acres not including the sweet potato or corn field. She and grandmother worked their rear ends off preserving any and everything the could for food. Everything we ate was either grew or raised by us except for coffee, sugar, flour, cornmeal etc. We would have a hog to kill each year, the goal was to have it weigh at least 500lbs. Eating a hot dog was special, similar to steak nowadays. I was i16 years old and in high school before I ever tasted or knew what pizza was. I thought pepperoni was a vegetable, so I ask for cheese. Back then our neighbors were in the same boat, but we all had each other’s back. I can remember one time after daddy getting very sick and in hospital one year when food and things got bad, I was too young to be of a lot of help, mother crying and praying and telling us she wouldn’t have anything to fix for supper. Up in the morning of the same day a neighbor bringing a load of stacked firewood to us and in the afternoon men Daddy worked and carpool with coming by after work driving up In a black 53 Ford with back seat and trunk full of grocery’s. His coworkers had given us a pounding. My clothes were hand me downs were hand me downs from my aunt and sometimes patched, but I never went to bed hungry. I had the necessities but the one thing I know of having a plenty of was the love of my mother and daddy, never a doubt about that. At my father in laws funeral one of the preachers said you never visited or left Curtis Brook’s home without him or my mother in law giving something to you.
I am sorry for writing this, but when I think of the pride and work ethics of the people that went before me and them not wanting or taking government handouts it burns me up to see able bodied men that are too lazy, sorry , or no account to work looking and begging for handouts . I will do anything I can for you if need help because of sickness or other tragedies. I guess you can tell this gets my drawers in a wad quick, fast and in a hurry.
Tipper and to the other members, i am sorry for all of this. It is too hot, long, not to today’s subject and not the place on the blog for this but this set me off and started a fire under me. This is something that is near and dear to me. Tipper, do whatever you want to with thi.s. No problems at all with me.
I really like that expression, ” I’ve got a-plenty .” That mindset shows great wisdom. My father usually said,’ I’ve got a big plenty”. Hebrews 13:5 says “Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as he have: for He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee”.
I so enjoy reading your story every day gives me a lot of insight and yes we have plenty maybe not everything we want but definitely everything we need thank you for the reminder!
when I retired at 58, my boss said he needed to work a few more years. I told him he just had to separate his needs from his wants. It was the best decision I ever made. Seems like wanting is the problem with everyone now because all forms of media show us wants not needs.
‘A plenty’ is a wonderful saying and not used enough, even when it is true. This has become the County of gimme and gimme. Sad to say that is the slogan than is being perpetrated by parents to their children. God does provide what we need but a lot of time we don’t realize it. I love Granny and her words seem to be right on target. ‘Porch time’ yesterday was such a great post. Parents do not seem to find enough time with their children like you guys do. God Bless
I make a gratitude list every month I should probably do it more often. After my fsmily I am always grateful for having enough
Thank you for your post this morning. I’ve got a canner full of tomatoes going along on my stovetop and for some reason, I was finding myself annoyed with this task today. I had been having some thoughts on the over abundance of tomatoes this year (thank you Lord) and considering not planting next year because I simply do not “feel” like this task today. Then I read your post and it redirected me back to my feelings of gratitude, rather than annoyance. I know that the abundance this year will be helpful in the next year to come because there are folks out there in my neck of the woods that don’t “have a plenty”. Blessings to you and yours.
Lot of wisdom there, Tipper. I have never lived in a time when I didn’t have food to eat, my grandmother did! She was a hard-working woman and every year she put up way more food than they needed. She did it because she had lived through a time in her life when they didn’t have enough food.
My wife and I have been reading your wonderful daily notes from the mountains for some time. You are like family to us. Thank you for your kindness and humor.
The difference between wants and needs used to be a lot clearer. But all the media promoting “things”, the younger people seem to have a blurred view of needs
Hopefully with age it will become clearer for them.