By Bonnie Brown

Columnist

Is it just me, or did it seem that summer this year was a very short season?  I know my grands think it was way too short, especially since classes for them started August 1.  I thought Tom and I might get away for a quick trip south but that didn’t happen.  Other things kept us comfortably at home.  Perhaps we can blame it partly on the hot weather.

The calendar tells us that we are headed into fall as we observe Labor Day.  A change will soon be in the air as summer turns to fall and cooler temperatures arrive.  The leaves will begin to turn, and pumpkin spice lattes will appear as if certifying that fall has indeed arrived.  

Back in the day, my grandfather “Pap” (my dad’s father) grew tobacco on his farm.  That meant that with fall approaching, it was time to cut the tobacco and get it hung in the barn.  My dad was expected to help with this, so he did.  He would take time off from his regular job, load us in the car and away we would go to a rural farm with no electricity.  Don’t get me wrong.  Electricity was available, but my grandfather was so cheap and living in a time gone by.  That lifestyle was comfortable and familiar for him.  He heated the house during the winter with a stove.  He used oil lamps for lighting, which to my 4 year-old mind were “birthday lights” (candles).  

It was such a totally different experience than being in our house.  Work began early in the day and ceased just about sunset.  My mother would prepare our meals on a wood cook stove.  I have no recall about what we ate but even at my tender age, I knew this chore was not to my mother’s liking.  I’m pretty certain that there were fried potatoes which were a staple in our family.  I remember Pap criticizing my mother because the peelings were too thick, wasting the potato so Pap said.  

Since there was no refrigeration, there was an ice box (I think it was wood with some type of lining), but I don’t remember anything that went in or came out of it.  What I do remember is my little brother’s bottles of milk were housed in a spring several steps away from the kitchen.  It was cold water and Mom stored other food items there too.   How inconvenient!  

We sat outside since it was cooler in the grape arbor.  It had seating and was very comfortable.  We could watch the fireflies and listen to the cacophony of the evening’s creatures.  We were all very tired.  Me from playing all day in this different landscape. Pap was older than my dad of course, but he had been accustomed to hard labor all his life.  He farmed, raised tobacco, had cattle, and he had a mill where he ground corn using a gasoline engine to power his mill.  He was also a blacksmith.  He worked hard.  

Pap and my grandmother divorced when my dad was about 12 years old.  Pap remarried a lady named Muriel Hatfield.  Yes, a member of the Hatfield family who had a feud with the McCoys.  I don’t really remember her except through Pap’s reminiscing about her with me and telling me about her.    

So as fall slowly makes its appearance with cooler weather, falling leaves, and football, be sure to remember how different our lifestyle is today.  Maybe your grandparents currently farm, but I’m betting that they have electricity and air-conditioning, not to mention an effective heating system.  Enjoy your Labor Day!