My dad's sister, May Ruth, was awesome in the kitchen! I have shared some stories about her in the past and here is one of them, if you would like to read it: https://regnirpsstories.blogspot.com/2018/09/life-on-farm.html.
May Ruth Springer Noles Jackson and her brother, Buford "J.B."
Personal Collection
May Ruth had a wonderful way of telling stories of her childhood. She made me feel like I could just see them - working in the cotton fields or around the farm, walking to school or making music at home.
May Ruth's Family (before the birth of Modena)
Back Row: May Ruth, Delton (my dad)
Front Row: Ramer, Minnie holding George Henry,
Buford, Aubrey holding Janella Personal Collection
She shared many stories with me about her life and her family, and I added pictures and put them in a book.
Cover of book I made from her stories
Here is one story she shared with me about growing up.
"Of course the boys all helped Daddy milk, and I helped mother in the kitchen. I started with mother when I was just little, little. I started with Mother to cook every meal. Momma made the bread, and I fried the bacon, and she’d make the gravy. And I know I helped her do all the cooking until I married. And I guess that’s the reason I got married because I could cook – he needed somebody to cook for him! Ha-ha!Daddy opened up a Grist Mill, which is what you use to grind corn to make corn meal that had in the kitchen to make cornbread. And he also sold feed for the cows and things like that. He ground feed and whatever he did there. We were living there, in the north part of Midlothian when I married. I married when I was 16 years old."
Business Card from Grist Mill of my grandfather
I remember visiting "Aunt Ruthie" ("Aunt Roochie" to some of the cousins) out in west Texas. She and Uncle Willis, Billy and Jerry raised sheep, crops to feed the sheep, along with chickens and a garden for their own use. She was a wonderful cook and we ate like little piggies at her table. Most of the food she prepared was raised or grown by them on the farm. I do remember her going out in the yard, catching a chicken, wringing its neck, plucking it and it became dinner for the family. What a woman!
One time while we were visiting, she invited/allowed me to go out to the chicken coop and gather eggs.
Me - gathering eggs at Aunt Ruthie's
Personal Collection
Here is another bit of her story about visits from her brothers and sisters and their children - the "city boys and girls".
"There’s not a lot to tell during that time,
unless it was when you all would come out.
I looked forward to Delton’s and Janella’s families coming out there to
visit in the summer. We’d go out and put pallets out
in the yard and y’all would sleep out in the yard. We didn’t think about not having room because
I had quilts and things. I think those
were the happiest days of my life – when y’all got to come out and visit. Janella would bring her five and they’d come
out there and stay a week or whatever time they had for vacation time. The kids would go down to the tank and go in
swimming.
And one time, this cow got
after one of the boys because he had let the calf out of the lot. He was afraid
that the cow was going to come over and get him! She got to chasing him. He ran up on the windmill tower to get away
from the cow! Haha! He thought it was a bull – but it wasn’t, it
was a cow.
And who was it that went to the chicken house? He had looked in the nest and came a running to the house and said, 'Oh, one chicken laid three eggs!' He found three eggs in one nest and he thought one hen had laid them all."
I am sure that all of us who knew her have many more stories to tell of our own experiences with her!
So, as her story relates, May Ruth helped her mother in the kitchen from a very young age. And, learning how to cook earned her a husband and admiration from her extended family!
'Til next time!
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