Jocie Brooke here reporting from Holly County. Things have been pretty busy with school stuff. Those teachers love giving tests this time of the year. So I hunted up a report I wrote a while back about being out at Miss Sally’s farm again. Maybe you missed reading it the first time and will like this repeat. Reruns on television do fine. So here goes.
I love it when it’s our turn to eat at Miss Sally’s house on Sundays. You see, the church people take turns having the preacher on Sundays. They have a sign-up sheet and everything. Of course, some people sign up more than other people and I’m glad one of those is Miss Sally. She nearly always has chicken and dumplings. And never cabbage. Well, once she had this cabbage casserole but she didn’t care if I didn’t eat any. The only thing worse than cabbage is okra. But best of all is Miss Sally always has pie. Pecan pie. Chess pie. Blackberry pie. Chocolate meringue pie. I love Miss Sally’s pies.
Even better about going to Miss Sally’s house than even the pies are the animals. I told you about the baby chicks a week or two ago. They’re getting little wing feathers already. Chickens grow up fast. But now she has this little calf. It was a twin. Twin calves don’t happen very often, according to Miss Sally. I guess it’s so rare the cow didn’t think it could happen either and let one of the twin calves nurse but not the other one. So that one is in a pen now and has to be fed with a bottle. Miss Sally says if you’re going to bottle feed a calf, that calf has to have a name. So the calf is Jill. She let me feed Jill Sunday night before we went back to church. I had to hang on to the bottle tight because if the milk didn’t come out fast enough, the calf would give the nipple a hard nudge with her nose.
It was chilly today. Miss Sally claimed that was because of redbud winter. The older folks at church are always talking about this winter or that winter. Cold snaps in the spring. If there’s a chill-down in the temperatures or a frost while the redbuds are blooming, the trees get the blame. Like a tree blooming can make it cold! Then there’s dogwood winter, locust bloom winter, linen britches winter, and blackberry winter. If cool spells come along in between those, they think up other names for those “winters.”
Dad says I shouldn’t laugh about the “old wives tales.” That I can learn a lot from the older folks at church. Could be. Like how to nap in church while pretending to read your Bible. Or how to fold a dollar bill so folks will think maybe you’ve thrown a five or ten in the offering plate. Or maybe how to pretend to be singing without making a whisper of joyful noise.
But Dad’s right. They do know plenty too. Like how to help when folks are in need or how they show up if something needs doing at the church building. Or how they’re always helping us out by giving us stuff from their gardens. Bad thing is, I’ve seen what they’ve been planting. Lots and lots of cabbage and zucchini. I think we need to give them all strawberry plants.
So glad you stopped by Hollyhill. I’ll come up with something new soon.
Comments 7
Your post made me smile this morning, Jocie. I hope this Sunday, church is at Miss Sally’s! 🙂 Have a great weekend Ann!
Author
Jocie here. Smiles are good, Robin. I like starting a day with a smile, but then I go to school and have to take a test. I don’t know whose turn it is to feed us Sunday but maybe whoever it is will have pie. It’s too early for cabbage to be ready in the garden so maybe I won’t have to be polite and try to eat that. Most all the women at church are good cooks, but none of them can compare to Miss Sally!
Hope you have a great weekend too. That Ann you were talking about is getting to go to a book fest, so she’s happy!
Jocie, It is so good to hear from you. You always make me smile, except for that time when you got knocked flat from a tornado. That made me cry. I hope you do well in school, and that you will keep writing your very interesting articles. It must be forsythia winter here because our redbuds aren’t blooming yet. Soon spring will be here and I will be happy and warm.
Love, Birdie
Author
Jocie here, Birdie. Can’t say that I’ve ever heard any of the old timers talking about forsythia winter, but if it’s cold and that’s what is blooming, then maybe you’ll start a new one. Not that you’re an old timer, but I could ask Aunt Love. She’s a real old timer. So old timer that she doesn’t even care if people say she’s old. Me, I’d like to be a few years older so I could get my driver’s license. Dad says then that people better watch out on our road. 🙂
I’m glad I made you smile today and I hated getting knocked flat by that tornado. I head for the cellar when I see clouds twirling now, and you know how I hate going to the cellar.
Thank you for another tale of Jocie! I did so love that series!
Is the “H” sounded when you pronounce your last name or is it silent?
Author
Jocie here, Karen. Are you talking about the “H” in Hollyhill? My last name is Brooke. Jocie Brooke. But if you’re talking about that person who wrote those Hollyhill books about my friends and family, Ann Gabhart, then she says you can say her name either way. She usually says “Gab Hart” these days so that more people will spell it at least close to right. 🙂 But she’s not picky. Her name before she got married was Houchin. Nobody who didn’t know her already got that one right.
Thanks, Jocie! I thinking my sister and I are both correct. I sound the H and she does not. 😊 Hey, would you please ask that wonderful writer to write another book in the Jocie series??? Please! 😊