Mystery Picture = Imagination Exercise

If it can’t be fried in bacon grease, it ain’t worth cooking, let alone eating. ~ Southern proverb

Life expectancy would grow by leaps and bounds if green vegetables smelled as good as bacon. ~ Doug Larson

I looked for some quotes about bacon and found two I couldn’t resist to go with my Wednesday mystery photo. Yes, quite a few of you knew exactly what you were looking at in that mystery photo, although some of you were a bit worried about the shine. Bacon shouldn’t shine – unless it happens to still be in the package. Then shine is fine.

Making Our Own Bacon

Back when I was a kid, we raised our own bacon. On a cold day in the fall, Dad would declare hog killing day. Usually some neighbors showed up to help. We had one neighbor who was the guy who could take the animal down with one shot. My dad was always tender-hearted and had a hard time doing that. He could, but he didn’t like to. I generally stayed away from the early stages of the hog killing process where the hog had to be scalded in a big tub of hot water and then hung and gutted. Thank goodness, nobody expected a little girl to be part of that. I did join in on some of the other parts. I liked stirring the big black iron kettle where they turned the fat into lard. And I thought it was neat watching Dad fill up the cotton sacks Mom had made for the sausage once it was ground. He jacked up the car and hooked the grinder up to the wheel someway and then pressed the sausage out into the sacks. Sides of bacon and the hams were salted down in the smokehouse and eventually hung from hooks in the ceiling rafters and smoked with a hickory wood fire. That bacon was always really salty, but Mom wanted to make sure it was preserved properly. Salt can do that and before electricity came to the country, having one’s meat properly preserved was important. I don’t remember not having electricity and the big old freezer sat out on the back porch ever since I could remember. So Mom froze the sausage and didn’t have to cook and can it in jars the way it had to be done before freezers.

Now I’m like how most of you probably are and buy my bacon in nice packages at the store. Then I like to cook it on the stove or in the microwave to make those summer indispensable BLT sandwiches with yummy tomatoes fresh out of the garden.

Those Imaginative Guesses

So, many of you were right about my mystery photo. Lisa, you can tell your husband I told you so. A few of you came up with jello. That shine on the bacon package led you astray. I think that might have been what made some of you see strawberry jelly too. I loved the super imaginative guesses like Perrianne’s melted Hershey bar. Paula thought chocolate too after she zoomed in and out to try to figure out the picture. Several others also saw chocolate something. Virginia H said muddy tire tracks. Now that was a good guess. Wrong, but still a good guess. Ola saw a reflection on water and Marji thought it might be a dishcloth. Lucy says she’s awful at this, but came up with a great guess of a ridged skillet. You know, the kind some people use to fry bacon. So she was right there in the ballpark with her guess. Everybody else was thinking food of some kind or another. See, bacon always makes you hungry.

New Mystery Photo 

So now you have another mystery photo up top. This is the next to last one. I’m wobbling on thinking this one might be too easy, but it’s hard to be perfectly mysterious every time. I’m saving the sure stumper (probably in my dreams) for Wednesday night. I did pick the second winner Friday and that was Laura S. She has picked the book, River to Redemption, and plans to donate it to her church library. Now, isn’t that nice? The book is getting some good reviews which is great. Reviews do help a book find readers. Especially if they are good reviews.

I’ll pick the last two winners (this game) on Friday. I still haven’t mailed my prizes for my newsletter giveaway to celebrate River to Redemption, because I haven’t heard from the 1st place winner even though I’ve e-mailed her three times. Guess I may have to pick a new winner so I can get those prizes in the mail. I’ve given Missy S until Wednesday night. I do know how e-mails can get lost or end up in a spam box, but those prizes need to go out to somebody.

Again, thanks for playing my mystery photo game. I’m glad you think it’s fun. Let me tell you, it strains my brain figuring out something that might get your imaginations fired up – hopefully imagining something my picture isn’t. LOL. I go around looking at everything with a discerning eye. Could that be a mystery photo? So keep having fun with your guesses and I’ll try not to whine if you all get this new one right.

Upcoming Events:

I have a couple of events coming up in August. First, on Tuesday, August 7th at 5:30 p.m., I’ll be at the Washington County Public Library in Springfield, Kentucky talking about River to Redemption and how it is based on some Springfield history. Everyone welcome so if you’re in the area, come on out and ask me some hard questions. Then on Saturday, August 25 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. I’ll be joining other authors at the Paul Sawyer Library in Frankfort, KY to meet readers and sign books. Love meeting readers at book events.

As always, thanks for reading.