Enjoying every minute

Grandma raised beautiful vegetable gardens.  She is standing in front of a trellis with a huge bean vine on it.
Grandma raised beautiful vegetable gardens. She is standing in front of a trellis with a huge bean vine on it.

As a child I loved to visit my Grandma in her house on the top of a hill overlooking New River. We would visit her every Sunday, and I remember how hard it was climbing up that steep hill.

My Grandma did things her own way no matter what anyone else thought. I am sure her neighbors believed she was a lonely person, but I knew better.

She was a conservationist in every sense of the word. She caught rainwater in a barrel so it wouldn't go to waste. She knew how to save apples over the winter to eat long after the season was gone. She never wasted anything she raised. She would pickle corn on the cob and keep it in the cellar in a crock jar. I loved her pickled corn and always hoped she would offer me an ear.

My grandmother put her butter and milk in the spring to keep it cool. When she wanted a fish for a meal, she would take her canoe out in the river or fish from the bank.

She would always think of something for me to do when we visited her. Sometimes she would let me look at reels through the View-Master. The reels showed places all over the U.S. where her son, F.L., had built dams. I never tired of seeing those reels as a child.

Her knitting was always in sight. She worked on it at night and made beautiful bedspreads with needles she had whittled herself.

Some would say that my grandmother didn't have it easy, but I know better. She enjoyed every minute of her life.

Mary Bare, Jefferson, Blue Ridge Electric

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