Saturdays at the Homeplace

Saturday evenings were always special growing up. After spending the day helping mama clean house and making some preparations for the Sunday lunch, sweeping the yard with a brush broom to take care of where the chickens had been, scouring out the outhouse and other various chores we all looked forward to the evening hours. You never knew who may come to spend the night. This was very special because they always brought special food with them that we normally did not have on the farm. For example, when Allen and Carole came they brought the items to make spaghetti which we all loved. Someone else may bring oysters to make oyster stew or ground beef to make cheeseburgers. Some brought cheese and pimento to make pimento cheese and we toasted those sandwiches in the wood stove oven. They were delicious, the cheese was usually cheddar and when you took a bite it would string and you had to know the trick to handling that. Of course, mama usually made her "cake of cornbread" because that was what most of the visitors (family) looked forward to. I liked the cornbread as well except when the cows got into garlic and our milk had this strange taste.

After the evening meal we usually got to do something special. For me when I became a teenager it was going to the movies. My friend, Harrilene Allen's father, would take us to town to see the movie and then come back to pick us up. They were one of the few families that had a family car and they were so gracious to allow other neighborhood children to go places with them. It was amazing how many bodies could be packed into one car.

As I grew older, Saturday night became "date night" and that presented a problem for me. My brothers loved to hunt and they always had a lot of hunting dogs and when my date arrived they would all gather round his car and howl like you cannot imagine. I would beg my brothers to pen the dogs up in the wash house but they did not always agree to do that. My friends used to say that everyone better treat Hazeline with respect or she would "seek" her five brothers and her daddy plus all the dogs on him. Needless to say, I was treated with respect.

Since we played the game at our Houser Gathering recalling memories from the past I have been thinking of many precious happenings during my growing up days. I have much to be thankful for, I not only had my mama but had three sisters who were my second moms. They each helped me in different ways to make my life special and feel loved. I was also blessed to have three sister-in-laws, Ethel, Vernie and Faye to be second moms and Teeny and Janice to be like sisters or special friends because they were closer in age to me. My daddy, my five brothers and three brother-in-laws were also very special and they too, played an important part in shaping my life.

These are just a few of the memories of "the good ole days".