Garlic

  My dear friend, who is a founding member of the local herb society, advises that garlic should be planted on the shortest day of the year and harvested on the longest. In this case, maybe planting can be done on a longer shorter day of the year. Maybe bundling up and getting out and poking around in the dirt might just be what a body needs. Could be a good cure for the Winter doldrums and a remedy for the onset of Spring gardening fever that arrives about the same time as the new seed catalogs.

Sweet Potato Casserole

This recipe, that belonged to my Grandmother, is such a familiar one to my family that my Neices' refer to it as "the Aunt Cheryl stuff". I think if I were to show up at my Mama's house at Thanksgiving and Christmas without this dish they would make me go back to the house and get it.

SWEET POTATO CASSEROLE

3 c mashed, cooked sweet potatoes
1 c sugar
1/2 c butter, softened
2 eggs
1 t vanilla
Mix together and pour into buttered casserole dish.

Topping:
1 c light brown sugar
1 c chopped pecans
1/4 c butter, softened
1/2 c flour
Mix well and spread over potatoes.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes in a preheated oven.

Enjoy!

Ken Williams, He Called Us The Band Of Champions

  I remember the day Mr. Williams was standing on a stool painting what these days is referred to as "the old tiger" onto the side of our recently acquired instrument truck.

  Mr. Williams had been hired as the band director for the new band program here at Meek School. A kid asked me once, "What was it like when you were in the band?" Did the veterans pick on the rookies?"

"We were all rookies," I replied.

 Mr. Williams was a recent graduate of Florence State University by way of Vietnam. He was a Marine with a Purple Heart. When I saw the movie "Mr. Holland's Opus" about another high school band director that had had a profound influence on his students, I thought it was kind of funny that that band director did not know how to teach his students to march and had to enlist the help of the school's football coach. Mr. William's only problem was when to stop marching us before we passed out. I remember phrases like, "IGNORE THOSE SWEAT BEES! THEY WON'T EAT MUCH!!!"

  He took a band of rookies in homemade uniforms from a poor white county with a tuba case that had been purchased with money the band earned pulling corn and transformed it into one of the most successful band programs of all times to this day.

  What was so special about Mr. Williams? He taught us that with a little hard work and discipline we could be somebody.

  We put him in the ground the other day but he'll live on through us and in us. We really didn't care to much about if the contest judges thought we were the best or not. We just wanted him to think we were.

Happiness Is...Homemade

  "I need to run something by you."  A call from a friend confirmed what I already knew about her. "You know how everybody loves my pancakes?" she asked. (This girl is famous for her mouth watering pancakes and her outstanding culinary skills.) "Yeah," I replied. "Well, I was thinking", she said, "what if I made dry mix and attached a recipe card along with a little bottle of syrup, do you think they would make good Christmas gifts?" "I think that would absolutely be the perfect gift." I told her.

  I thought of the Biblical Principle of giving one evening recently as a piano student sat at my bench as we walked through "The Little Drummer Boy", Holiday sheet music for the season. As we par-rum pum pum pumed along, the words "I played my best for Him" jumped right off the page at me as if I had never read them before-we stopped, and I said, "You know, I have been playing this music here since I was your age and never understood that line until now. The little drummer boy had given the gift of his talent. He laid it before the King just as if it were the most precious and costly of jewels.

  This season, give each other the precious gift of you talents, it's something you already have.  

Potato Salad

   According to my youngest Niece this potato salad is the standard to which all other potato salads are measured.

  It's my Mama's.

3 lb potatoes (chopped into about 1/4-1/2 inch chunks)
3 eggs, boiled
3 heaping T's mayonnaise
1 t prepared mustard
1/2 small jar sweet salad pickles
1 T celery, chopped
1 T onion, chopped
salt

Pour chopped potatoes into a small amount of boiling water and cover. Don't overcook. When potatoes are just fork tender pour off water and rinse potatoes with cold water. Toss with wooden spoon and sprinkle with salt. Let cool. Mash boiled eggs with a fork and combine with mayonnaise, mustard, salad pickles, celery and onion and toss with potatoes. Refrigerate and enjoy.

 Choose ingredients that are naturally or organically grown for maximum nutrition.

Dave Owens, Basketmaker

Patience is something you live with.

Happy Veteran's Day Uncle Robert. Love, Cheryl

L-R Uncle Robert, Me, My Dad

FOREWORD

  When I was a kid during the 1960's and 70's visiting my Grandmothers house in Ensley, Alabama in Birmingham I remember a framed military picture of my Uncle Robert sitting behind a desk. He was a bachelor and worked as an Industrial Engineer at the Fairfield Works of U.S. Steel where his Dad and brother, my Dad, had worked. He would come home at the exact same time every day and my Grandmother would have his dinner prepared for him. He would sit alone at "his" place at the kitchen table and enjoy a meal that usually consisted of meat and potatoes. He didn't like rice. Grandmother said he quit eating rice when he got back from Korea.

  I always thought of my beloved Uncle as a mild mannered "pencil pusher". He took an early retirement from the steel mill, took care of my ailing Grandmother whom he referred to as his "best friend" and went to work in nearby Bessemer as a Tax Advisor at H & R Block. Grandmother passed in 1996 and Uncle Robert continued to live in the Ensley home most of the time by himself. Sometimes my Dad would live there when he worked in the area.

After by beloved Uncle passed on August 27, 2005 at age 71, 5 weeks after being diagnosed with an inoperable "mass" in his lung and enduring weeks of a whirlwind of doctor visits, chemo treatments, radiation, home health care and my cooking he gave up the fight.

My brother Richard and I inherited the Ensley home. I got the treasure of Grandmothers china & Richard got the treasure chest in the form of Grandmothers 1976 Monte Carlo that Uncle Robert drove each and every day up until the day he attempted to drive himself to the hospital after experiencing shortness of breath.

  Boxes and bags of family pictures, memorabilia and papers waited patiently at the foot of my bed at my home in Arley after the sale of the Ensley residence. After 3 years I still did not have the guts enough to go through them until a illness in the family forced me to find solace in busywork.

  Among the faces of my ancestors and the complimentary wildlife portraits given by the Chevy dealer when the Monte Carlo was bought new I found another treasure. The letters Uncle Robert had written home from his military service at the 38th Parallel when he was stationed in Korea for 2 years were bundled with a rubber band and were among grandmothers treasured things. I was to discover that the mild mannered man who worked behind a desk for all of his adult life was as tough as a pine knot.

  He didn't talk much about his military experience other than things like "3 years of college and they sent me around the corner to advanced infantry" or when I questioned him about how he got to Korea, "14 day over there, 14 days back". When he passed I could not find his DD-214 in time to have a flag for him at his service but each day when I raise the flag over my little farm workshop I think of him and all the Americans that have faithfully done their duty by serving our country, most of them in places they would not rather be.

  These letters are dedicated the those people and to those people who are somewhere they do not want to be. May you find comfort and camaraderie in the lines he wrote from "This damn hole"...

Love,
Cheryl