I Can't Believe It's Not Spring

  It's nice to start with a clean slate. What is referred to by our local weather men as "the January thaw" came this year and with it a few bright shiny days and an opportunity to clean a little bit in the garden. By removing old plant material that would harbor future pests and diseases from the garden area, the battle to keep healthy  plants growing strong next season can be more readily won than if they were simply plowed under to lie dormant and rise up again once spring officially arrives.

Dear Folks, Fine And Cold, Fort Jackson, South Carolina, Winter 1956-57, Love, Robert

Fort Jackson        
South Carolina

Dear Folks,

  Well it is the end of another week and everything is just fine and cold.
We are going out next week to the rifle range and stay all week.
We fired it one day last week and
that thing sure is a powerful weapon.                                
It's about like shooting a shotgun.
This week has been mighty cold. Monday
was the worst day. It was cold and
rainy. We stayed out all day
getting down into different rifle
positions and aiming them. The
rain formed icicles on my rifle.
Icicles hung off the barracks and
that's the first time I seen
them in a long time. I am
probably in the best condition I
have ever been in. Friday night
we went out on a night problem.
We didn't get back till about
10:30. We crawled under barbwire
walked over it and some tried to
fly over it. They exploded bombs
all during the night and fired a
machine gun which was
loaded with blanks. There is
hardly no time to write when
you come in because we have
to clean our rifles which is
full of South Carolina sand
and everything. Don't worry I
am looking after myself and
I hope to be out of the army
Mar 28, 1958 in good health.
I hope Earl takes care of
his car and tell him no matter
how much trouble he gets in there is
no bigger trouble than being in
the service. Take care of yourselves.

Love,
Robert

P.S. I am sending the letter from the University back, Send
the 5 dollars. I have not written
any checks yet.

Note: Earl was Uncle Robert's cousin and the University is The University of Alabama.

Biscuits

  Lewis Grizzard, A Southern Man, once wrote that if you give a man homemade biscuits in the morning, he'll come home to you at night.

  We'll see.

Biscuits

1 c plain flour (light varieties are best)
1/2 t salt
1 1/2 t baking powder
3 T butter or oil
1/2 c buttermilk (or 1 1/2 t vinegar or lemon juice with sweet milk added to equal 1/2 cup)

Pre-heat oven to 470 degrees F. Let all ingredients come to room temperature.

Lighty dust a plastic cutting board with flour to protect counter top and for ease of cleaning.

In a small bowl, combine flour, salt and baking powder. Add butter and rub into flour mix with your hand or stir in oil with a fork till mixture is crumbly.

Add milk and stir until mixture is just moistened.

Scoop mixture out onto the floured cutting board and lightly dust with a little extra flour, just enough to keep mixture from sticking to your hands when patted down to about a 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch thickness.

After patting down, pull up a little flour from the cutting board to the sides of the mixture.

Fold mixture half way over on itself and pat down again to the 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch thickness. Add a little extra flour if mixture sticks to your hand.

Fold over again and lightly pat down again to the 1/2 to 3/4 inch thickness.

Dip biscuit cutter into flour and cut biscuits out one at a time flouring the biscuit cutter between each cut.  Fold mixture over and over and cut until there is only enough mixture left for a "patty cake" biscuit made with your hands. Place biscuits onto an cold oiled cast iron griddle with sides touching.

Bake at 470 degrees F for 12-15 minutes. Place a dollop of butter on each as they are removed from the oven and enjoy. Yield 6- 2 1/2 inch biscuits. Process takes about 30 minutes from start to finish. (Unbaked biscuits may be frozen on a baking sheet and removed to be stored in a freezer bag for baking later.)

~Choose organic or naturally grown ingredients for maximum nutrition.

When Life Gives You Stumps, Make A Bottle Tree

  A garden is like life, never static, ever changing, ever growing. Sometimes when something gets in your way you just have to make something beautiful out of it. Like this stump for instance, I'm to scared of a chain saw to cut it down and to tired to dig it up. So with a little chipping away at the bark around the base of the tree the roots no longer are able to send up vital nutrients and eventually die. In the mean time we can enjoy the visual interest it creates in the garden and the added benefit of capturing evil spooks, or so the Appalachians believed.

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.