KAREN’S KORNER
I was reading an article the other day talking about Senior Traditions and I started to think about some traditions my Grandma and Papaw had as I was growing up.
Getting up early….very early. Neither of them would sleep past 5:00 a.m. They both worked and worked hard each day and never thought of taking off or not going to work. That was known back then as “Work Ethic.” Most young people today are not as familiar with that definition as they were.
Papaw would go and tend the cows and feed the chickens, and any other of “God’s provisional creatures,” that needed feeding, that lived down the street in the pasture. Grandma would go and milk the cows before six and then come home with fresh milk for breakfast, eggs from the chickens in the yard, and various and sundry veggies from her garden.
Then she cooked a huge breakfast because back then, “Breakfast was the most important meal of the day,” she would tell me. “You have to get a good start to your day, Karen Ann.” After breakfast, I would have to be sure my bed was made, my body was clean because “Cleanliness was next to Godliness,” Grandma said. I had to be dressed “properly,” and my shoes were polished. I had to “look like a lady whether I behaved like one or not.”
She then gave me a big hug, kissed me on the head and set me on my way to school. Her last comment to me each morning was, “Behave yourself, because if you get in trouble in school, I’ll take care of it when you get home this afternoon.” And I knew exactly what that meant. I walked about five blocks to school, and the last thing I saw when I turned the corner was Grandma in her apron watching me. We had an old ‘57 Chevy, but the gas had gone up to $.30 a gallon at the time! “Frugality” is another tradition they really believed in. Besides, she said that I needed the exercise, and a little sunshine and fresh air wouldn’t hurt me.
I would come home after school and homework came first; before cartoons, TV shows, or anything else. “Education was Important,” and so were Straight A’s. And then I could play, “outside,” because Grandma had been cleaning all day. And after riding bikes, playing with the neighbors, or just having fun, I would come in to a good bath, get in my pj’s and have supper. It was always hot and delicious. Grandma could cook anything and everything and make it go really far. She would always say, “Gotta make the best of everything God gives you.” Papaw retired to the front porch. And then I would watch my Grandma say her prayers every night, and I always heard her say my name as she prayed. And that was the greatest tradition of all. Ya gotta love those traditions.