Granddaddy said that he only had one cup in the mornings, then it was decaf after that. He starting drinking the instant coffee after the depression years. “Take what you’ll eat, eat what you take.” I guess that applied to coffee as well. There wasn’t much wasted coffee if you just made a cup at a time. His cough was distinctive and taught me early on he must have been a cool cig smokin’ sailor in the navy. I loved looking at the photos of Granddaddy as a younger years. This stud was thin, with slicked back hair, clean shaven and confident as they come. Apparently, back in his younger days, smoking cigarettes was normal for navy men, but I sure remember not wanting to have that cough when I got his age.
Blake and I had to stick together. Together we were able to treat our big bullying bothers like unwanted third wheels whenever we got the chance. Something about those brothers of ours being the oldest sibling really annoyed us. Blake and I both were second in line. His older brother was just a little over a year older, but my brother Jason was a good five years older than me. Oh, and I had a younger sister that was two and a half years younger than me. Can’t forget Michelle.
“Another one please,” I asked Grandmama. I can’t stop, they were so good. I was so full, but what’s a little overeating when you are at Grandmamma and Granddaddy’s? I had extra syrup on the plate and needed another piece of French toast just to help soak it up. As I looked around the kitchen, the counters were notably clean, except for the random one gallon Ziplock bags that Granddaddy had washed out again and left standing up on the counter by the sink to dry out overnight. There to the right of sink, next to the vegetable scrap bin was also a white plastic quart container of Granddaddy’s homemade bar-b-que left out to thaw. I guess that was going to be our lunch.
We never went out to eat when we stayed at their house. Granddaddy was as tight as a tick with money, and that was no secret. Dad set me straight one day explaining “If you had spent 30+ years as the controller and chief accountant for Purina after surviving the nations deepest depression, you’d watch every penny too.”
Depression, Controller, Budget, Church Bonds, interest rates, these were all common words in Granddaddy Warren’s home that I didn’t understand yet, but realized either way, it didn’t matter because I was going to hear all about them. All I knew was that from as early on as I could remember, when I left Granddaddy’s house, he was going to give me a dollar before we got in mom and dad’s suburban to head back home.
VAROOOMMMM. A loud noise came from the carport. Blake and I filled our mouths with the last of the French toast piece of heaven and ran out the storm door to see what Michael and the old, wise man were up too now. That was when I notice that pulled into the carport like truck pulling a trailer was huge single axel trailer that had six inch tubes going from the lawnmower to a large contraption on top of the small trailer. “We are going to pick up some leaves today boys.” Granddaddy was obviously overly proud of his hardcore leaf collection vacuum system and a Cub Cadet V-Twin Riding Mower that was rattling our little ear drums it was so loud.
Granddaddy, for effect, had cranked the mower inside the carport so we could take full advantage and hear the power under the hood. “Hear that boys? What we have here is a V-Twin Engine. Why settle for a regular ol’ engine when you can have a V-Twin and get MORE Briggs & Stratton power. It sounded to me like more meant better, for sure.
He climbed on and said “Stand back boys” as he backed the rig out of the carport and into the shady back lawn. Grandmama came out side and walked us around and said, “now lets help Granddaddy and pick up all the sticks and pinecones.” Walking around the backyard, I walked next to Grandmama’s side. She said, “Oh, just look at the pretty Hosta.” They were huge. All around the backyard, the beds were just as full as they could be with the darkest black dirt I had ever seen. I didn’t really know it at the time, but that was decades of the finest compost in those beds.
Old straight cornered bricks were laid at a perfectly straight, 45 degree angle, one after the other to line the edge of the beds. “Those were left over bricks from when we built this home,” Grandmama explained. She knew all the plants in the yard, by multiple names and loved to quiz me to see if I could name them. Sometimes I think she acted like she didn’t know the name of the plant just to get me to say it. If I was wrong or halfway wrong she would correct me by happening to remember it as she reached down to pull up an unwanted acorn sapling from the had taken root.
As we worked the yard, walking and collecting all of the sticks and debris, Granddaddy was methodically picking up all of the leaves and acorns. As the leaf collector would get full and he needed to dump it, I would run to the back garden area to meet him and help dump out the shredded leaves. “We’ll get some worms later Matt, but first we need to get our chores done, then we can play with the worms.” As he used the wooden handle pitchfork to move the old pile of leaves around, a massive steam cloud came out from the pile. “Woah,” I said in surprise. More than two dozen of the longest earthworms flipped and flopped around then quickly tried to bury themselves again. “This is compost. When we take these shredded leaves and acorns and pile them up, mother nature sends all kinds of organisms, including worms to help break down the pile. After a few months, it all turns to black, deep, rich compost or soil.” I was amazed. How did he know so much?
He took a couple of pitchforks full or the darkest black dirt and loaded up the neatest looking two wheeled cart. I had never seen anything like it, but that was normal when I got the chance to hangout with Granddaddy. This cart had large skinny bicycle tires for wheels and a metal handle to pull behind you and to use to dump it over. The sides were interesting. There was a back, two sides and the front and top were open. It really held a lot and was easy to pull around, it seamed. I was loving it. So many cool tools and it amazed me how he knew just what to do to the plants to get them so green and vibrant.
As I looked around Granddaddy’s garden which was well placed in the back sunny piece of their property, there was a privacy fence separating the perfectly mowed clover fescue mixed lawn and the compost pile, once active chicken coops, cucumber patch, lines of 3 foot squash and zucchini plants. Behind the squash plants were rows of the tallest okra, green bean trellises and tomato plants. This was his happy place. Now I see where he goes so early in the morning. He would take his cup of coffee and come out to his garden. It was so peaceful. I was standing in the middle of the garden, looking out over his neighbor’s chain-link fence. The neighbor owned so much land that the fields of cows and small ponds just rolled and rolled.
As I looked to the right, the chicken coops looked like a fun place to explore. While granddaddy put out the compost, I took a quick look around. He had tin secured on top of some old wood to form a small enclosure for a few hens. But to me, this looked like a perfect place for me and Blake to get away and hide together. “Matt, come help me with this,” Granddaddy said to break up my daydreaming and keep me focused.
He had grabbed a 10 or so foot long piece of thin rectangle wood that had another piece of wood about two feet long secured into it. The contraption looked like a crooked capital T. “See if you can see any cucs that are good and ready,” he said. He took the long tool and gripped it in his hand almost like a golf club. He slowly pulled the cucumber plants apart with it. “This won’t damage their leaves, causing them to get disease easily, plus your arms won’t be itchy when we get done.” Right away, he picked up a 7-8” long huge cucumber and tossed it underhanded to me. “All of these prickles on the outside here are what will damage the leaves and they will make you so itchy,” His wooden cucumber finder was so smart, yet so simple. Where did he come up with this stuff? Amazing the things I was learning.
