My folks dried fruit on the tin roof top of the the dug deep cellar. Never mind that when a tornado approached we went to the cellar with all snakes lying around in there feeling the comfort of the cool cellar and felt safe and happy. Ann ----- Original Message ----- From: "Wayne Loden" <wayneloden@trugreenmail.com> To: <MSITAWAM-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Monday, August 06, 2001 8:02 AM Subject: [MSITAWAM-L] Lay-By Time > Lay-By Time - Elmo Howell > > Since it's not on the calendar or in the dictionary, I shall define it. > Lay-by time began on the Fourth and lasted till cotton picking -- The > off-time of year, to pasture and watch crops grow; To fish (whether you > wanted to or not) and hang out at the store; to help women put up > gardenstuff and dry fruit in the back yard. (You spread it on top of the > chickenhouse.) > > Time for the graveyard working and Big Meeting, which began on the first > Sunday in August. > > But that's a country definition. Lay-by time (which doesn't happen today), > was a pause in the blood -- a stillness struck by the sun. Time held up: > The moment when the ball stands still in the sky before starting back to > earth again. Some old people found it a good time to die. My > Great-Grandmother Friday did -- One August afternoon, in her rocker on the > front porch. > > >