I may have sent this article to the list already, but maybe some of the new friends on here haven't seen it....Jeannie T ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~ I hope you have a great time planned for the 4th, with all your family around you and lots of good home cooked food...Now , when I was growing up families got together on the Fourth and I mean we had a really good time!...I remember back when we lived at the Jones place in a big log house with a dog trot hall down the middle.... we had all the folks over to celebrate...It was about 1945, so maybe the war winding down and Daddy's brother Shirley Winchester coming home safely had something to do with the big crowd celebrating...Seems like the home folks cared more for each other back then , and the war wasn't as 'close' as it is today with the news coming into our living rooms so easily.... Us youngens didn't get to go to town very much, and at these family Reunions we would see relatives that had come in from a distance, and some family friends and distant cousins would be visiting and come along for the celebration....I remember meeting my Aunt Effie Schuff for the first time...{ She used to visit her sister and my Grandmother, Annie Schuff Winchester, every chance she got .}I guess I must have stared at her, since she was by far the oldest person I had ever seen ... all wrinkly looking and fingers twisted with arthritis..Finally I got up enough courage to talk to her and I told her Mama said I looked like somebody in Daddy's family, and I thought it must have been her...She looked me straight in the eye and said " It can't be me...I'm prettier than you are !" Aunt 'Ef' was a family favorite for her sassy talk and wonderful memory of family lore...She died just short of her 106th birthday over near Sailor's Rest ,{ Cumberland City area } about a mile from the big log house where she grew up....... I remember how excited we were in the days before the 4th but most of the work fell to our parents ..... I remember walking back from the orchard and seeing Daddy wringing the necks of several frying size chickens . He was tossing them out the door of the hen house in a pile to be scalded , picked and cut up for frying...It was hard for me to understand, because usually only one or two chickens were killed. He just laughed at me, and told me they would all be eaten....He had already killed a tender young goat for barbecuing...Mama fixed roastin' ears, sliced tomatoes, potatoes cooked every which way, black eyed peas, pickled beets and green beans cooked down in the old iron dinner kittle....She baked skillets of cornbread, fluffy homemade rolls, and opened jars of pickles and relish....Of course the kinfolks brought food plus their prize cake or pies , but none could beat our Mama's desserts, I'm sure . She was famous for her meringue topped custard pies, and her blackberry cobbler was a special favorite ....I can just see it now...Lovely brown crust made with plenty of lard topped it off ,with a pretty fern design pricked into it with the paring knife...A little sugar was sprinkled on top of the crust...and some of the purple juice would bubble out of the slits and look really pretty ...Aunt Pearl Winchester wowed us all one year with a chocolate cake with GREEN icing ! She called it a Devil's Food cake... Surely was hard to wait till the food was spread out and we could taste that sinful thing ! Aunt Zula and Uncle George Sutherland had a car, so they went to town and got a big block of ice before they drove to our house. It was wrapped in an old quilt and set in the shade till it was needed to be chipped up for the iced tea and to make the homemade ice cream that was such a treat for us kids...Mama would have cooked up the custard early that morning so it could cool down a bit, and it sure tasted good because she used creamy sweet milk and our big brown eggs in it. Watkins pure vanilla flavored it up just right.. It was hard to wait while the men and big boys took turns cranking the handle of that old wood tubbed freezer, and then we had to wait while Mama took the dasher out and scraped most of the 'cream off of it...Robert was the biggest kid so he got the job of 'licking' it...I can just see us standing around with our mismatched bowls and spoons, waiting for our share....Yes, some got a headache from eating it too fast, and one of the little'uns cried.....but kept on eating till that last milky drop was spooned up.... How I wish time travel had been perfected and I could set the timer and go back to that happy family gathering...We didn't know anything about fireworks displays, hot dogs or cotton candy, but we knew how to celebrate the Fourth of July in fine style ! Jeannie T ____________________________________________________________ Save on an Orlando Vacation. Click Now! http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/fc/Ioyw6i3nK7uWWH6ZH8gk7XUH4QjWLS7cT6vrGMMkzdbZyTPR7fH46m/