The rocking chairs sure are gathering a lot of dust these days, seems to me like...My goodness, this is a perfect time to just sit on the front porch, rocking gently , watching the lightning bugs courting in the dark, and reminisce about the good old days when folks had time to visit. Yes, back when one had to travel in a rickety old wagon , looking over the rumps of the same mules that pulled a plow that had just "laid by" the corn that week, with luck ! What a thrill it was at our house getting ready for the friends and relatives to come and celebrate the fourth of July.....Daddy would kill a young goat for Mama to cook and wring the necks of what seemed like a whole pile of young roosters to be fried up a golden brown...And he would gather and shuck a tow sack full of roasting' ears... Most of it was boiled but some was cut and scraped off the cob and' fried' in the big iron skillet.... In the meanwhile, us kids had been sent down to the "New ground " with a tow sack to pick beans. Of course it wasn't really NEW ground ...It was just a field that Daddy and Robert had cleared of weeds, brush and trees...{.Every once in awhile the plow would hit a stump and Daddy's religion would be tested ! }.He planted the corn, and me and Mama went back down there when it was about 6 inches high and planted some pole beans....to run up on the corn, you know .My goodness did we have the Kentucky Wonders that year ! Mr Charlie's herd of white faced cattle saw us toting a sack and thought we had some feed in there , I guess, and they chased us all the way across the pasture ! We didn't stop to figure out why they were running after us, just ran as fast as we could till we could scramble over that fence ! Earlier in the week ,me and Mama picked buckets full of the huge juicy blackberries that grew by the handfuls, to can and make into jam . Joyce watched the little kids and Daddy and Robert worked in the corn. Jerry was so little he had to reach up to grab the handles of the plow, but he insisted on doing it, so Daddy let him. One of the neighbors joked about our old mule that was so smart he could plow corn by himself ! Anyway, berries from the woods edging the New Ground were sweetened up and put into a rich biscuit dough crust in our biggest pudding pan. Sugar was sprinkled on the top after a paring knife was used to make a fern pattern in the crust . Mama kept us running to the hen house to check for more eggs to add to the rich milk of our Jersey cow to make a golden rich custard to cook then chill for making the ice cream and of course her famous egg or caramel pies. Oh, I can see them now, setting on the side table cooling...little amber beads forming on the meringue piled high on top...She used those old black pans with the scalloped edges....so pretty ! "You kids get out of here !" was heard more than once as the morning of the Big Day wore on and the buggies and wagons started pulling up Red Hill, and then coming down the lane to that old log house with the dog trot hall...Daddy's relatives had to drive from clear the other side of Paris, so they had to get up and on the road early ...even in their car .. Aunt Zula and Uncle George had a car so they would drive over to Gleason and pick up a big block of ice to be used in iced tea, lemonade, and most importantly, the ice cream freezer they brought along ....This rare frozen treat was placed in the deep shade , well wrapped in an old ragged quilt to keep it from melting...What a treat that ice cream was after the men and boys had 'turned it' till the crank would barely move. Mama would set down by the churn and carefully take the dasher out, and brother Robert got to lick the ice cream off , best I can remember...he loved it so well that he was a' fast licker ' and that was important in July's heat...Then the 'Freezer' was closed tightly and well wrapped in grass sacks and more ice and salt to" mellow," while we made do with all that delicious food Mama had cooked and the relatives had unloaded out of their buggies and wagons. I remember vegetables of every description, and desserts unbelievably good....especially a chocolate cake with GREEN icing ! Aunt Pearl , Daddy's old maid sister had made it, and she said it was called Devil's Food cake !This sounded slightly sinful to us, so of course we all had to have a piece of it. It sure was devilishly good. Aunt Pearl was a big woman and she didn't stint on the cream and eggs when she cooked...Everything she made was delicious , from Corn Light bread to cherry cobblers , to a cantaloupe pie made just like banana pudding.... After we had made short work of the ice cream the women had the job of clearing up the tables and dishes, and us kids were allowed to roam free, and show our cousins all of our favorite places to play...like high in the June apple tree where we had worn a certain place slick, playing skin the cat between two limbs . For some reason they thought picking the top of the tree for this game was a bit 'Iffy ' so we had to take them to play in the gullies and down in the woods to swing on the many wild grapevines...we didn't start smoking them till much later in our lives ! The men had lounged around catching up on the latest war news and how the crops were doing, and those who felt the need to walk off their meal would amble along with Daddy to see how the crops were doing down by the Big Ditch...By the time they worked their way back to the house it was time to load up the wife and kids and head for home.... There's no doubt in my mind that each one left thinking that Douglas and Myrtle Winchester sure knew how to celebrate the 4th of July ! No fancy fireworks, political speeches, nor "Shooting the anvil ", just lots of delicious food and a good time visiting with friends and neighbors.....If only we could turn back the clock.........................Jeannie T ________________________________________________________________ GET INTERNET ACCESS FROM JUNO! Juno offers FREE or PREMIUM Internet access for less! Join Juno today! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/tagj.