Back When The Lightning Bugs Ruled

I mentioned earlier that until I was about ten years old Georgia was an open range state. Folks who owned livestock simply opened the "lot gate" in the morning and turned them lose to roam the neighborhood and the highways and byways within their roaming area. The swamp was a natural fence for the cows and hogs. They basically stayed out of the water other than for drinking purposes. One or two of the cows would have a bell hung around their neck so that they could be found as darkness approached. I remember sitting in the yard around about time to start thinking about going to the house, when Mrs. Rahn could be heard calling the cows from down back or wherever. When us kids heard her, or her brother  George Quarterman calling the cows home we new it was time for us to also go to the house and get ready for the family to gather at the supper table.

Evenings were very quieting times as we watched the bats flying about and the fireflies or lightning bugs. If it was cool weather there would be the smell of smoke from the fireplace and the wood burning heater. If it was warm there was often a fire going outside for disposing of trash as well as for perhaps pest control although I'm not sure about that. And listening to the whiporwills, as well as the crickets and bullfrogs altogether it was a wonderful sound and it happened naturally every evening. And if you were at Grandmama's house you also heard the constant splash of water from the discharge of the flowing well.

Grandmama died in 1959 I think and in the final years of her life June slept at her house most of the time and when I got old enough to be trusted with that responsibility I would sometimes stay at Grandmama's. There was a stretch of a few years when someone from our household would sleep at Grandmama's every night because of her frailness  Grandmama had terribly weak varicose veins and she often had severe bleeding spells. She had to have much care and attention. Mama was Grandmama's primary care giver and she rendered a very good effort as I remember following Mama from our house over to Grandmama's at least two or three times every day. The path which stretched from just beside the flowing well, which was right outside of Grandmama's house backyard the back gate into the backyard of Mama and Daddy's house was a first place of adventure for me as it crossed four hundred feet between the Quarterman lane to the Jessie Perry place. My homestead then as now stretched from the "lane" which separated the Quarterman property from Grandmama's on the west side to the fence which separated our vegatable garden on the east side of our house from the Perry property. There was a driveway from the highway into Grandmama's and another into our house. There were two additional one acre lots between the two houses. Those two lots were acquired by my Daddy at some time after we had lived there for a while. I think they were purchased to facilitate our having our own well drilled in the late forties.

Those two lots are where the duplex apartment building is currently. Back when we were young Daddy bought a mowing machine which was an extremely dangerous device much like a small bushhog on pneumatic tires with a five horsepower Brigg's and Stratton positioned on a wooden deck which supported a hub that had a two foot blade beneath and a veebelt drove the hub from a pulley on the side of the engine. The two lots were unfenced from the highway to about halfway toward the back. The back half of those two lots were fenced to form what Daddy called our pasture. It probably consisted of a little more than one acre. We kept at least one or two hogs most of my early childhood. At the approriate time of the year Em would load one or two hogs and take them somewhere like Mr Pryor Staffords to have them bred so we could soon be raising a litter of pigs for slaughter in the coming fall or winter.

As I said earlier Mama maintained a flock of chickens up until her death in 1995 which happened approriately on Labor Day, quite fitting for someone known to have labored mightely throughout her life up until her very last days on this earth. We always had other domestic animals on the place. There was forever at least one or more family dogs and today I frequently pause at the site of burial of all of them. I am currently enjoying creating this recollection of my youth and it is so very special to still be walking the very same soil which my tiny feet roamed in the very first years of my now seventy years on this planet.

About 1951 or so we were inticed by Mr James Moore to build some flight pens for the purpose of raising quail. The remnants of those pens are still in place and I enjoy spending time around them. We had an incubator and we hatched the eggs which had been ordered from the Market Bulliten. We had the perverbial "Bob White" as well as the Japeneese and the Chuka varities. The Japeneese appeered to be the smallest but in reality when processed it produced the most volumn for consumption.
    
Mama would smoother fry several dozen at a time for our supper and occasionally for Sunday Dinner right after church. It was a sight to study the face of the Preacher when he was invited to Dinner at Ms Homer's on Sunday after the morning service, or when a visiting preacher came for early Supper on an evening during a Revival. Mama had a special  serving platter for the Thanksgiving turkey which was quite large and held a small mountain of smoother fried quail of two dozen or even more on special occasions.
    
My Mama was the best cook I have ever known of and I have had the very good fortune to have been in the company of several other ladies along my life's journey who were indeed wonderful cooks. I believe that one of the main reasons that I've enjoyed exceptionally good health so far is due to all of the carefully prepared meals which I've enjoyed throughout my life. Currently and for the past twenty years I eat only two meals daily. I have a very good breakfast every morning and a well balanced evening meal shortly before I retire at dusk.