The Green House

The house to the west of us was where my Grandmama lived in 1945 and I doubt that I remember that far back because I would have only been two years old. However I remember very early following Mama across the path which went from our house to Grandmama's. That little journey to Grandma's was one of my earliest freedoms as when I was first trusted to go pay the water bill at the Quarterman's. As I said earlier I lived in the household of the Homer Smith family but my home very early on grew in area as I became increasingly allowed to venture farther and farther afield within the confines of the road and the swamp. I never remember a time when we did not have some livestock and a vegetable garden. We produced a good bit of our food. My Grandma could probably have rooted a pencil or cue stick and she handily passed that quality down to my Mother. Grandma had a vegetable garden as well as some chickens and so did we, ours was larger and more ambitious than Grandma's but they were both tended and produced nicely. In the summertime the house was always hot from the constant processing of the tomatoes, beans, squash, corn and okra. In the early days it was just canning and "putting up preserves and such". Never much idle time for anyone but me. Gosh how entertained I was at a very young age. I remember feeling especially privileged to be who I was as a very small child.