Ophelia wrote:
> George Shirley wrote:
>> Reg wrote:
>>> George Shirley wrote:
>>>
>>>> When we lived in Texas, where I grew up and our kids still live, we
>>>> had a large garden. We also had a good friend and neighbor who also
>>>> had a large garden. We synchronized our trips so the other could
>>>> take care of the garden and for that chore he got to harvest what
>>>> came in. My favorite time we did that is when his huge thornless
>>>> blackberry patch all ripened in one week. My word, we made
>>>> blackberry jelly, jam, put it in the freezer, made cobblers every
>>>> night for dinner, even made about ten gallons of blackberry wine. I
>>>> think John's favorite time was when our tomatoes all got ripe while
>>>> we were gone, he loved those things and about made himself and his
>>>> whole family sick eating them. Not to mention canning a ton of
>>>> them. We had fifty tomato plants that year and it was a good year
>>>> for tomatoes. Sigh! We miss that garden and that old house of ours but
>>>> someone
>>>> else lives there now and they don't even garden, just mow
>>>> everything like a park. Good memories come out of gardening and
>>>> then putting the food by you grew.
>>>>
>>>> George, off to bed after a long day of doing nothing
>>> I'm speechless. What a picture you paint.
>>>
>>> Thanks for posting.
>>>
>> I probably should mention that thirty years later John and I are still
>> good friends and we both still garden. He in Ohio and me in Louisiana.
>> We actually only live exactly 33 miles from where we started our
>> married life but traveled the world in between those last two moves.
>> I'm glad you enjoyed the post, at my age short term memory is
>> fleeting but things that happened 30, 40, 50 years ago are clear.
>> <VBG>
>
> It was indeed a lovely post)) Incidentally, someone (I think it might
> have been Dora) who said, she remembers the war years very well but can't
> remember why she went to the fridge)
>
>
Well, yesterday dear wife put the milk container in the cabinet and put
her glass of milk in the fridge. I'm not at that stage yet but I, too,
remember the war years pretty well even if I was a wee lad at the time.
My grandchildren think granpa has a marvelous memory but that's only
because no schools teach ancient history anymore. Ancient history is
anything prior to 1990 to many Americans.

I do wish I had taped or written down more of what my father had to say
over his latter years. He was the only family member who knew the family
line back past his grandparents. Now I'm having to trace them the hard
way. Nowadays I carry a miniature tape recorder with me when I visit
elderly relatives.

George