No porch sitting today. Got my porch swing cushions in the house so they wouldn’t get wet or blow away. Folded up the dog playpen and pushed it behind the white double rocker. Did my pondering sitting in a chair in the downstairs basement while Mother Nature flexed her muscles with storms and tornadoes. Penelope didn’t like the tornado warning siren and sat under my chair. The bamboo forest took a beating. Looks like that cold spell we had several weeks ago might have killed a few of them, too. At our family Christmas dinner one of my little nephews asked me if any panda bears lived back there. I said maybe and watched his eyes open wide.

Hard to believe that when my parents moved in this house the backyard was clear to the creek. Daddy used to garden down there and had his hunting dog pens down there. All I can remember is the bamboo. As children we’d walk around and push the new shoots over in the back yard and that kept them from spreading. Chief would cut a wheelbarrow full on our visits from Alexander City and we’d burn them in the fireplace with the fire wood. Had to split them or they’d pop and blow up where the joints were.

Daddy loved growing things and planting unusual things. He planted Chinese chestnut trees in a row in front of our house and on down the the street. Those trees quickly put an end to us playing outside barefoot. Learned how to ride my unicycle rolling from tree to tree. He planted an American chestnut tree at the foot of the driveway. That tree is huge now and throws its burrs all over the deck on the back of the house. Can’t walk out there barefoot, either. Mama eventually had the Chinese chestnut trees cut down. The burrs made a mess in the yard. Was years, though, before we could go barefoot.

Don’t know how a squirrel can open the burr to get the chestnut out but I see them eating the nuts frequently. I’ve eaten my share but never roasted them. If you ever step on one of those burrs you’ll remember it for the rest of your life. My grandson stepped on one when he was little and Thomas scraped a pocket across the bottom of his foot trying to get them out.

When I graduated from college I came back home and began full time employment at the Roanoke Leader. I had worked there during summers and college holiday breaks. My youngest brother was at Auburn University so it was just me at home with my parents. I enjoyed that time with them so much! I helped daddy plant his garden that spring and he wanted to plant garbanzo beans. We had eaten the beans at a salad bar and loved them. He was so disappointed they didn’t come up. Guess that was the only garden vegetable he had ever planted that didn’t come up.

I was growing orchids then and all the plants were blooming profusely. Some way we decided to try orchid fertilizer on the broccoli plants. Don’t know how we thought that up. We planted 120 broccoli plants. He would dig the holes and I would come along behind him putting the plants in and packing the soil around them. The broccoli flourished. Three makings from every plant. We had so much broccoli we had to give it away! Guess I get my green thumb from him.

My brothers slaved away every summer in daddy’s huge garden. I was swimming and enjoying Coke parties while they were sweating up at the farm. Mama told Daddy there wasn’t a place for a young lady to go to the bathroom so I got to stay home. There was an outhouse. I’d used it before. Anyway, I went a few times and helped weed the grass out of the rows. Had to weed several rows of peanuts once as a teenager when I got in trouble for something.

One time when I was at the farm, Daddy borrowed a mule and let me plow between the rows. I had just gotten the hang of it when middle brother threw a mud clod at the mule’s butt. Was not pretty when the mule took off!