Friday, August 28, 2020

A Delta Story: Harvest Broom Making and Storytelling

Here's another in the Delta Story series as was written for the FALL ISSUE OF COUNTRY RUSTIC MAGAZINE in 2018. 


Story and Photography by Dru Duncan
 
"The days grow shorter. The trees are changing from their summer green to rich crimson, russet, amber and gold. The fields are white with cotton. Wheat and rice are so golden that they glow as the morning sun rises. The crispness in the air makes it undeniable. Fall has arrived.
 
I love the activity harvest time brings to our old company store, where each year friends and family gather for a day filled with the folk traditions of broom making and storytelling. The sweet smell of field straw, dried grasses, and cornhusks fills the air, as we diligently work to make brooms and whisks from the mounds of natural materials harvested from the ditch banks and end rows. Turkey wing and hawk tail whisks, pot scrubbers and cake testers, clothes whisk and brush brooms fill our list. The rhythmic clunk, clunk of the twine board on the century old store floor mixes with our continuous tales of days gone by but not forgotten. Sitting close to the wood burning stove to keep the chill off, once again we hear the story of my pioneer grandmother who cleaned the floors of their dogtrot log house with a stiff broom, lye soap, and water. Those floors were bleached almost white from the scrubbing. Or, I share my own childhood memory of making small bundles of leftover broom straw, securing them with rubber bands. They were used for silking ears of corn every Fourth of July. There was no celebration or homemade ice cream on that day until every #3 washtub of corn was shucked, silked, and packed in the freezer. And, I'll never forget being awakened very early on a fall morning for a day of foraging along the Mississippi River. We filled our buckets with wild pecans and walnuts, crabapples and berries. Then we loaded the truck with branches of birch and dogwood to fashion thrifty yard brooms for grandmother's flower beds and vegetable garden. . ."
Want to read more? Go to 2018 FALL ISSUE OF COUNTRY RUSTIC
There are E-Magazines that you can download and read all the stories.



LIFE IS GOOD. . .Sweep It Up
 

Monday, August 10, 2020

A Delta Story: The Old Post Office In The Company Store

Story and Photos by Dru Duncan

" The day was dusty hot as Gladys West walked along the gravel road and past her neighbor's homes. She was on her way to the post office inside the company store, only a half mile distance. Most days, she would stop along the way and share gossip with her friends, but today she was to pick up a shipment as soon as possible. The postmaster sent her a message of the arrival earlier that morning. He would be expecting her.

    Gladys entered the company store a bit out of breath. The screen door slammed loudly behind her as she nodded to the clerk and a couple of friends. She headed straight to the post office service window without stopping to exchange conversation with anyone.
   “I'm here to pick up my grandson," she told the postmaster. "His name is David. I believe he came by parcel post.” Mr. Holt looked up over his glasses and shook his head. “Yes, Mrs. Adams. He's right here beside me. Came in on Richardson's route.” 
    Little David was indeed there and had arrived through the post safe and sound. Gladys collected her delivery and headed home, telling the postmaster that her grandson would be returned in a week for shipment back to his parents. The price of stamps was a lot less than a train ticket. . ."

Want to read more?
There you can download the complete magazine in E-MAGAZINE form.

Note: J. B. Richardson was the first postmaster in Dell, AR. Gladys and David are purely fictional.

Article was dedicated to Marguerite Brownlee, who was postmaster for over forty years and who donated the old Dell Post Office to our historic district.  

Hope you enjoy it!