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 RUSTICThere are E-Magazines that you can download and read all the stories.
LIFE IS GOOD. . .Sweep It Up
1 comment:
Post a Comment