Memories

This post is very special and very cool in it timing.

My six hundredth post and my fifty-fifth birthday are landing on the same day.  It is a day to celebrate.  I have enjoyed my journey through life and my journey through blogdom.  I have met many fantastically wonderful people and feel as if I know you personally although we have never met.  Thank you for sharing your life with me.

Families have many traditions.  My family had some strange ones and they came from Daddy.  I think maybe Mom objected but Dad won.

The first snow we were always set outside the house barefooted and in our gown tail straight from the bed.  We could not enter the house until we ran around it, not too bad because we only had a three room house.  Now, you may be shocked about this blatant disregard for the care of a minor but we loved it.  I do not know if this was a tradition handed down or if it belonged only to Daddy, I never asked so I will never know.  The purpose was if you got your bare feet in the first snow, your feet would be warm all winter.  I do not remember having cold feet but it could be due to the bread sacks Momma made us wear over our shoes as we walked to catch the bus or the bucket of coals we carried to the bus stop on winter mornings. I remember going barefoot in the snow and not having a second thought about it, not because I had to but because I liked the feel of the snow on my bare feet. I guess I have Daddy to thank for that strange habit.

Our second tradition, but not the last(I shall save them for other posts) was homemade wine on Christmas morning.  Yes, again we were minors and no, none of us drink in the mornings but Christmas was special.  Dad would make wine, Concord grape wine, Elderberry wine, Possum grape wine, and others according to what crop was good that year.  Christmas was our morning to taste the batch.  We had old snuff glasses and Daddy would fill them half full and give all of us a glass of wine, even Momma would have one.  Whether it was a good year or not, we would ooo and aaaaw over the taste to make Daddy feel good.  Christmas wasn't filled with lots of presents but we always had our wine and we always sang Christmas songs around the tree.

After opening the presents, Momma would fix a huge breakfast and we would all set around the table, warm inside from Christmas wine and a family tradition of love and togetherness.