It's Candy Making Time

I usually don't start making Christmas goodies until the 2nd or 3rd week of December. But this year I'm ahead of schedule since we will be going to SC and NC during Thanksgiving, visiting with family along the way. I like to make baskets of goodies for families to enjoy during the holidays.


Today I started early by picking out pecans to use in recipes I would be cooking. I made small loaves of persimmon bread and zucchini and apple bread. I wrapped these to put in my baskets.

Then I made brownies for one of the granddaughters. Another wants chocolate chip cookies and the oldest wants chocolate wagon wheel cookies. Our son Bill's favorite is peanut brittle that I make in the microwave. I used to make it in a black iron skillet just as my daddy did. But I've learned that it's a lot faster to cook it in the microwave, and it's just as good. I made a recipe of chocolate covered wheat crackers with peanut butter between them. They taste just like Butterfingers. I have a batch of coconut/nugant filling in the refrigerator and tomorrow I will roll out little balls and dip them in chocolate. They taste just like Mounds candy bars. And of course the little sand tarts will be made tomorrow to complete the Christmas goodies I will make for my baskets. The baskets will contain jars of grape jelly, muscadine jelly, pear preserves, fig preserves, and apricot/pear marmalade. Also a bag of unshelled pecans that I picked up in a friend's yard under the big pecan trees. The 6 baskets will contain something special for each individual family.

Candy making has been a part of my Christmas traditions all of my life. When I was growing up on the farm, we always had peanut brittle, divinity (I could never make this delicacy), fudge, and pulled taffy made from syrup. I guess that's why I always enjoy making candy at Christmas time - just a tradition.


I think I'll take a tylenol and get some rest. I must have spent about 12 hours in the kitchen today.

Farm-City Week Banquet

Tonight I attended the annual Farm City Week banquet in New Brockton at the Coffee County Cooperative Extension System building. The week before Thanksgiving is National Farm City Week. National Farm-City Week, always the week ending on Thanksgiving Day, is a time to reflect on our blessings. Since 1955, the National Farm-City Council, together with state and local councils and committees, has encouraged building understanding of our interdependence between rural and urban residents.
They didn't have farm city week when I was growing up on the farm. But 4-H was very big in our schools and we always had a rally in the spring that was a lot of fun and then summer camp.
I learned a lot in 4-H.


Tonight I observed that most people at the dinner were all dressed pretty much the same. It was hard to tell the farmers from the business men and politicians attending. I sat by a lady in her late 80's that I've know all my life, from the Curtis community. She gets invited to a "Real McCoy's" luncheon every year when they honor farmers over a certain age. She said I would qualify since I'm over 70 and grew up on a farm. I declined; too busy already.


The new president of Auburn University was the guest speaker and he gave a highlight of land grant colleges and their importance in the world today. He said they have around 18,000 applications and only accept 800. I wonder if any of these return to the farm when they graduate. My dad was a farmer but didn't go to college. Yet he could do almost anything with all his talents. I learned a lot from him and am a pretty good "fixer uper". I scored the highest in mechanics in my senior class and was so embarrassed!


FFA chapters (Future Farmers of America) are pretty popular in Coffee County Schools and they win lots of contests each year. They have about as many girls as boys in FFA. Tonight they were helping at the banquet, serving as hosts and hostesses, and performing musical selections for entertainment.


When I was growing up, farmers did not receive the respect they get today. People have to eat and I think we are all concerned about farmers and crops. I know I love our farmers!

An Important Old House

For the past 3 years I have been working in a Southern heirloom garden I planted in the front yard of the old house where former Ala. Governor Jim (Big Jim) Folsom was born in 1909, the youngest of 8 children. The house was moved to Elba in 2001 from out in the country and donated to the city so it could be preserved.

Today I attended a meeting of representatives from the Ala. Historical Commission and Lt. Gov. Jim Folsom, Jr's staff (this was his granddaddy's home) - to discuss how to best restore the old house and what it could be used for, etc. It is a "place in peril" and work must be done soon if it is saved. Eight people attended the meeting and then we went to lunch at a deli. We got a lot of good advice and everybody agreed that this project could be done.

Autumn leaves in South Alabama

Today I drove through the countryside to Opp and all along the way I kept seeing such beautiful colored leaves on the trees and vines. Yellow poplars look like leaves of pure gold. Grape vines look like garlands of gold Christmas swags. But there are no prettier trees than this Autumn Blaze maple we planted in our yard 3 years ago. The first photo was taken just as the leaves started turning and the 2nd photo was taken 2 days ago on Nov. 11th. The Bradford trees along our street are beautiful.


In a few years - or 2 or 3, we will have to start raking leaves. It's been nice moving to a house with no landscaping and taking a break from raking leaves and pine straw. But I miss the trees in the fall when the leaves start changing.

Decorating cemeteries - customs

It's almost time to take Christmas flowers to the cemetery to put on my parents graves. This year I chose white instead of red. My mother loved pretty flowers and I do this in her memory. My sister Susan sent me money to buy these. I place flowers there seasonally, always silk flowers since it's too hot here to put fresh flowers on the graves. 


In the south it is a custom to clean the graves in the spring, cut the grass, and put flowers on the graves and it used to be called "Decoration Day" which later became 

Memorial Day. The difference was that everybody's grave was decorated on Decoration Day, not just the veterans. Families would come to the cemetery on a certain day, clean the cemeteries, bring flowers for the graves, and stay for lunch. They don't do this anymore. They buy silk or plastic flowers and leave them all year and hire someone to keep the cemetery clean.


My  parents, Lawrence and Ruth Wilson, are buried in a cemetery beside New Ebenezer Baptist Church, between Elba and Opp, AL (grave with white flowers in photo). My paternal great grandfather, James Shorter Grimes, was the first person buried in this cemetery in 1903. Many of my Grimes relatives are buried here, including my paternal grandparents. They are buried along the front rows of the cemetery.

This is an older cemetery (Grimes-Holland)  a few miles away where my great-great grandparents are buried (John William and Julia Garrett Grimes). This photo was taken about 1950. It is located about 5 miles west of Elba. A few years ago my cousin Linda helped me clean the cemetery of vines and brush and we cleaned the tombstones, and had a sign printed . A caretaker has been hired to keep the cemetery clean. I like to take our grandchildren there to show they where their ancestors are buried and to tell them something about them. My maternal grandparents and great grandparents are buried at Liberty cemetery, about 5 miles northeast of New Ebenezer, with another set of great grandparents buried in the Elba City Cemetery. All of my grandparents and great-grandparents  are near me!

On the row behind my parents graves is the grave of the last confederate widow, Alberta Martin, who died in 2004. She was buried the same day in June as President Reagan. I remember it was so very hot that day and the mourners attending in Civil War attire almost collapsed from the heat.

How's your Handwriting? Maybe it's the pen you use.

Do these pens look familiar? Most young people probably have never used a “fountain pen” and certainly wouldn’t know how to put ink in them. (NOTE: These are not my pens. This photo came from a website on the internet.)

When I was in the 6th grade, our teacher Miss Fuller, decided to have penmanship classes to help us improve our handwriting. She had beautiful cursive handwriting and used a fountain pen. I admired her pen so much and one day she let me try it. I was hooked. I went home and told my parents about the fountain pen and that I wanted one. I didn’t know that my mother had one that she kept put away from us kids. She showed it to me and let we write with it. I started writing letters to family members who lived away from home just so I could use the fountain pen.

My parents knew how I longed to have my own fountain pen but they were expensive. WWII was still going on and it was hard to obtain pens with the steel or gold tip (nib). The ink reservoir was rubber, and rubber was almost non existant during the war years.

One warm spring day I came home from school and there was a package on the dining table with my name on it. It wasn’t my birthday so I was very surprised and wanted to open it right away. Mother wanted me to wait until supper so daddy would be present when I opened it. It was a long wait that afternoon, especially since I had no idea what was in the package with my name written on it. Later I learned that he got it at Button Grimes' General Merchandise Store at Danley's Cross Roads. You could find almost anything at this big store near where we lived.

Finally I got to open the package and I can still feel the excitement and remember how thrilled I was when I saw what was inside; the most beautiful ivory-colored fountain pen with a flag printed on the cap of the pen, and the work Schaeffer written on the clip of the cap. Inside the package was also a bottle of royal blue, fast drying, Sheaffer’s ink. I wouldn't have to use an ink blotter.

My dad said he got the pen for me for graduation from the 6th grade. What was even more special is that my dad actually bought the gift instead of my mother. I learned to master the art of filling the rubber vacuum tube inside the pen, adding just the right amount of ink by lifting a lever up and down on the barrel of the pen, being careful not to overfill. You could write for a long time with just one “fill up”.

I was the oldest of 7 children and I’m sure the pen was misused by some of my younger siblings and after awhile the point became “scratchy”. You could buy replacement points and I probably bought a few. Then the rubber ink tube inside the pen deteroriated and began to leak. I finally retired the pen when I started to high school, and got a new Parker 51. It had ink cartridges that you put inside the pen and didn’t have to fill it. But cartridges were expensive so I got a used syringe from my aunt who was a nurse and filled the syringe with ink and refilled my ink cartridges. I used this fountain pen throughout high school and took it to college with me. I think I kept it around for many years after I got married and finally one day disposed of it, or did I put it in a drawer with some other keepsakes? I must check that out one day soon. It would be a miracle if I still have it!

I have always wanted to try writing with the "cadillac" of fountain pens: the Monteblanc. I looked at prices on eBay and here is one example: Montblanc - Meisterstuck - Gold Trim - Black with Gold Trim(#13661) LeGrand Fountain Pen #146-Bottle Fill Only List Price: $570.00 - Our Price: $456.00. Think I'll wait awhile to buy one of these!

Honoring our Veterans

HONORING OUR VETERANS
Remembering the Big Red One
Wurzburg, Germany and Fort Riley, Kansas





This is my husband, James (Jim) Emory Gilmer, Sr.


He served in the US Army for over 5 years, 1952-1957.
He had basic training at Ft. Jackson, SC and was sent to Ft. Rucker in 1953. I met him while he was stationed at Ft. Rucker which was near Troy State College where I was
a sophomore and attending summer school in July 1953 when I met Jim on a blind date. The rest is history.....


A few years ago I wrote to the army headquarters and applied for replacement bars and medals and framed these to give to Jim for Christmas, along with his photo when he was promoted to Sgt. while in Germany.


Jim re-enlisted for more overseas duty and we had planned to travel throughout Europe. A month later he learned that all military personnel in the 1st Infantry Division would be sent back to the US in Operation Gyroscope" and nobody could transfer out of the Big Red One! There went our plans; we went to Ft Riley, Kansas instead, to the great plains. We were not too happy about these orders.



In July 1955 we were on the first ship coming back to the US (USS Upshur) and were welcomed to the NY docks on a hot, humid morning. We couldn't get off the ship until a ceremony took place and I remember standing there for what seemed like hours waiting to get off the ship, along with our 6 month old son Ronnie who was born in Germany. We are in this photo standing over the "The" in "The Fighting First Returns". Link to see story of arrival of the Upshur in NY in July 1955: ttp://www.army.mil/CMH/documents/gyroscope/gyro-1.htm


Because Jim could type, he was taken off orders to go to Korea in 1953. They needed him at Ft Rucker to type the morning report (this was before computers of course). We decided to get married that October because he knew he would be going overseas soon, but didn't know where.  In December he got orders to go to Germany, instead of Korea. I followed him in March, going as a tourist since wives could not accompany soldiers below the rank of Sgt.


This was the period of the Cold War and there were many restrictions. He had to always wear his uniform off duty. There were frequent maneuvers called on the spur of the moment when they would have to go out into the field and live in a tent, etc. Our passports were checked often to make sure we always had them with us. Despite all of these inconveniences, we enjoyed living in Germany. I guess because we were 20 years old and young and fearless!


I have a great respect for all veterans and their families. My uncle was in the Seabees and had to go to Pearl Harbor and "clean up" the damage in the harbor after the Japanese bombed us there on December7, 1941. When I was 13, I went to my first military funeral for a cousin who didn't make it back from the Pacific alive.


Tomorrow when we honor our veterans at Elba United Methodist Church, I will stand tall and say the Pledge to the Flag and applaud when the veterans stand to the sounds of their respective service songs. We have several WWII veterans in our church membership. Just last week, people in Elba welcomed family members back home from Iraq. Tomorrow will be a special day for many folks in Elba. First Baptist Church will be welcoming my cousin's husband back from a year of duty in Kuwait. His wife teaches school at Elba High School and took care of their 3 kids for a year while he was gone. I really admire her.




This is Jim, 55 years later! He is retired and is shown here working on the new playground for children in Elba. He is active in so many organizations including Rotary Club, webmaster for Elba UMC http://www.elbaumc.org/ , Sons of the American Revolution, Pea River Historical and Genealogical Society, and an active volunteer for many worthwhile causes in our little town.