Well, hello again and wasn’t our rain wonderful. It has been a nice week all around. Granddaughter, Kamryn came and stayed a few days with us. She spent some time with Emilee and came to work with us on Monday. She always likes to go over and tour the historic courthouse and thanks to Ms. Ethel Holder for seeing that she got a tour.

Other good news - I am sure it was a great day when many graduated from SFA on August the 6th. I noticed these on our Announcement Page and I want to congratulate Jeane Taylor - how I admire her for this accomplishment, and graduating Summa Cum Laude!; Shanell Corbell Ruiz graduating within a few short months of having her new son; and Melissa Howard. Melissa worked for us for a while building our ads. I see she is already working in Austin . Also, Keni Jo Biggar graduating while planning a wedding! Another is Shalanda Walker who has obtained her Masters Degree. Congrats to all of these was well as to their families.

More good news, I am sure you read the article about grandson, Zac, winning the very nice Tyson Scholarship. We are so happy about this and, of course, hope he uses it wisely. If you read Terrie’s Tales this week; you know she will be on top of it!

I want to say a belated happy birthday to Betty Bailey. I missed it last week. It is nice to see Betty out around town and busy. She spent many years working at Farmers State Bank before her retirement. Pictured here from one of her birthday photos from our Announcement/Birthday page is Betty with grandson, Danny Bailey Jr.

We heard from Phil Bullock a few days ago. He has made his move to North Carolina , successfully. Phil came here to work several years old and stayed on after his retirement. He was active with the Chamber of Commerce and other organizations to our community and I know he is really going to be missed. You can stay in touch with Phil at 4115 B Bridge Court , Winterville , NC 28590 , 252-902-4575, pbullock@suddenlink.net.

A word of caution, if you’re outside much - if you will remember a few weeks ago, we had the story about Mr. Donnis Adams having his dog, Red, stolen. He came in last week to give us an update about that situation and said that he had been very sick for several days and had been in the hospital from contacting Lyme Disease from a tick bite he received. It happened about the same time that his dog was stolen and he went three weeks before his problems really kicked in and felt he was having a heart attack. On a personal note, I have known and read about other people with this disease and it can be devastating on the body and the longer it goes untreated the worse it gets. The bite will turn very red and look much like a bull’s eye.

On Tuesday of this week, we had a visit from C. A. Samford. He and his son had come down to visit for a few days with his mom and dad, Ben and Bette Samford. He said he enjoys keeping up with the Shelby County news from our site.

Last week on my book review, I told you about the author, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings. I enjoyed reading about the folks who lived in the era of which she wrote. It was not far from the days of my youth in East Texas when many still found it hard to get by. It struck me later that I had written the tribute to her on her birthday for she was born on August 8th, 1896.

I want to share a few of the recipes from her book, Cross Creek Cookery. She liked to cook and, of course, at the time, not many ate in restaurants and everything had to be cooked from scratch. Many only went to town for staples and everything else was raised on their land. (I gave you a recipe one time for preparing Chicken and Dumplings from scratch including killing and dressing the chicken. I could do that here with one of Rawlings recipes for preparing Turtle Soup, but I think I will skip that one!)

Here is a typical day’s menu at ‘the Creek’.

Breakfast: Orange Cup, Scrambled Eggs, Bacon, Cheese Grits*, Blackberry Jelly, Strong coffee, Dora’s cream (from milk from her cow), Hot biscuits.

Lunch (in East Texas , we called it dinner): Cheese Soufflé, Carrots glazed in honey, Mayhaw jelly, Mixed green salad, Peach short-cake, Hot biscuits. Or – Collard greens with white bacon, Cornbread, Spring onions.

Dinner (we called it Supper): Clear Tomato soup, Alligator-tail steak, Whipped potatoes, Cow-peas, Fried tomatoes, Ambrosia, Cornbread. Or – Cream of Peanut soup, Florida peanut-fed Ham baked with sherry, Corn Soufflé’, Green beans, Brandied peaches, Raw Shaved Chinese Cabbage, Cornmeal muffins, Peppermint Ice Cream.

Camp Dinner: Chicken, Pork, Wild duck, Coot liver and Gizzard Pilau, Corn Pone, Sliced tomatoes, cucumbers and onions in vinegar, coffee.

History of Grits & Recipe (from Cross Creek Cookery): “Grits are the Deep South member of the hominy family. What the North knows as hominy, we call ‘big hominy’. This is the whole grains of white corn treated, amazingly, with lye, and boiled. Grits are hominy dried and ground fine. They are a staple food in Florida , backwoodsmen eating them three times a day and consider a day without grits, a day wasted. A taste for grits may be cultivated by outsiders, and in any Southern eating place, Yankee tourists may be recognized by their reaction to grits, especially at breakfast. We use them in place of potatoes. Never as a cereal.

Recipe for grits: 1 cup grits, 4 cups boiling water, 1 teaspoon salt (serves 3-4); Stir the grits into boiling water. Cover and let cook slowly, about 30-40 minutes, stirring often. For cheese grits add one cup medium strong shaved cheese. There are addicts of ‘soft grits’ for whom more hot water may be added to the cooking mixture. Most of us prefer them of the consistency of mush. Florida country folk use grits as a base for gravy. The gravy, unhappily, consist of the grease from any fat meat, usually that of white bacon (fat salt pork).”

Personally, when I was growing up; we always had big meals. We did not snack and rarely ate sandwiches. Until I was in high school, mother still made biscuits every morning. When I was about five years old, she made a batch of hominy. I can still remember watching her stir the mixture outside in one of the big black iron wash pots. I have always liked hominy and grits. They are country to me and there is nothing wrong with that!