Winter
Sickness
Aunt Merica had gathered herbs in the fall which she now used
to make into tea, for good drinking or to cure some sickness.
Daddy went through the snow to get sassafras for tea for supper.
From the bottom of the big safe we got sharp pointed white or
stubby yellow popcorn for cold afternoon treats. That was where
Aunt Merica kept the cloth sack of dried apple snitz that she
used to make fried pies. It was where Mama kept a cloth sack of
dried green beans which she called britches. I had watched all
of these dry during the summer, spread out on the roof over the
kitchen parch, where they were out of reach of animals and open
to the sun.
Sometimes
Mama could persuade Daddy to set the rabbit trap. I don’t
think he liked skinning the rabbit but we all liked the fried
meat. Squirrel and opossum made rare meals. Daddy was not a hunter
or a fisherman.
During
the year Mama or Aunt Merica might be gone for a week or more,
staying with Aunt Lillie when a new baby came or with Grandma
when she was so sick. In the winter they were often busy at home,
taking care of Joe and me or dragging around the house, trying
to do their own daily work. It was Mama who held my head while
I coughed and whooped over the coal-scuttle. Aunt Merica measured
out Epsom salts, castor oil and paregoric. Mama cooked special
food to tempt failed appetites. Aunt Merica read and read, trying
to take our minds off our miserable conditions. Mama worried and
worried. She called the doctor. But no modern drug had been invented
and his little black bag's supply of pink and yellow pills did
not seem to do much to relieve our pain. Aunt Merica put a little
pan of fried onions under the walnut chest in the house, hung
a lump of asafetida on a cord around my neck and at the first
hint of a deep cough, made a mustard plaster for my chest. Memories
of the great flu epidemic were still fresh in everyone's mind.
No possible prevention was left untried.
The
neighbors were often sick too. Some were very sick. Daddy would
be asked to go sit up with someone, and he would put an his leggings
and go meet a neighbor and they, together, would go to the sick
neighbor’s house and sit through the night beside their friend’s
bedside. If someone died, Daddy and one or two others would sit
up all night with the laid-out body (which Aunt Merica may have
been asked to wash).
Always,
in case of sickness, trouble or death, Mama made a big cake or
prepared some other food to take to the family. Daddy and other
church members dug the grave in our church yard; we all went to
the open casket funeral. Most of the women wore black. Cold and
snow did not keep us home.
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