SHEA DIDN'T KNOW POTATOES GREW IN THE GARDEN, MILK CAME FROM A COW ...PART 9

SHEA DIDN'T KNOW POTATOES GREW IN THE GARDEN, MILK CAME FROM A COW              PART 9...

　

BY GLORIA FAYE BROWN BATES aka GRANNY GEE

For hours Shea had been at Anthony's mother's house. She was so tired and wanted to go home. Anthony had done it again... he had brought her here, slipped off to do 'God knows what'...

Shea was tired of him doing that to her. He'd bring her to his parents' home, wait until the perfect moment when Shea was absorbed in something his mother or father was doing, saying... Anthony would slip off leaving her for hours.

It was so easy to become engrossed in listening, watching something Anthony's parents said, or did. They were very interesting people, they knew so much young Shea didn't know, or even realize. She loved to be around them. Also, Anthony's mother was the best cook in the world. Shea would help to wash, dry dishes after eating.

Anthony's mother had to wash dishes in hot water from being boiled on a wood heater. She had to go outside to get water to bring it inside. His father had never gotten around to getting inside plumbing in their home. He never did get around to it all the years Shea knew him.

Anthony's mother milked a cow every morning, every evening. Shea had never seen such in her life, it was wonderful to learn, see all the new things she learned living in the mountains. It took many years for her to learn that these hard-working people had to go through alot to live day to day. Things Shea had grown up knowing, taking for granted... these people didn't have them. Anthony's father could have made it so much easier on Anthony's mother... for some reason, he never did.

Shea loved Anthony's sister, younger brother who lived at home. She looked up to her, it was fun to laugh, talk with her. She had a good sense of humor. Anthony's younger brother was very shy. He had an older sister who was married and lived five miles away. Shea liked her, too.

What are you all doing? Shea saw everyone out in the huge garden, she saw things laying everywhere... all about the same size. What are those things? They were potatoes! Shea was so amazed... she never knew where potatoes come from... these potatoes came from the earth! Anthony's father had plowed them up, unharmed. Now...they were picking them all up to store in the cellar. Shea just was so fascinated, this was like what she'd read in books!

Shea wanted to help get those wonderful potatoes up! It was like being on a giant Easter egg hunt... she gathered so many of those potatoes up. She ran fast gathering them, laughing.. talking the whole time. Needless to say, they loved for Shea to come when it was time to pick up potatoes! To her it was a game, to them... it was hard work. Shea couldn't see that at her young age... and it was a novelty to her!

Shea thinks about the times she picked those potatoes up... they were all big, nice potatoes. She learned where potatoes came from, and how 'so, so many potatoes'... could possibly 'be'. She learned that milk came from a cow, she watched the cow being gently milked, petted, spoke to softly. She never knew such things. She just knew the potatoes 'just was', and knew that the milkman came often, leaving glass bottles of milk... later, milk in cartons.

Shea also, heard that alot of kids' mothers didn't only like milk, but... that they liked the milkman.... too. :)))