View From The Front Porch-Stan Hitchcock As Bill Monroe would sing, “Christmas Times a’coming, Christmas Times a’coming, Christmas Times a’coming, and I know I’m going home….” Yessir, it’s a’coming, alright, and mighty fast it is too. It is the Season For Good Cheer…so, alright, my Cheer is getting gooder everyday. It is rather chilly this morning, Tennessee is getting down in the twenties some at night and that is a little unusual this early in the season, with January and February being the big freeze-up most years. But, all the more reason to be getting into the Christmas spirit. Sitting out on the front porch, bundled up and with my good dog Buck the Collie, with his heavy coat, laying at my feet, the lights from the Christmas tree shining through the window of the front room behind me, watching the deer using the creek as a highway in front of me, how can I not have thoughts of good cheer? The late 40’s and early 50’s, in the Ozark Mountains where I grew up, Christmas was always my favorite time of the year. The hard summer work was done, the crops laid by, alfalfa hay baled and put in the barn, corn silage cut and chopped and blown into the upright silo, the oats bound and stuck in sheaves to be brought in as needed, calving was about over, the mares had all dropped their foals and the families had settled in to their winter-time chores. There was silage to fork out of the silo, throwing it down to be loaded into the farm wagon and spread in the feeders for the cows, hay to be hauled to the horse pasture and put out in the hay feeders, the oat sheaves fed to the horses in the barn stalls, ice chopped in the outside water tanks and ponds, and just general maintenance that all farm families understand and tend to. Yes, a time to look back on and have a warm feeling about the good growing season even out here in the cold. And, another thing, in my memory it always snowed before Christmas…always! By golly, it’s my memory and that’s they way it was! Never let facts get in the way of a good story, I always say. Mom would really get into the cooking, during the Christmas Holiday, making special things we had at this time of year…..homemade oyster stew….fresh baked breads….Oxtails cooked in her pressure cooker with carrots, new potatoes, and sweet parsnips and onions…ShepherdsPie (myfavorite)…Gingerbread…all sorts of pies and cakes, and this was in the weeks leading up to Christmas. Christmas was the only time I remember when Mom would roast a big turkey, we were more ham, chicken and beef eaters. But, we were also big on fresh vegetables, year round since Mom would can up everything in the garden. My Mom’s folks, Grandmother and Grandfather Johnson lived across the road from our house on the farm, and all the Johnson clan would come to our house for Christmas dinner, along with my Grandma and Grandpa Hitchcock who would come in from where they lived in Kansas City, along with assorted Hitchcock’s from all around, drawn by the aroma of Christmas dinner at our farm, Pleasant Valley. Grandma Johnson would always make Pineapple or Banana Cream Pies, with her perfect meringue that was stacked, curled, browned and sugared and stood about 4 inches high. Grandma Hitchcock would make Christmas sugar/shortbread cookies for us kids and her wonderful oyster dressing and gravy for the turkey and fixin’s. It was quite a feat getting this bunch of kin folk fed but Mom and her Grandmother helpers always managed. My Uncle Bud Hitchcock would bring his guitar from Kansas City, Mom would sit down at her piano and music would fill our home as we sang our favorite Christmas songs. I would sit on the piano bench with Mom while she played and watch my Uncle Bud play the beautiful chords on his Gibson arched top. In 1948 Dad bought me my first guitar, a Gretsch Youth model, and I could join in, so my life of music was pretty well set. Fortunately, I married well into a great cooking family…so the Christmas tradition remains the same, as the aroma’s of good cooking waft from the Old Farm House. So, the Christmas time that is a’coming, is still my favorite time of all…and I wish you the Joy of the Season, and God Bless Us All. Below are some pictures of Denises Winter Scenes. stan
Posted on: Fri, 19 Dec 2014 15:53:18 +0000
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