Thursday's Story: Ree and Christmas

Thursday's Story
   

I was in the stores today. They were pulling out Christmas "stuff" - Santa-shaped platters and sparkly baubles... potholders that light up and play Rudolf.... So much will end up - if not in the landfill - in the thrift shop come January.

It made me think about 'Ree - Marie Whitmire - the little wiry, sweet, tough and funny red-haired mountain lady that took care of me and my sisters and brother when we were growing up.

She never looked a day older that 14. There was always a look of joy on her face - in seeing the sun shine, the chickens set, the beds made - babies well fed.

After I went to college I'd come home to the mountains for Christmas and first thing, I'd go see 'Ree. When I asked her what she wanted me to get her for Christmas, likely as not she would say, "Your moma is getting me a chicken so I can make a pot of chicken and dumplings. I don't need a thing!"

I finally learned to stop asking. I'd bring her Arnold Coconut Macaroons and a scarf I'd knitted or a quilted vest - something warm. She lived in a cabin on the top of "Blue Ridge" - one of the world's beautiful spots - and the wind always blows there. And she loved coconut.

I can smell the wood smoke and flannel now. She cooked on a wood cook stove.... She'd give me a bowl of pintos and corn bread and hand me a big spoon - I think the size of the spoon was a point of pride.

After supper we'd listen to Country and Western records with her son Charles. Between Loretta Lynn and Conway and Bill Monroe her husband Stein would be telling stories. He knew everything and everybody.

And 'Ree was always piecing a quilt - pulling small colorful scraps of fabric from a black Hefty bag taller than her, stitching by hand. Me and my sisters all sewed back then. There was an never ending supply of scraps... 'Ree sewed them into quilts one stitch after another.

Now as I spread a quilt on the bed I recognize a skirt I made, a niece's jumper, my sister's Easter dress... tiny stitches... I have two quilts from 'Ree and two from Aunt Myrtle - they are my prized possessions.

Today. As I looked at the Christmas Kleenex and Christmas Oreos and Christmas bell-shaped-Jello molds... I knew I didn't need any of that to have a happy Christmas.

I'd love a bowl of pintos. A big spoon to eat them with. The smell of woodsmoke, flannel and hot cornbread. Chet Atkins on the stereo. Stein telling stories. Ree piecing a quilt... .

I hope your Christmas is everything you want it to be - and coconut macaroons.

Goodnight, Cindy

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Bynum Front Porch Storytelling

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Come join us for Moon Pies, RC Colas and stories! 6:30pm - 9pm on second Saturdays in Bynum. At the historic Bynum General Store, 950 Bynum Rd. Pittsboro, NC.

May 13 lineup: Bynum storyteller Cynthia Raxter, Gretchen McNeely, Russell Davis, The Monti winner Sam Pearsall, +ReVonda Crow-Storyteller and emcee Mark Brady! Food. Fun. Friends. Fabulous!

Check out the Facebook Event  or follow me on Twitter @CynthiaRaxter to keep up with the goings on!  

See you real soon! Love, Cindy

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Mom's Banana Pudding

Cooking from scratch doesn't take much longer.
Just a bit more attention.  

"The best cooks always have the most people hovering - helping - and hoping to stick a thumb through the aluminum foil." - Cynthia Raxter

Mom's Banana Pudding

4 tablespoons corn starch

1 cup sugar

generous pinch of salt

4 large eggs, separated (you'll need whites later for meringue)

3 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 box vanilla wafers

5-6 bananas, medium ripe

Lemon juice

4 egg whites (reserved from above)

1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar (or lemon juice)

1/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

Combine cornstarch, sugar & salt in a large glass bowl. Add egg yolks one at a time & beat well after each. Slowly stir in milk. Cook in microwave at 30% power, stirring every 2 minutes, until ingredients are thickened and smooth. Remove from microwave and stir in vanilla.

To layer the banana pudding, begin by placing vanilla wafers on the bottom of a 13x9 baking dish. (Another 3-quart casserole dish will work too - as long as it's oven-proof.) Slice bananas and place on top of the wafers. Pour one-third of custard over all. Repeat layering process until all wafers, bananas, and custard have been used. End with a final layer of wafers standing up around the edges for decorative purposes.

For the Meringue: Wipe out a large mixing bowl and the mixer's beaters with lemon juice (to remove any traces of oil). Preheat the oven to 425.

If these walls could talk!
   

Bynum Front Porch Storytelling

6:30 - 9pm October 8  

950 Bynum Road Pittsboro, NC

Whip egg whites with the electric mixer set at high speed for 1-2 minutes - the whites will be foamy. Add cream of tartar. Add sugar one tablespoon at a time and beat on high after each addition. (You want the sugar to melt and be absorbed before you add the next spoonful.) The meringue will get fluffier and fluffier. Once all the sugar has been added continue beating - but stop the mixer every minute or so and lift the beaters out of the bowl a little. When the tips of the meringue don't fall over it's ready. Fold in the vanilla.

Spread the meringue over the pudding, making sure to seal to the edges of the dish. Brown it in the oven for about 5 minutes. Take it out when the tips are brown. Watch it carefully - as Momma says, "It will burn in a wink of an eye!!!"

Leave on the counter for about an hour to cool, then chill in the refrigerator for 4 hours. 

See you soon! Love, Cindy

     

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Euphony

Bynum General Store Storytelling

One of the great storytellers of Bynum passed away a week and 2 days before the first official Bynum General Store Storytelling show.

I say "first official" ... Storytelling has been going on there years and years. There was always a ring of fellas sitting in a circle of chairs in the middle of the store, a little over to the left. There are still worn out spots on the floor from their boots. If you needed to know anything - how to fix a faucet or when to plant corn or how to make chicken cracker stew - they knew it. They swapped lies, fish tales, half-truths and shared stories.

Photo by Virginia Wallace

Roy Hatley frequently said to me, "You and Louise Omoto Kessel call yourselves storytellers. They just call me a liar!" Then he'd throw back his head and laugh.

As I left, his eyes would crinkle up in a big grin. "Girl! I'm so glad you got to see me!"

He was a big burly fellow. Loud. Didn't couch his words. Like all the fellas in Bynum, you knew where you stood the minute you walked in the door. He had scared me a little bit when I first met him. Until I saw the twinkle in his eye - he was all heart.

Just inside the Bynum General Store is a slice of a big log - the end grain marred by a thousand knife cuts - a chopping block a hundred years old. Saturday night during the storytelling show, a hunk of hoop cheese and a box of saltine crackers were there. The red waxed cheddar met folks as they walked in the door - on purpose.

"The Mayor" Roy Hatley
in a Cyde Jones' mural

Many a day the fellas (and whoever else dropped by) would buy a thick slice of orange cheese and a sleeve of saltines and that would be their lunch.

Louise Kessel, Storyteller

Photo by Dave Minnich

You'd go to check the mail about 1 o'clock... Two artists, the postmaster, Roy, Jack Wheeler, Prate, Billy Joe, Dub, the UPS man, the preacher and a meter reader would be eating saltine crackers whole, rared back in their chairs listening - and one of them would be spinning a yarn. Whoever didn't have their mouth full of crackers would be denying or agreeing. Those that did were swigging their Pepsi down quick to get a word in edgewise....

As we told stories Saturday night, I felt the whisper, “If these walls could talk.” It was like someone had bumped me. And goosebumps. Reflexively i looked a little over to the left .... I could almost hear Roy's laughter and see his eyes crinkle up in a big grin, "Girl! I'm so glad you got to see me!" All I could do was smile. Louise Omoto Kessel - the storyteller - was on stage. Yes Roy. So glad.

Photo by Dave Minnich

  See you soon! 

  Love, Cindy

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  919-444-9535

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Thursdays Story - A Rascally Tale!

Thursday's Story 

vol. 3 no. 6

A Rascally Tale

** Written on September 14, 2001 **

Rascal is my new dog, a Jack Russell Terrier. She is a bit over a year old -- rambunctious... and as cute as puppies come. She has been my salvation this week also. She knows nothing about "tragedy" - just that life is good and the weather has been fine.

Last night she started barking under/at the kitchen table. Like there was a squirrel or opossum under there. Sometimes there is an opossum under there.... but not last night. 

Just the cat food bucket, the dog food bucket and the bird seed bucket. Five gallons each. Tightly closing lids. It would be a prime spot for an invading opossum! But not last night.

Then. Hiding in the back... behind the buckets... I found a Christmas decoration/ toy Moma gave me last year. It is a reindeer about 10 inches tall. He is in "Santa Town Jail": plastic bars, plastic padlock, handcuffs -- all.

When you press his hoof that has a hol't of the bars, he shivers and shakes and sings "Grandma Got Ran Over By a Reindeer." 

It is a favorite with visiting children! To the point -- it is usually hidden by me or a mom to preserve our sanity. In fact, I think Carol Payne stuck it behind the bird seed bucket during a party in June.

So last night, when Rascal saw this guilty reindeer in my hand, she laid down almost flat. And she increased her volume of ruckus considerably. 

I sat it down on the floor so she would know it was just a toy.... and as I did she jumped backwards 10 feet into the living room.... still raising all kinds of commotion, sticking her head out around the door. RoooooW RooooW ROooooW RoooooW RoooooW! And if I could imagine it, it was even louder than before.

 An important point. The barking was not "afraid" but: "ALARM! ALARM! ALARM!"

I reached down to get, as I call it, the Indicted Reindeer... and noticed as I picked it up.... the hoof -- the "Press Me" hoof -- it had a tiny tiny--very very small tear in its upholstery. 

Perchance? A small dog... hadst she chewed upon it? 

I pressed the hoof. 

Rascal backflipped and dove, back'ards-first under the couch. 

Hmmmm hmmmm hmmm.... Grandma got run over by a reindeer..... and, a chorus of "RoooooW RooooW ROooooW RoooooW RoooooW!" emanating from somewhere near the dust ruffle..... 

Thank you Rascal. Thank you. 

My love to you all, Cindy

Cynthia Raxter
P.O. Box 182

Bynum, NC 27312

919-444-9535
CynthiaRaxter@gmail.com

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Read:

ChapelBoro.com

"Dollar Bills Coming Down in Raindrops"

"The Small Street B&B in Pittsboro"

Thursdays Story - Dinah the Abra Slayer

Thursday's Story

vol. 3 no.5

Dinah the Abra Slayer
Have you heard my stories on Soundcloud? I add a new one every week or so. This week's Thursday's Story is "Dinah the Abra Slayer." You can listen on your computer, tablet or smartphone. Hope you enjoy!



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- Copyright 2012 by Cynthia Raxter

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