NORTHWEST ARKANSAS — I was uptown at the coffee emporium and the fellers at the round table, members of the board, were telling stories about blizzards in which they had been stranded and dang near froze to death. Some of the drifts were so tall that a Greyhound bus had been completely covered and the feller telling the tale rodehis horse over it! That said, another story had to be bigger and better, so I left and walked out into the scorching heat.
I don’t know how long this is gonna last and I don’t know what kind of mess the drought is gonna make of our economy. I do know it will affect almost all aspects of the world. Thegood old USA feeds most of the world and us, too. Even the big boys with thousands of acres are suffering, and where are we gonna get our groceries if we haven’t canned green beans from our homegrown gardens?
I remember the old hole in the ground we had when I was a lad. It was hand dug and anytime I was sent down there to fetch a jar of something, I was run over by mud puppies. They are scary to a kid and might still scare me today. If you aren’t right sure what a mud puppy is, I think it is a salamander, black with yellow spots.
My folks put onions and potatoes down there, and the dirt walls were lined with shelves to hold the canned products. We had plenty to eat all year and Pappy butchered a beef as needed. My Sainted Mother even canned the beef when necessary. I was thankful for that hole and, even when I dreaded the trip, I was glad we had food in hard times.
This hard time is not gonna be easy for fellers to feed a family even if they have a hole. Some gardens didn’t make and I see that black-eyed peas are up but it is too hot for them to bloom. I wonder if turnipswill make, and that is poor living for some of us. Folks are gonna tighten their belts even if they have good town jobs, and us keepers of the land are liable to get thin.
My close relative is already tracking her cache. She has cut the meals to two and one half. I still get breakfast and dinner, but supper is looking pretty slim. I don’t mind easing up on some of my heavy meals but cheese and crackers are snack food, as are carrots, Jell-O, and that stuff in the little cups she says is so good for me. I think it is soured milk; she calls it yogurt. I didn’t want it the first time I tasted itand I don’t want it now!
It is my opinion, and everyone has one, we are all gonna have to suffer some but I see no reason to start early!
I know times can get rough, maybe rougher than ever before, but today is still OK and I’d enjoy some food at the supper hour. I may have to start getting a hamburger at the local joint before heading in for my evening meal! I should have put my foot down many a year ago!
Bill is a pen name used by the Gravette author of this weekly column.
Opinion, Pages 6 on 08/15/2012