GOOD MORNING, FRIENDS

A REMEMBERAMBLE OCTOBER 21, 2025

Good morning "all y'all!" I hope you are fit as a fiddle, finer'n snuff, with loins girded to take on the day, but most importantly, put on the full armor of God, as it will serve you well. Bless me, but somehow that makes me think of ladies checking themselves in the mirror as they were leaving home, to give it all a onceover, and especially to check to see if their slip was showing. That rarely happens these days does it? Gentleman, other than a husband, nor boys were not to tell a lady her slip was showing, it just would not do for that to happen.

I recall grandpa telling granny, "ole lady, ya overcoat is showing." The same went for the straps that held up those double barreled slingshots, you pretended they were invisible also. It is coming soon to be syrup "biling" time. I look forward to it each year, as it is a great southern tradition that has defied time and refused to die out. There are yet a great many men making syrup...I say men, as I never knew a lady syrup maker...and making it as well as our ancestors ever did.

It is no longer the well attended spectacle it once was, when folks loved a reason to go and enjoy those kinds of things. It was wonderful to sit with friends, family, and neighbors in a syrup house on cold nights. where it was warm from the roaring fire of the furnace as fat lightered wood was fed into its hungry maw, and that wonderfully scented steam that arose from the "kittle" and added warmth. Sweet sticky steam made a cloud under the tin roof, and condensed into precipitation now and then as cane rain and dropped onto the folks arrayed about in there.

There was raw cane juice put aside for those who loved to drink some and take some home too. I never could gather a taste for cane juice, but many love it. If there were kids and teens about, they generally stayed outside and made the best of the visit, playing, or even courting now and then. When the cane juice was frothing and bubbling, the foam was wiped away with wet rags that were rinsed in a pan. When boiled down well, and was close to the syrup stage, was when syrup candy could be had.

Often, an older man would use his pocket knife to cut strips of cane peelings for kids or adults to scrape around the edge of the kettle to gather the brown and delicious syrup candy that formed. The very best of it was when someone had pecan halves to use to gather it up, and it was like pecan pie almost, in taste. A gooey, cane syrup covered, pecan half, was a darn good thing to enjoy. We were in a better time to enjoy small treats then, because they were few and far between, unlike now. Kids did not even have pocket change back then, because it bought things then.

In fact, most of us kids back then, did not have any paper money ever, at all, from birth to years later. We scrounged coins like our peers, we worked doing things for someone, say raking their yard, or other things, and were paid a few nickels maybe. Our biggest source of income was from going out to find soft drink bottles for the deposit refund they paid back then. I forget the exact amount, it was maybe two or three cents, but those added up when a drink was a nickel or dime, and candy or bubblegum likewise was in that price-range.

Bubblegum, jawbreakers, and suckers were big deals to us. I mentioned this recently, but will again, when a nickel would buy a Coke or a little brown bag filled with candy, and anything that totaled over nine cents, was taxed that penny sales tax, it made our buying power drop significantly. If you wanted two five cent purchases, totaling ten cents, you had to have eleven cents. If you had only a dime, the answer was to go into the store and buy a nickel item you wanted, then go outside, turn around and come back in, to spend the other nickel which required no sales tax.

Most mom and pop stores were fine with that practice, but there were a few grumpy-cusses that would get onto kids for it. But, kids were poorer than sharecroppers and we had to do what a kid had to do. I hope you got something here of value this morning, even a whole dime's worth maybe, and all tax-free. Thank you for your faithfulness here. My eyes were too tired to edit this much and if there are mistakes or words omitted, forgive me and try to figure it out as best you can.

..... NUMBERS 6: 24-26 KJV

..... we boyz three, babee conway, lil merle, & me