Report From An Opinionated Gardener – February 27
More snow today and I didn’t much relish being in the garden. I did enjoy having a bowl of popcorn for dinner, however.
When I was a kid, one of five children, my mother fixed a large meal for Sunday dinner. We ate this meal after church and then had an evening snack of popcorn and apples later. Although I chose not to continue this tradition with my own family, I do occasionally like a big bowl of popcorn for supper.
As I munched this treat tonight I thought of those after-church Sunday dinners. Usually they were some form of chicken, and one bird always served the seven of us. Needless to say, there weren’t leftovers.
This reminded me of a poem that I once heard that pretty much sums up what went on when that chicken was served at our Sunday meals. I offer it to you, in case it might also be a reminder of someone you know.
“When Daddy carved our Christmas bird; and asked us each what we preferred;
As sure as summer follows spring, Came Mama’s, “Please, I’ll take the wing.”
We children never wondered why she did not sometimes take a thigh
or choose a drumstick or a breast. We thought… she liked a wing the best.
She said it with such an easy voice; it seemed so certainly her choice…
I was a man before I knew, why mothers do the things they do.
Richard Armour
