Family in Dalton

After just a couple of missed turns, we got to the nursing home just fine. (We both recognized it as the same complex where my great-grandma stayed several years ago.) As we were pulling in, we passed Betty, who was pulling out at the same time. We stopped the car and leered at her until she took a good look at us. The grin on her face made the surprise worth it. She was going back to the house to rest up, so Mom and I decided to visit with Robert and my aunt Debbie.

We sat for a while talking to Robert and Debbie. Robert had recently suffered a mild stroke, which had prompted him being taken to the hospital and released to the nursing home. He wasn't having a very good day, and I tried my best not to wonder whether he recognized me or not. Mom and I had talked about it coming in, and we were both prepared for the possibility of his not remembering us. Debbie provided more than enough conversation to make up for Robert's silence.

Mom and I headed back to the house to visit with Betty. Not wanting her to cook, we took her out to dinner at Cracker Barrel. She was every bit as sharp as I could remember her having been all my life, though over the years she's come to look a lot like her mother, my great-grandma. We had a great time talking and catching up over dinner, then headed back to the house.

Betty and Robert have been in that house over fifty years. With the exception of central air conditioning being added and the bathroom being remodeled a few years ago, the house and the property haven't changed my entire life. The way I hear it, Robert worked as a welder, and both of them managed a full vegetable garden. I'm not sure exactly how many different things Betty grew in the garden, but she likely grew some combination of corn, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, butter beans, green beans, okra, squash, and collard greens.

Regardless of what was actually grown in the garden, she can cook the most amazing food I've ever tasted. She learned that from her mother, and in turn passed it on to Debbie. Mom got a good bit of it from a combination of her mother (Betty's sister) and from spending summers at Betty and Robert's. I've only just recently become interested in cooking, so I'm suddenly fascinated by the art.

Betty also did a lot of canning, pickling, and freezing with all the extra food they had. She told us about finding frozen peas a few years ago that were dated 10-15 years prior, and that they still tasted fine.

Several different nurses, upon examining Robert over the past couple of years, have raved about how healthy he is for his age. When they ask what he's been eating, his answer explains everything: home-cooked fresh vegetables, practically every day, for practically his entire life.

In addition to vegetables, they also have apple trees in the yard. Betty named off several apple varieties I'd never heard of; apparently they have one of each kind of tree. They also have pecan trees, which had dropped pecans that fall. That explained the buckets and buckets of pecans in the landing of the house.

The pecan trees had dropped that fall, and she had buckets and buckets to show for it. She insisted that we take some home, so we ended up toting the bucket in the bottom left all the way back to Missouri.

We sat up and just talked. Whether because of how long it'd been since I'd seen them, how long I'd been out of the country, or my being (I guess) a grown-up--or all three--I was perfectly happy sitting up talking. I learned that Betty and Robert signed a $5000 note on the house in '53, making monthly installments of $35.

Betty's always been a huge bookworm. (I wonder if that has something to do with why Mom and Dad read to Heather and me every night when we were little, until we were old enough to read to them.) She still tears through old paperbacks, and her guest rooms are full of kid's books that have been read by four generations in the past fifty years. She really liked my Reader, and seemed to be considering getting one. The thought of my 70+ year old great-aunt using the Sony PRS-505--something I have no doubt she could do effortlessly--makes me smile.

Mom's cousin Ronnie dropped by for a visit. He's a CPA, and before that night, I'd never heard him talk much about his job. None of us could quite figure out what brought it on, but he told us several great stories from his early days as an accountant, involving the ways businesses would try to cook their books and the ways he found to catch them.

He and I spent a long time talking about Japan. He asked me more thoughtful and pointed questions than anyone else has, and I was struck by how interested he was. With most people--even my family--I try to refrain from going into fully-detailed stories, for fear of boring them or sounding conceited. I know folks in my family love me and want to know about my adventures, but I'm also pretty sure there's a limit. Ronnie made it clear he wanted all the details.

Debbie came in at about 9, after having gotten Robert to bed. The five of us stayed up talking until what must have been 11, before Debbie and Ronnie went back home. Mom, Betty, and I stayed up until about midnight talking.