Good morning, and thanks for stopping back by to visit with us again. We hope this finds all well, and off to a great start in your work week.
This memory comes from our good friend Gary. He sent this to us, and Deb and I enjoyed it so much we had to share it with you guys. Granny Aggie…and her apple tarts.
This morning around 4:00 a.m. (yes, I do get up pretty early…) I was leaving the bedroom and just stopped and stared. I have walked by it many, many times but for some reason I had Granny Aggie on my mind. Granny died back in 95’. What a true “Southern Lady” my Granny was. She was dirt poor all her life but held vast treasures in her heart. In so many ways she was certainly richer than all the Vanderbilts, Kennedys and Morgans put together.
Now what did I stop and look at? Granny’s old pie safe that my Grandfather built for her just after they got married sometime around 1916. I remember this old pine pie safe in their sharecroppers shack down off Brooklyn Road just out of Andalusia. Granny would bake a pound cake or some fried apple tarts and place them in the pie safe to keep the flies away. If I was real good Granny would take an apple tart out of the safe and I’d sit at the old pine table and slowly taste what seemed the nectar of life. All of us grandchildren knew and loved Granny’s cooking but especially those apple tarts.
I think it’s time to move the old pie safe back into a real kitchen. That also gave me an idea. Why not make some of Granny’s wonderful fried apple tarts? It was still three hours till sunrise so why not?
OK, I got busy. I peeled and cored several apples. Put them in a small saucepan on low heat and added some water and some local honey. Touch of cinnamon…
Got out the flour and other ingredients and made up the dough.
Rolled the dough into 9-10 round balls and started with the rolling pin to flatten them out. Then made sure the apples were cooking just right without getting too hot and scorching.
Then I went to work loading the dough with the apples and started frying the first Granny Aggie apple tart I’d had in many years.
Here’s the whole pile. Guess I better get off this dang computer. Looks like I got some serious eatin’ to do. Granny, I love you and will always cherish your memory. Wish I could share one of these with you…
Thank you Gary…we enjoyed your sharing this with us. Granny Aggie sure must have been one special lady. We’d be willing to bet your frying up those apple tarts this morning was looked upon by your Granny Aggie…with a big smile on her face!
I was telling my Mom about this the other day, of Gary sending us this, and she started telling me about her Mama, Nanny Murphy, whom I’ve talked about before.
She was telling Deb and I about how Nanny would make them, those same types of fried fruit pies in the morning, and how good they tasted when she did. She said her and her brothers and sisters just loved them.
So Gary, by your sharing your memories of Granny Aggie with us, well, it kind of got the ball to rollin, and next thing we knew, Mom, Dad, Deb and I were reliving old times too!
Granddaddy Troy taking me to the camp for the week. This starting when I was just 3. The first time he took me, Mom and Dad came down, it was about an hour ride, right after dark to get me. They thought I’d be squallin by then. Shortly thereafter I was…cause they were haulin me back home!
Dad-gum I loved that man!
I’d get down there in those woods with Granddaddy, just him and I…and it was ON! Suddenly we weren’t Grandfather and grandson any longer…we became equals in those woods together, best friends!
I loved him with all my heart, and he loved me back just the same! He’d light up an ole Chesterfield King, and I’d fire up one right along with him. Cuss? He’d let me cuss like a sailor. I could sling em your way pretty good if you’d aggravate me very much.
Drive? Shoot by the time I was 6, there wasn’t anything down there at the camp I couldn’t drive, including his ole Chevrolet truck. He’d let me sit in his lap, he’d work the gas, clutch, and brake, while I’d be shiftin that ole 3 speed on the column like an ole pro, steerin it this way and that.
I’d of drove it by myself, but my dern feet couldn’t reach the pedals and me see over the dash at the same time! I bet we were a sight!
He pretty much taught me to hunt and fish. I killed my first turkey with him, and coon hunt…that man would rather coon hunt than eat, and I wasn’t much better, but Granny kept me fed pretty good while we were at their house.
I guess that’s why him and I would go off to the camp…there wasn’t any women there to mess up our schedule!
I’ve seen that man just slaughter bass on numerous occasions…BIG BASS! Nothin under 8-9 pound bass, again, several times.
He used an old lure he called a dual spinner. He’d get an ole cane pole, a big un, long and thick, put about 3-4 feet of line on it and tie that dual spinner on.
He’d then have me paddle along the bank of those irrigation canals for the orange groves, and he’d drag that dern spinner back and forth, right up against the shoreline. They were actually big ditches, maybe 60-70 feet across, and deep, real deep, to insure water for the wells to pump and water the trees during dry times.
But he’d drag that thing along, and BAM, they’d just hammer it! EVERY ONE of them at least 8-9 pounds and larger, and that’s the truth! He told me the little bass just wouldn’t bother it. When those ole lunkers would slam it, he’d snatch that cane pole up, and sling that bass straight into the boat. He didn’t mess around.
Really, looking back now, that was one of the most amazing things I’ve witnessed in my entire life…Granddaddy standin in the front of that boat, workin that dual spinner slingin them dudes into that johnboat! I’ve never seen anything like it since.
Then there was Nanny Murphy. She was tight! She had to be. Her husband was killed after movin their family down from N. Alabama to Kissimmee, Fla.
She never had a driver’s license, yet walked to work, or the store daily. She was a nurse, and after Granddaddy Doug was killed, she raised her 4 children, and one other that just came along. A girl that had a rough time of it at her own home, and Nanny just took her in and raised her too!
So you see, Nanny HAD to be tight with her money.
I got in her change purse one time in her kitchen while her and Mom were in her living room. Well, I spilled the change out of that change purse and it hit the floor. Mom said Nanny’s ears went up like antennas, and to the kitchen she went.
Mom said she just knew Nanny was gonna beat me once she got to me, so she said she ran in first, grabbed me, and took off outside. She said Nanny hit that kitchen floor and went to pickin up change, countin it as she was pickin it up.
Mom said she thought everything was gonna be alright till Nanny kicked open that screen door and hollered, “Shake heem down Ruth…there’s a dime missin!”
True story!
But, we’d like to thank you once more Gary, because again buddy, your own memory triggered ours as well, and boy what a big time we had reliving them again!
We hope you guys can do the same!
Until next time, take care and God bless! Deb says to keep a smile on your face, and one in your heart!
Dub and Deb…and Gary too!