Putting cows on the front page since 1885.

Old Order Mennonite Memoirs

It was only a short walk we took after chores around the newly-opened cornfields as an early darkness settled over our cloudy Sunday. Along the fence rows long goldenrod stems bowed down into the open spaces, begging me to break them off for a huge bouquet. Not a breeze stirred at the wood's edge where white snake root bloomed in the green of late summer. The cricket songs seemed unhurried and the deer slipped quietly into the dark woods when we disturbed their corny snack.

Snacks and meals as in food and nourishment is the most basic need for both humans and animals. Most of last week was about food. We canned pears, apples, pizza sauce, salsa and pickles. We picked red raspberries, string beans, and lima beans. The height of the growing season seemed to peak last week and we scrambled to keep up. Our kitchen floors grew sticky and we swiped again at the mess on our counters with thankfulness in our hearts for the many blessings from God.

One day the meals were "take outs" from my kitchen for loved ones on my list. One morning it was breakfast shared with my friends in the great outdoors. One afternoon it was a doggie roast at the camp with my husband after mowing lawn in the hot sun. Two different noon meals at my table included four extra place settings for beloved family who came to share of our blessings.

In those days our grandsons brought me the book about the little red hen and wanted me to read it to them. In this classic story we know how the little red hen found a grain of wheat but no one ever wanted to help her with it: to plant, reap, carry it to the mill to make flour or make the flour into dough. No one even wanted to help her bake the bread. The cat wanted to go fishing, the pig wanted to play music on a picnic, the goose wanted to go swimming and the duck wanted to practice for a play.

However the little red hen had many willing helpers when she asked who would help her eat the fresh-baked bread, but she refused to share. When Tyson, age 7, agreed that she was right in her decision to eat it all by herself, his mama asked him how he would feel if she refused to share the food at her table, especially when he had not helped to prepare it.

As humans we tend to forget how little we are of ourselves and how much we depend on a great God to stay alive. David Swing quotes, "The beauty of the sunbeam lies partly in the fact that God does not keep it; He gives it away to us."

Besides cooking and planning meals and packing food into our "storehouses," including chopping corn for the silo, we gathered flowers for bouquets before summer dies away.

Plying Juniata waters with kayaks was on the agenda for some youngsters that traveled from Michigan by train. They and their friends also attended the youth singing along McKinley Lane on Saturday evening. Also from out-of-state was a damsel from Kentucky who took a first walk with a young man from New Enterprise. Also for the youth at Martinsburg church on Sunday afternoon was the fifth instruction meeting and the invitation for the following supper came from a family along Drake Road.

 

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