Trip to Bald Hill

Their home, a fairly large country farm on a dirt road just beyond the top of a wide windy knoll called Bald Hill. As we would approach the top of the hill we could hear a large flock of domesticated guinea-hens who would always be there to greet us with their loud deranged singing and calling. If you think a flock of geese make a loud noise, you have never heard the Guinea hens. Though they are a rather small flightless gray-spotted feathered bird, when in a flock make up for their size with their raucous calling. By the time we topped the hill Aunt Fanny knew visitors were on their way.

Leff and Fanny's life was solemn and quiet with little disturbance other than the Guineas. Of course there were also chickens and ducks and a very large white goose that liked to chase me down and pinch my butt with it's fierce orange beak. They also had a few cows for milking and an old saddle-back horse that just wandered around as though he owned the farm. Another unusual little critter was the Nanny goat. She liked to come near and try to butt you. She also gave off some pungent tasting goat's milk Aunt Fanny would serve cold from the refrigerator. A product that literally saved the life of my younger brother Bob after he was born and swallowed an open safety pin. But then that's a whole 'nother story for another time.

Oh her garden!!
What a beautiful sight! A vegetable and flower garden to stroll through in as much like the original Garden of Eden. So many wonderful naturally grown foods growing in long fertile earthen mounds of dark life bearing soil. Tall yellow, sweetest of the sweet, large eared corn, giant vibrant tomato plants with baseball sized succulent juicy red ripe tomatoes, spreading scratchy tentacles of yellow and Summer squash, long cucumbers for making sweet and dill pickles, and mouth watering green striped luscious red centered watermelon. Planted around the perimeter of the garden were Petunias, and Peonies, and Mums and and Dahlias, and on and on. Every hue and tint and brightness to satisfy the eye's taste for beauty and color.

Yet this place once in the past to be the disheartening and devastating change to their life and the life of their small frail cream faced baby girl child Betty. Their sole female offspring who, while sitting one calm late Spring afternoon in the center of the garden, yelled out a blood curdling scream to have been said heard at the bottom of the valley. The child apparently stung by some unknown traveling bee or spider began crying loudly and sobbing incessantly, would not respond to her mother's words. When finally receiving medical attention it was found that whatever this creature was had caused her to become so incapacitated that she was unable to grow and learn from that time on.

As a child myself I remember seeing her always in her little rocking chair with the warm woolen throw over her lap. Speaking nothing more than a 'cooing' sound and with a constant drool oozing from her lips she would weep silently from her solemn gray eyes. Sometimes upon seeing us, brother Bob and I, we could tell she was trying to show a little smile knowing we had come to visit her. A rather sobering moment for 2 very busy little ornery boys!

But let me get back to Aunt Fanny herself. A hugely built woman of nearly six feet tall and probably two hundred pounds or more. With a beautiful happy oval face that would light up any room, and a smile wide enough to fit into it perfectly. When greeting us boys upon arrival she would squeeze us till, I sometimes thought, we would pop! Always wearing a long flowery kitchen dress of cotton or muslin sewn herself, and a wide belted long white cotton apron that covered her quite ample bosom. Apron strings that went over her head and around her waist and tied snugly at the back. With her hug came the aroma of flour and spices and sugar and other delicious kitchen odors. Her long black shiny hair was pushed up in a bun at the back of her head with a lace kerchief pinned to the top.

An odd thing!
Aunt Fanny had a very unusual walking gait because of a heavy metal bracket that was attached to her left shoe. I was never as a child able to understand why she wore this gadget, but I guess it was to correct a problem with what I heard other adults refer to as a club-foot.

Cook! Oh my Goodness! Could Aunt Fanny cook and bake!
Every time we visited, while approaching the house from the top of the hill in our old '55 Turquoise Rambler there wafted in the air the sweet pungent odor of fresh baked apple, cherry or rhubarb pies. Intermingled with these mind numbing smells came also the light savory odor of fresh pan fried free range chicken, fluffy butter soaked mashed potatoes, newly cut garden carrots and hand picked string beans.. My oh my what an experience!

After playing outside and seeing all the animals for about an hour and while the adults talked over all the newsy items about other family members and world events, it was time to sit down to the huge old round solid walnut kitchen table with the crooked legs, and dive into the family feast. We pigged out for nearly an hour, till finally the desserts were brought. One would think there would have been no room for more food in our little stomachs but we managed to gorge on one or two pieces of pie or cake with a glass of milk.
Soon it was time to go into the living room and sit or liy down on the old brown wool carpeting and fall asleep while our mom and Aunt Fanny cleaned up the kitchen and dad and Uncle Leff went outside to look over the old place and chew tobacco.

Uncle Leff was a very tall thin finely featured handsome man who seldom had a lot to say. But with our father he would talk about what was on his mind. His farm and his animals and what was going on in the county they lived, and about politics, which we understood little about. In many ways my dad and he were very alike both having mostly little to say about things. I guess that's why they got along so well.

Upon seeing the goat again and chasing the guineas for the umteenth time and petting the old horse now back in his barn, we were tiring quickly. Soon it was getting dark outside and time to load back into the old Rambler to head back home, always with dishes of leftover food and dessert for the next day.
What a fantastic time that was to remember!