Eddy Harris and I gardening

Eddy Harris and thepioneerman.com

Well strange things happen when you leave the Osage.  I have not seen Terry and Teresa Stradal for ages (Teresa is a cousin from up in Kansas who married a farm boy who still likes to hunt and fish even though he is a dishonorable profession - banking, just kidding) and Saturday I ran into Teresea at Lowe's and today I ran into Terry.  Anyway Terry and Eddy were best friends as adults in Eddy's last few years hear on earth with us.  Seeing them reminded me of another adventure of growing up with Eddy.

Vea and I in her backyard

Vea, Eddy's mom, loved to garden and she was particularly good at growing flowers.  She was also one of those ladies who knew how to put up (that means can which means preserve) vegetables from the garden for the winter.  They also had a root cellar (a whole in the ground that was built like a small underground house to store food for the winter and to hide in during tornado storms) where she put up about everything you can imagine from the garden; green beans, corn, okra, water melon Rhine, pickles (cucumbers which are preserved or pickled, another story) and they could be sweet or dill or bread and butter pickles.  There were lots of things not mentioned but she knew how to process everything she grew to save it for the winter.

Vea was also one of those ladies like my mom, Opal Olson, who were members of the Home Demonstration Club (ask Jeri Rash Robertson).  Well one time they were having one of their meetings and Eddy and I were about 5 or 6 years old and pretty smart for our age.  We figured that those little mints that are in the candy dishes around the house for the ladies to chew on to keep their breath from stinking could be a very profitable business.  So Eddy and I took all the candy and headed for the garden where we took a hoe (not to be confused with the slang term and besides we would not know what that was)and dug a few long rows in the garden where we did just what we saw our moms do when they wanted to grow something.  We figured that if we grew these mints we could become rich and everybody needed mints.  We planted those mints and covered them up then watered them just like our parents.  Weren't we smart?  You would think that parents would reward their children for being so resourceful.  Not ours!  They yelled at us and asked what we thought we were doing.  We explained to them what we thought and they splained to us what they thought.  You may think that splained is not a word but let me explain the difference.

Explained means to make it clear what someone is thinking

Splained means to make it clear with a spanking that you need to remember what was explained so that next time you will not forget and need a splaining, get it?

By the way did I mention that Eddy and I had some toys and in particular a Tonka truck which we decided to plant like potatoes in a hill.  We did not provide this information to our moms as they did not seem in the mood to learn from us about growing truck in the garden.  Surely you have heard of truck gardening, haven't you?  They needed some education but we did not feel it was our responsibility to teach them as they were bad students.  They were just too old to learn!

What do you learn in the Osage?

•  If you plant it, it will grow!  Maybe not.
• Splaining is a good way to learn and teach
• Entrepreneurs don't quit when splaining occurs but they keep on keeping on
• Truck farming is in California and Texas and Florida but not the Osage
• Great friends should never be taken for granted and I miss Ed

Thanks for your time,
gary@thepioneerman.com