Pork Chops and Purses

            Regardless of the time of day, the grandmother would cook for the little girl when she visited.  Generally, it was pork chops and some form of potatoes.  The food always tasted delicious because it was lovingly prepared. 

            These meals were special in other ways, too. Grandmother’s youngest son, Franklin Akin Craine had served in the U.S. Navy in Japan.  He had brought his mother a magnificent set of fine china upon which the pork chops were always served. 

            As she placed the white dishes with the rich hand-painted, purple orchids on them on the table, the grandmother inquired. “Did you bring your boots?”

            “Yes, Ma’m.  They’re on the front porch.”

            “Good, ’cause after we eat I want you and me to ride over to the Haddock Cemetery with Uncle Pearson.  If you’re goin’ to be serious about all this, then you’ve got to know everything about the cemeteries.  You can take your Bible and check on some of your facts while we’re there.”

            By now, the child had learned to always bring her Bible with her to Grandmother’s.   The little girl’s mother had even found an old purse that could be used to tuck the Bible down inside for protection against the elements.  For more than once, the young adventurer and her grandmother had been caught out in the rain on one of their treks across the Jones County countryside.

            Uncle Pearson was the oldest of “the boys,” as Grandma referred to her brothers.  “Pearson is the oldest and Gordon acts like the youngest, but the real baby boy, Bennett, lives in Gray. Gordon had what some people use to call “wanderlust” and moved to California. I think it must have been in his blood, so to speak.  You know the Haddocks traveled a lot.  They came all the way from across the ocean to Maryland, then to North Carolina, and eventually to Jones County, Georgia. Some even left here and went west.”

            She continued as the child chewed the crispy pork chops, savoring the wonderful taste lingering in her mouth.  “There’s something else pretty important about the Haddock genes. Haddocks live long.  Look at some of those dates you have as we’re riding in the car today.”

            Gazing at her Bible pages again, she began the subtraction necessary to calculate some of the Haddock lifespans.  Just then, Uncle Pearson knocked on the screen door calling out, “Louise, are you ready to go?”

            “Hold on, Pearson, we’re ready.  Just grabbing my coat.”  Leading the child by the hand, she spoke quietly, “Come on, sugar.”

            In just a few minutes the three of them were settled in the big blue car, and heading for Haddock.  Now there’s not much distance between Gray and Haddock, so the little girl spent most of the time putting all her supplies into the purse holding the Bible. Her Kodak Brownie camera and journal would allow her to document everything.