The Cornbread Bible: A Recipe Storybook by Jennifer Shambrook

Author:Jennifer Shambrook [Shambrook, Jennifer]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Proverbs 31 Press
Published: 2012-11-18T22:00:00+00:00

Turnip Greens with Cornbread Dumplings

It’s always a pleasure to engage in a conversation with my friend, colleague, and fellow Alabamian, Mary Anna Quinn. We usually “get to carrying on” as we discuss growing up in Alabama. While I think her family may have eaten just a little higher on the hog than mine, and we come from different parts of the Heart of Dixie, we have a whole lot of common ground and some really enjoyable and uncommon conversations.

While we are both hard-working career women, we have sat and marveled at how hard our female ancestors had to work. We’ve related stories of our grandmothers and how hard they had to work. They had to make the clothes for their families. Wash those same clothes, along with all of the household linens, by hand. The water had to be boiled and poured into washtubs because there were no hot water heaters. They grew their own fruits, vegetables, and meats. Both of us have seen our grandmothers slaughter a rooster as a form of behavioral modification. We have also seen them kill poisonous snakes that might get in the henhouse or slither into the yard.

They cooked in ovens that required kindling and firewood to heat. There was no insulation from the heat of the cast iron stove, which was a blessing in the winter, but a curse in the summer. Not wanting to heat the stove in the summer was the incentive for cooking griddle cakes on hot summer days. They never wasted anything and found inventive ways to “make do” with what was available.

That conversation reminded me of a story that my Aunt Faye shared with me. Aunt Faye was a professional woman with a career that began in the early fifties, when women often had to choose between family and career. She had to work twice as hard to make half as much as her male counterparts -- without the benefit of a “little woman” at home to take care of the cooking, cleaning, and household chores.

I’ve always admired Aunt Faye for her intelligence and success and work ethic. She once told me that it must be in our blood, because our Grandma Nichols did hard manual labor all of her life. She remembered going to visit Grandma when she was only about three and Granny Tom was going to show her new baby, George, to her mother. It was always a happy occasion to go down to the old farm.

Grandma Nichols was over 70 at the time and she was on the back porch washing clothes. Of course, in those days, this was hard work which was done with a tub of water and a wash board. Grandma Nichols heard the toddler, Aunt Faye, as she came squealing though the house as fast as she could run to get to her Grandma. Grandma Nichols ran toward her laughing and drying her hands on her apron. She reached out for her precious little granddaughter, and that was the happy act that was her last.

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