The Red Flannel Rag

Grandma Molly’s springhouse was a fair distance from the house down a narrow

path thickly lined with ferns, wild flowers, and weeds. It had a red oak shingle roof. At

times when she took me with her, I could see sunlight shining through the roof so I

asked her if the roof let rain through and did it get her food wet . That’s when I learned

about red oak shingles. Grandma explained, “These shingles are made from red oak.

When the weather is dry, the shingles shrink up and let in the fresh air from outside, but

when it’s gonna rain, the shingles swell and keep the rain from coming through them.”

Every moment with Grandma was an opportunity to learn. I was about six years old

when she told me about the shingles. I never forgot a word she said; and when I became

a professor of American folk culture, I was able to pass these stories on to my students.

I was about four years old the first time Grandma asked me to go with her to get

milk, cream, and butter for Sunday dinner. I had no idea where we were going. She had

a dish and spoon in one hand and an empty pitcher in the other. As we walked down the

narrow river-stone path, she told me we were going to the springhouse. She warned me

to watch for snakes along the way because they might be lurking in the thick foliage.

She told me that snakes like to crawl out of the weeds to sun themselves on the rocks in

the path and that she had seen them coiled there many times.

Inside the springhouse she had laid a flattened log across a little creek trickling

from a pool of water. She walked out on the log and reached into the cold water where

she had placed a half dozen crocks filled with milk. There was a large pan setting in the

water with chunks of homemade butter wrapped in wax paper.

She skimmed some cream off the top of the milk and put it in the bowl. Then she

lifted a crock and poured some milk into the pitcher. She handed me a chunk of butter,

and we headed back to the house. Aunt Lena and Mom had Sunday dinner on the table.

105