The Red Flannel Rag

occasions, I had seen my dad refuse to eat what Mom had cooked for him. Men in my

family rarely did what women wanted them to do.

Another hazard of the vegetable garden was cutworms. They lived in the ground

and particularly enjoyed the succulent stems of cucumber vines and tomato stems. They

cut the plants off at the ground while sucking out the moisture. Grandma Molly solved

this problem by digging around the plants until she found three cutworms. She took the

worms to the nearest white oak tree and said to them, “Now cut this tree.” She claimed

that in a few days, the cutworms from the entire garden had arrived at the base of the

tree. Grandma knew she had successfully cleared all the cutworms away from the

garden and that was all she wanted. I heard my daddy ask her, “Mom, did you kill the

cutworms after you got them all in one spot?” Her answer was, “No, they respected me

enough to listen to me and get out of my garden, so I let them live.”

The garden was also the subject of a lot of fun. My uncles often sung this little

garden song to me.

“My darling sweet potato; do you carrot all for me? My heart beets for you and

my love is as soft as a squash. I am for you as strong as an onion. You are a peach with

your raddish hair and turnip nose. You are the apple of my eye, so if we cantaloupe,

then lettuce be married. I know we will make a wonderful pear .”

Hunting

Deer, wild turkey, and squirrels were abundant in the mountains surrounding us.

These animals were killed at any time of the year as needed for food. My family ate

venison and squirrels instead of beef. Dad loved to hunt squirrels, and he handed that

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