Off The Beaten Path

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Georgia, United States
Some people come into our lives and quickly go. Some people move our souls to dance. They awaken us to new understanding with the passing whisper of their wisdom. Some people make the sky more beautiful to gaze upon. They stay in our lives for awhile, leave footprints on our hearts, and we are never ever the same.

Friday, October 19

A Valuable Lesson

When I was very young
mother always put a brick
in the oven when she baked,
it had always been done that way,
and things never changed in our house......

One day when I was no longer so young, and growing inquisitive,
I asked my Mother, "why do you put that brick in the oven when you bake?"

She said, "well, I don't really know, we have just always done it that way, you might ask your Grandmother"

so I did....

"Grandma," I said, "why do you place a brick in the oven when you bake?"

She replied,

"Well when my Mother baked, she always
put a brick in the oven.......
it has always been done that way,
and things never change"......

She said, "you might want to ask your Great-Grandmother"


so I did.....She thought for a minute and then replied,

"Well, because in my old oven the racks were so unlevel.....I needed the brick to level them up, that's why."

6 comments:

Akelamalu said...

LOL, do you still put the brick in the oven then?

Lo Kelween said...

hey...so the oven is still the same old oven that you use from generation to generations? it's very heart warming to read this. :)

Neoma said...

Hi Akela, haha, of course, out of respect for the memory of my grandmother, and my kids ask me, Why the brick, and I just say, it is a family tradition. They have made up all kinds of good reasons, they will say it makes things bake more even, they say it adds moisture, that might work if I soaked the brick......haha

Neoma said...

Hello Elween, we don't throw anything away in this family, that still works.......:):) We have used wood stoves for four generations, Mom still cooks her breakfast on a wood stove, I bought it for her many years ago. But the original stove that Grandma had, the one that needed the brick. Well, that one is gone. It went with the house and we sold the house.

Avus said...

When you sold the house you should have kept the brick, Nea! That was family history.

Neoma said...

Hi Avus, you are so right!, of course.......It makes me a bit ill to think of the things that my Mother got rid of when we moved. She has no sense of "family." There was a box of papers, that dated back to the civil war. They were odds and ends, letters, just plain piece of history, like dates. I remember one piece said, Alden Jenks, 5 ft 9 in, hair light brown, eyes blue, sitting at Sherman march to the sea.......made a wooden ring and crochet hook for his wife.

My Aunt and Mother tossed out the box....they were afraid there might be letters that they didn't want anyone to read...LIKE what in the world did they think was in there? It still makes me ill to think of that box of history, our family history, GONE. I told Mom that was a criminal act....they commited. I will never forgive her that act of violence on mere papers.......sniff, sniff....