APPLES ARE FALLING… A SIGN OF SUMMER’S END – News From The Hills

The sun has struggled all morning to break through the overcast sky, and is now shining down from a blue sky studded with a few drifting white clouds. A light breeze has sprung up, riffling the yellowing leaves on the trees and swaying the hanging pots of petunias. They have bloomed faithfully all summer, but now are slowly dwindling away.

Summers’ end brings death to the flower gardens, while the potted plants and flowers are due to be transported inside. Gardens are mostly finished, with the exception of a few straggly tomatoes and turnips which are yet to mature. Our late corn died a mysterious death, so there will be no pickled corn this year.

Apples are falling out in the orchards, waiting to be picked up and transformed into applesauce and apple butter. Winter apples can be picked and stored away for the cold months. What can be better than a bowl of hot buttered popcorn and a crispy Winesap apple on a cool fall evening?– unless it would be a hot buttered biscuit slathered with spicy apple butter on a frosty morning.

Garden coreopsis flowers appear in golden masses along the roadside, while wild asters are beginning to bloom. There are many varieties of this fall flower, while the New England aster stands out in spectacular beauty. After the last rose of summer is frost-bitten and faded, these cheery little flowers keep on bloomin’.

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Fall festivals and family reunions are in full swing now, with folk gathering from hills and hollers, and other states. We have attended my sister Jeannie’s annual Fall Festival, complete with home-cooked foods, bonfire and hayride. We went to two Western weddings that were held in meadows (one had a barn setting) and enjoyed delicious food that was served, hot and steaming. Both brides wore traditional white wedding gowns with cowboy boots. They were both spectacular.

This weekend is the Clay County Golden Delicious Apple Festival, a three day event that takes over the town of Clay. It takes the place of our County Fair which was the most anticipated event in our county when we were children. It is much better organized and full of different activities which everyone can enjoy. I still miss the display of vegetables and canned goods that was featured in the 4-H building at Bradley Field.

We have had a lot of response to the column which dealt with the old one and two room school houses. We had some correspondence from Wavie Hundley Chappell of Ansted, who also sent a picture of Dogwood Ridge Elementary School (built about 1876) at Graydon. She wrote a beautiful tribute to teacher Miss Effie Wood Tincher in poem form. Marilene Bibb of Charleston writes that she lived at Graydon for two and half years, but she was too young to go to school there. She attended a two-room school at Victor.

My old friend Addie Davis sent an email saying, “This piece brought tears to my eyes and pride in my heart—glad tears of rejoicing and pride in the education I learned in a one-room school. A bureaucracy like the federal government can’t run anything efficiently. We have had great leaders, educators, doctors, scientists, and others from all walks of life who came from those one-room schools. I pray our gracious Lord will turn our wonderful country back to the God-loving, serving and worshiping country it once was.”

I found an article written by my late Aunt Addie Dawson about the old one-room school that she attended in days gone by. It reads, “When the month of September comes with its hot days, cool nights, and all the signs of coming autumn, from somewhere in the past I seem to hear the sounding of a bell—not the church bell, nor the dinner bell, nor the low tones of a sheep bell, nor even the bells that Edgar Allen Poe wrote of. But it is the clear tinkling of the school bell as its clear sound brought children flocking to the little one-room school houses that dotted the hills and valleys of Clay County.

“Today only memories and the old spots where the school houses stood remain in our minds. The one I remember best of all was the one known as Twistabout, but later took the name of Liberty School. Many pleasant memories flood our mind as we think about of the good ole days of early childhood, but one of the most precious was back in 1922 when a revival meeting started. That was really something for they were not nearly as numerous as they are today. Schoolhouses were used at that time for church services.

“Our teacher was Miss Joy Keller and the preacher was Will Hayer. Day services were a real treat for us kids, as classes would end with the morning recess for the services, and there was no rush about ending the meeting as most of the parents were present. It was a very wonderful revival, and most of the children got saved, including myself. It was a good bunch of school children after the meeting. Today most of those school children are gone and all the older ones have gone on.”

Aunt Addie wrote a poem about the folks who attended services at the Twistabout School—I will share it later.

I’ve had more inquires about the use of wild quinces, and I am happy to share the information I have found. Wild quinces are sour and unpleasant raw, not fit for eating, but after their autumn ripening they smell wonderful and can be used to make delicious tart jelly. Quinces can also be stewed into a sauce resembling apple sauce or used as pie filling.

QUINCE MARMALADE
Slice, but do not peel, ripe quinces. Measure them; put in a steel or enamel pot, and barely cover with water.
For every quart of quinces, add the juice and thinly sliced rind of one lemon.
Bring to a boil, add a weight of sugar equal to that of the quinces, and boil for 15 minutes, stirring gently but continuously.
Raise heat, and cook for another 15 minutes, stirring continuously to prevent scorching.
Put three or four saucers briefly in the freezer.
When a blob of marmalade holds a shape on a cold plate, it is ready.
A drop or two of red food coloring can be added.
Can in sterilized jars.
Soon the summer will be ended—gather nature’s bounty while you can.