Alice Sawyer, Chowan County, Remembers When

From Special Memories: A Collection of Stories by Chowan County Extension Homemakers

I Remember When by Alice Sawyer

I remember when I learned to cook an egg. The only problem I had was it would not come off that stove. It was stuck tight to that old wood stove. I didn’t grease the stove or use a frying pan. Of course, I was only four years old.

I remember when I used to go to my grandma’s house. She didn’t have a bathroom and going tout to that old toilet was quite an ordeal. Sitting over that old hole, I imagined all kinds of things that might bite. Of course the corn cobs and Sears catalog made you soon forget about crawly things.

The little house with the half moon was the place of solitude, quiet and deep wandering imagination.

Some tried their first cigarette in the outhouse but got caught when the moon began to smoke.

I remember driving with Mama and Daddy on nine-foot roads to go to Winfall to visit relatives and getting down in the floor because I was afraid of a certain church. I grew out of that, fortunately, but learned my Mama was a member there when she was a girl.

I remember when my husband was “chirping,” imitating a bird, and two ladies who were shopping in the same store ran their carts head into each other. They both were looking for the bird which they thought was near the bird seed. It was really funny to see all those two liter bottles which had fallen from their carts spinning aimlessly and pop squirting everywhere and they still searching for the bird.