Sunday, April 24, 2016

Spring, Friends & Neighbors, and Kentucky Derby Day in Eaton!!!

The year has been a bummer for me personally and there seems to be no let up to it…LOL. But in the scheme of things memories have will have to suffice to raise me up and keep me going. 

Yesterday I thought about having a Derby Party like we used to have in Eaton. When I first moved here I became acquainted with my neighbors who were wonderful people who enjoyed Soring and each other’s company…we would plan get-togethers and my favorite was “Derby Day”!

Pauline Brown would clean the fresh fish Mike and Emily Curtis would fish for (Bullhead and such)… then we would do chicken and salads with Nellie Wooten’s unbelievable Pecan Pie to finish… the Pecan Pie of which we all went into sugar shock over, and my specialty was….Mint Julep’s… both alcoholic and non-alcoholic.  Spring had sprung!

We also had Party Mutual tickets for $1… that was our wager of the day on whatever horse we would like the name of.  Sometimes my craft friends would come from Syracuse.  One year Grandpa Black won on a ticket picked for him by someone else… He laughed and laughed. 

Grandpa Black was blind and had been a postman who climbed Hamilton Hill on his route…on snowshoes sometimes in the winter.  He said he and the Hamilton postman would meet at the top of the hill.  Our personal joke was I would ask him what color ashtray he wanted…he would say “Green”… and I would hand him a different color and someone would say…”That’s not green!”...He would answer...”They are all green to me!”… And we would laugh!

One time Pauline got into the Juleps before getting the chicken ready…I can still see Judy Cramphin coming out of the kitchen accusing me of getting her mother drunk. 

One time Nellie who never drank brought “Hard Sauce” for the Pecan Pie…It was so “Hard” I decided to investigate the whiskey she had used… She turned the old bottle over to me, when I looked in the back of it… the phone number of the liquor store had only 4 or 5 digits…yikes…aged for real!

Many times people showed up with hats on…cowboy or bonnet…but always ready to eat, smile, and enjoy each other’s company for a while after a long cold winter and usually…. a cold April.


As I look at my Facebook friends today I still see a number of familiar young faces that have replaced the many older faces that have passed over the threshold…I miss them all… and our many “Good Times”!  Happy Spring to all…

Here is one of the kids that came back for a visit...this day to "Jack Ass Hill!"


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