All Day Singing and Dinner on the Grounds

All Day Singing and Dinner on the Grounds It was gravel and mud ruts to Mt. Olive, And we forded the shallows of Hatter Creek. Mom fried five chickens And dressed two dozen eggs Way ahead of light and worried They might spoil in the sun, The apple pie and gingerbread Cradled in my lap, safe Like the babies I dreamed I'd have someday. With the other girls at church, I shooed flies off the spread. We ate second table Before our mothers. Men came first. I fancied wish-bones But kept still. "Wings'll make you pretty," Mom declared, And I glanced cautiously at the trees Where the boys were sneaking smokes. Granddad pronounced a prayer, And Uncle Rufus piped a pitch: "Blest Be the Tie That Binds," The congregation joining in at will, Cooling themselves with cardboard fans From Bartle's Funeral Home. —Jane Brock Woodall 3 ...