IDA GREEN'S COUNTRY GROCERY STORE

IDA GREEN

Eighty-two year old Ida Green greeted me with a wide smile as I stepped into her country grocery store. She stood at her small checkout counter facing the front entrance door to her 24’x34’ store. I introduced myself and told her that I heard about her store through a local man who has lived most of his life in the area. We did a bit of small talk and then I proposed that I write a little story about her life of fifty plus years of being an owner of the only store for miles in a rural part of Madison County. She agreed to do so but corrected me and told me that the fifty-two years included early years when her mother was the original owner. She became the owner after her mother relinquished ownership. However, family is family – Miss Ida was still involved in the operation of the store for the fifty-two years plus.  

MISS IDA'S SHINY WHITE GROCERY STORE SNUGGLED ALONG
A COUNTRY ROAD WITH A FEW OTHER HOMES

The cement block grocery store remains physically the same as when her mother first bought it. 

MISS IDA'S OUTDOOR SIGN

The following is part of her story of how times were different fifty-two years ago from present times:

When I first started with the store, folks around here all had large gardens, horses, a milk cow, chickens, hogs and other animals. Most could feed themselves with what they had except for a few staples and that is where we played a part. During those early years most of our sales were in bulk. Coffee, sugar, corn meal, and flour were our big sellers. We sold other things like fresh meat that we would cut and wrap with paper and string  for our customers. I still have the paper cutter in the store but don’t use it. Can’t sell fresh meat anymore as we don’t have running water and the health department tells us we have to have it to sell fresh meat. I still have the old meat case that kept the meat cold but now I only put pre-prepared food that needs refrigeration in the case. 

COW BELL SERVING AS A STORE BELL ANNOUNCING CUSTOMERS
WHEN YOU OPEN THE ENTRANCE DOOR

In this area, times have changed considerably from fifty years ago. It used to be that people lived more independently on their small farms, were trustworthy, and really no crimes were committed. The doctor in the area made house calls – he even set up a clinic once in awhile in our store to give vaccinations. Horses were still used, in some cases, for transportation. Today one has to deal with drugs, break-ins, and dependence on large grocery stores for your everyday food. Raising your own food is becoming rarer as time passes. 

CUSTOMER STANDING AT THE SMALL CHECKOUT COUNTER

Many of the old time farmers grew tobacco for their way of earning money. They would run a charge at the store until their crop would be sold and then they would pay us. This could be up to a year that we would carry over their charges on our books. No such thing as charge cards – we just wrote it down as they put things on charge. They always paid their debt.

At one time we had a gas pump where we sold Ashland gas, mostly to farmers for their tractors. 

VINTAGE SCALE STILL ACCURATE

I am a native of Kentucky -- married and divorced with four children. I have lived in the same house for sixty years right near here. Recently, the post office named the street after me as I had lived the longest on the street of any of my neighbors. It is now called Ida Green Lane. She smiled as she said it.

VINTAGE WHITE ENAMELED  MEAT CASE

Miss Ida has a spot located in the back of the store where she has two very comfortable upholstered chairs and a large screen television. She laughed as she told me that this is where she sits and watches soap operas when she is not busy with the store.

COMMUNITY BULLETIN BOARD
ON FRONT OF CHECK OUT COUNTER

The place where the store is located has had many names over the years – Bear Wallow, Dreyfus, and Waco. It was called Bear Wallow during the  early settlement days as bears were frequently seen at the local salt lick. Bear Wallow is still commonly used to designate the location

THE OFFICIAL SIGN ANNOUNCING THE
NAME OF THE LANE THAT MISS IDA LIVES ON 

Overall, the store contains a variety of goods and vintage pieces. It is neat as can be and a charming place to stop to pick up a few essentials

Miss Ida is a realist, she knows that times change and she is making adjustments to the supplies she carries to keep pace with present needs. Ida Green’s Grocery does serve the locals well. 

CONTEMPORARY CRAZY QUILT BLOCKS -- ROUND ROBIN STYLE

CRAZY BLOCK MADE INTO A PILLOW

As I stepped into the Berea Appalachian Fireside Gallery this past August, I was met with a small exhibit of contemporary crazy quilt blocks. The blocks were artistic, diverse, colorful, and had particularly fine needlework. There was a sign near the quilt blocks that introduced the exhibit as "Out On The Line IV." The artists of the blocks were women from a group called The Berea Depot Quilters.

BLOCK MADE INTO A DISPLAY PIECE

The sign's information also stated that the blocks were made using the round robin method. I was totally unfamiliar with round robin. I contacted the quilt group and talked to Carol Ann White about the the method. Basically it is a few quilters working on crazy quilt blocks. 

A BLOCK IN THE MAKING

Above is an example of a block that is just beginning to be worked on. You can say it is pretty much in its raw state. As you can see the block has ten crazy quilt pieces. This means that ten quilters will be involved with working on this particular  block. Each crazy quilt piece of the ten pieces of each block will be assigned to one quilter who will add her unique needlework during the round robin. 


Each quilter will have a block of ten crazy pieces to be passed around simultaneously to all ten quilters  -- each quilter getting only one of the blocks at a time.


As each quilter has the block for a month it will take ten months for each of the  quilter's blocks to be finished. Each of the ten blocks will contain a collage of all the persons involved with this particular round robin. 


Hope this explanation is understandable -- please send me a comment with any questions about how to do this round robin.

LION DETAIL ON A FINISHED BLOCK

The lion block above displays some of the work accomplished on one of the blocks. Below are some of the individual blocks that were in the exhibit.

CRAZY QUILT STYLE ON A FINISHED BLOCK

WEB AND SPIDER SURROUNDED BY OTHER DESIGNS

MIX OF VIBRANT COLORS AMONGST THE CRAZY QUILT PIECES

A DELICATE ICE CREAM CONE SURROUNDED BY LACE

GARDEN VARIETY OF CRAZY PIECES 

BEE, BUTTERFLY AND FLOWER PIECES

LACE, 2009 DATE, AND A PORCUPINE

I felt the quilt blocks were both eye-catching and striking -- certainly a reflection of the quilter's love of their craft.


The quilters involved were: Rita Barlow, Pat Jennings. Linda Murdoch, Deannee Oliver, Barbara Taylor, Sarah Vaughn, Ginnifer Watts, Carol Ann White, and Jo Ann White.

A SIMPLE FALL DAY

Misty morning finds my son
collecting straw out of the old barn to mulch the garden 

This morning started out with cool temperatures, gray overcast,  and a misty rain. Very conducive to wrapping yourself in a blanket and reading a book. But, my son  decided to remove the old straw that has been sitting in the worn old barn since I moved in -- a left over present from the former owners. He wheelbarrowed many loads down to the garden and mulched it to bed for the winter. 

I made a quinoa and veggie dinner and then we decided to take a long hike with the dogs Sal and Lil.

It was a simple fall day of good company, good food, and good deeds.

Lil and leaves in creek 

My son and Sal hiking in the woods

Maple leaves cast odd colors in the late sun of the day

Fallen leaves line creek bed while Sal and Lil roam

OUTHOUSES -- A THING OF THE PAST?

Two Section -- Two Door Outhouse
Small Town Commercial Area
 Paint Lick, Kentucky

Now most folks will think that outhouse use is past history. Oh yes, there are the national and state parks that have outhouses -- but do households have them? Well according to my 2010 edition of The Old Farmers Almanac there are plenty of outhouses still being used in this country. In fact, 670,000 U.S. households are without indoor plumbing. According to the U.S. census this number is part of the approximately 114 million households in this country.

Outhouse basic design is a small space with door/s, roof and walls over a pit for human waste with a bench seat above covering the pit. The bench seat has usually one to three holes depending on traffic use. No air conditioning, heat etc. It is just a plain place to get in and out as soon as possible. 

Unpainted Household Outhouse
Madison County, Kentucky

Toilet paper was not used in early outhouses. Various items were used in place of toilet paper -- corncobs, leaves, rags, newspapers, catalogs, etc. Really this was a good thing. Why? It was a good form of reuse.

Today we are using up 27,000 trees a day globally to produce toilet paper. How long can we keep this up as our population grows. Using recycled toilet paper helps alleviate the strain on forests. 

General Store Outhouse
Estill County, Kentucky

Outhouses were not just used by households. they were also used by commercial establishments, schools, and churches.One problem with them was waste leakage into the ground water. Another was odor -- a factor that resulted in many outhouses being placed a distance from the the main structure. For household members -- this could be inconvenient as dipping temperatures were difficult to deal with in the middle of night. Usually chamberpots were used for human waste during the night. 

A one hole interior of a farm outhouse

As outhouse pits (holes) became filled a new hole would be dug and the outhouse moved over it. The old became a place where one threw away unusable items to eventually fill the hole. The items that were thrown in the old hole became history layers from items such as dishes, tools, etc  -- telling the story of the household over time. Archaologists and anthropologists are aware of this and use these old pits for archaeological digs. 

Leaning from age -- a country church outhouse
Madison County, Kentucky

There are even regular folks that are aware of the items to be found in these pits --  folks called diggers. They are particularlly interested in old bottles. 

So the lowly outhouse still serves a vital part in many households but also serves to tell us about our cultural life. Outhouses are as alive today as in our past.. 

SOURCES:

History of Privies, Sussex -- Lisbon area Historical Society, Inc. Wisconsin.

"Flushing Forests," Worldwide Institude

IS IT WINTER YET?

BARE BRANCHES AS WINTER STEPS TOWARDS US

This last Friday, while outdoors doing some yard work, I glanced at the sky and thought that it looked like one that signaled the impending approach of winter. The trees were half bare and a heavy cold feeling was in the air. 

Officially winter does not begin until  December 21 with the winter solstice. Yet, in the UK and Ireland winter begins November 1st. They consider the winter solstice as midwinter. The shortest days and weakest solar radiation  are during November, December and January therefore, it seems reasonable to use the November date.

LOOK CLOSELY TO SEE SEE THE "LIFT-OFF" OF THE BLACKBIRDS IN MY YARD

About a week ago the yearly flocking of blackbirds paid their late autumn visit -- hanging around for about two days.  I stepped outside to take a photo of their hundreds and hundreds --  to capture the density of their population.  My appearance outside created a dynamic "whoosh" of nature -- synchronized instant take off and flight. They were beauty in motion with the sound of hundreds of wings flapping. It was a mixed flock and I believe there were even some flickers in the numbers.

GATHERED BUTTERNUT SQUASH

Friday, I gathered the last harvest from my garden -- butternut squash. There were seven large ones that had hidden themselves in the weeds of my garden. They were beautiful and will surely be delicious, hopefully. I realize that they had been sitting on the vine for sometime. 

PROLIFIC GOLDEN COSMOS -- STILL GOING STRONG

The only other plants in the garden that were still producing were my golden cosmos. They had outperformed this year with stalks six feet tall and laden with glorious gold blooms.

BUTTERNUTS WAITING TO BE CLEANED UP
 FROM LYING IN THE GARDEN SOIL

Saturday brought a light frost. No snow flurries as had been predicted. Really, I thought, why do we wait until the winter solstice to declare the official entrance of winter? I am going on the Irish winter schedule -- it just seems more in tune with nature. Happy winter everyone.

NATURE'S INALIENABLE RIGHTS

ROAD TO MY PLACE IN THE FALL

Where I live -- is on a ridge surrounded by woods and fields that provides some of nature at its best. That is best using today's standards. During Audubon's time -- who knows how we compare. I imagine the time that he spent in Kentucky was one of a prolific constant maze of nature. I can only imagine this by his writings and work as photography was not developed then.

Today we have surveys and tagging and modern technology to record nature -- all kept in articles and journals for us to peruse. We are aware of nature's decline because of these documented records. We can't compare Audubon's time to today's time but we now can compare the changes of nature over the last few decades. And what do we see? Degradation, that is what we see -- to our oceans, mountains, land and air and more. And, what is being done about it? Not much government wise. Small organizations, located within various countries around the world, are working diligently, attempting to stop this march toward a natural Armageddon.

OVERCAST WINTER DAY AT MY PLACE

Now we can maintain hopelessness in our psyche and tell ourselves it is inevitable that we are a world scheduled for natural disaster down the road or... we can look at a wonderful concept that has taken hold in Ecuador. It is  brilliant and is wedged into a legal document. That being Ecuador's constitution -- where the citizens of Ecuador overwhelming voted to include inalienable rights to nature.

Ecuador is the first nation in the world to make such a monumental move toward saving Mother Earth. 

The group that helped Ecuador formulate the language to insert into their constitution was the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund located in Pennsylvania. 

REBIRTH OF SPRING ON BEAR MOUNTAIN

Now some of you might wonder why I am just writing about this now when the Ecuadorian constitution was passed by its voters about a year ago. Well, we just had a national election and to me that election fortifies my belief that we as a country are becoming the "vessel" of give-aways. 

We are giving away  our natural resources to corporations. How? By buying off our elected officials with corporate money. Buying them off so the newly elected, corporate funded, congressional members will support scraping off every bit of mother nature to place money in the corporate funders pockets. All short term thinking. 

As an example the gas and oil industry put 19.5  million dollars into the coffers of some candidates (of this past election) who will probably repay them back by voting for such projects as drilling in the Artic National Refuge in Alaska.

SWIRL OF SUMMER LIFE IN MY GARDEN

The Ecuadorian constitution would not permit such a corporate holocaust to happen. But, we are up for grabs as we do not have a tight legal defense. Our laws have so many loop holes. We need an all encompassing statement in our constitution that will stop this wholesale robbery of our resources.

That statement could read like the Ecuadorian constitution: 

The new constitution gives nature the "right to exist, persist, maintain and regenerate its vital cycles, structure, functions and its processes in evolution" and mandates that the government take "precaution and restriction measures in all the activities that can lead to the extinction of species, the destruction of the ecosystems or the permanent alteration of the natural cycles." 

I live on a ridge with clean air and water and almost non-existent  introduced chemicals such as pesticides and herbicides. I consider myself fortunate. However, every form of life should have this opportunity to live safely, thoroughly and lively.  No ifs, ands, or buts, about it as my father would say.

GRAPHIC 2-SIDED GAMEBOARD

HANDMADE GAME-BOARD -- DATED 1986

I like graphic items that are funky and display individual creativity. For me, handmade gameboards usually characterize these attributes.  

Gameboards have been around since ancient times. Some examples would be  checker boards or Chinese checker boards. Individually made boards can be painted in any color, have designs other than the game design painted on the board, be of different sizes, be of any age, handmade and sometimes signed by the maker

FUNKY PAINT COLORS ON ALL WOOD BOARD

This particular board is dated along its wooden frame -- 1986. Not that old but still of the folk genre. It also has a faint name next to the date, M... Lam., difficult to make out. It has two game sides. One being checkers and the other a game I do not know. I guess I wasn't much of a board game player when I was young otherwise I would know.

This board is both folk art and a symbol of a folkway. Folkway, as the individual  crafting of a gameboard  is a socially established custom. 

CHECKER BOARD SIDE 

From ancient times to the present --  gameboards have been made by individuals reflecting their personal interpretations of how the board should appear yet keeping with the game design.


For folk appreciators -- its not the game that is important but the construction, colors, and spark exuded by the visual design that matters. No matter the age.

APPALACHIAN ADVERTISING BARN

KINGSTON ADVERTISING BARN - SIDE 1

Going... going ...  almost gone. That is the condition of a barn in the rural  Kingston community of  Madison County, Kentucky. With this decline one realizes the loss of a historic vernacular advertising barn.


Most folks are familiar with the Chew Mail Pouch Tobacco ads that are painted on barns, mostly found across the eastern part of the country. However, old barn ads cover a wide spectrum of products. In the case of the Kingston barn (above photo) we see an ad for Standard Motor Oil. 


Barn advertising was very popular during the period of 1900 to 1940. Companies paid barn painters to adorn ads on barns while the barn owners were paid a small stipend each  year. The advertising company was responsible to keep the ad freshly painted.  

KINSTONG ADVERTISING BARN - SIDE 2

This particular barn in Kingston has two sides painted. Each side has presentation to the flow of traffic in a particular direction. In the photo above one can see that the second painted side has most of its paint worn off and only the word GAS can be made out. 


It is difficult to date when this ad was painted on the Kingston barn. One local I talked with said he could remember the ad being on the barn since he was a boy about 45 years ago. Of course he also mentioned that it could have been there longer than 45 years. 


Today such painted barns can be considered historic landmarks. Some have been federally listed as National Historic Landmarks. Many are in decline or have been demolished. Efforts to save these artful treasures could bring community pride to rural areas. 


SOURCES:


Advertising Barns by William Simmonds


Rock City Barns by David Jenkins


Mail Pouch  Tobacco Barns,  Wikipedia