Monday, March 17, 2014

St. Patrick's Day

My grandpa Rhoads always planted potatoes on St. Patrick's Day. I remember my sister, Jessie, and I helping out on those blustery cold March days. Grandpa always took the potato pieces out to the garden in a large burlap bag. First he dug a small hole, then he took out his pocket knife and cut out the eye of the potato and planted it in the hole. Jessie and I "hilled" up the cold, wet dirt around the plant. 

By the end of the first row of potatoes, our fingers and toes were raw with dirt and the coldness of March. Our grandma seemed to know just the right time to bring out the thermos of "milk" coffee for us. It was warm milk with just a hint of coffee. It was enough to finish the job.

When we dumped out the last of the potatoes onto the ground there were two silver dollars waiting for us among the dirt and last of the potato pieces.

I always remember this story on St. Patrick's Day and try to honor my grandpa by planting my own potatoes on this day. However, with our long winter, my
garden is still blanketed in snow. The best I can do is to toss the potatoes out onto the snow drift and see what happens.

Happy St. Patrick's Day to everyone. 

Potatoes from the bin at Rural King


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Congratulations Lou Ann Homan. Your story telling award is well deserved. I had no idea....because, "....When it comes to finding viral success (on social media) he (Buzzfeed creator Jonah Peretti) said it's not enough to have a good idea--half the time has to be spent thinking of how to promote it." So many blogs I visit kind of blow their own horn with press link to their coverage, why not,.... well maybe you don't love that but from what I see " self promotion as a Positive internet presence can lead to other things. I have seen blogs grow from their commercial connections i.e. designer trend setter lands full time job with national magazine. Today it is instagram, tomorrow ?, but then some bloggers abandon the "time" consuming blog ( some thought and effort involved ).... is the next generation developing a short attention span thanks to a twitter tweet or a picture posted?? I digress, congratulations may many more people find your stories one way or the other.

Anonymous said...

First-congrats :-)
Second-glad you're getting around better :-)
Third-I guess this means you won't be blogging very often. :-(

Lou Ann Homan said...

Thank you so much for your comments. I am so honored by the award and humbled as well. I love my work and I feel I bring great passion to it. I try to instill this upon my students as well. Thank you for the thoughts. Lou Ann