Memories From Ann: A Big Red Tomato
I must have been about five years old when we moved
to East View, Kentucky. Ms Alberta and Dad had bought a pretty good sized farm
with a large farm house situated on the front acre closest to the country road
that the farm was located on.
When we first moved in there was no running water
and no inside bath room. We had an outhouse; one of those with a crescent moon cut
into the front door. It was a really special outhouse, because it was a two seated
toilet, one of the first that I had ever seen.
We took our baths down over the hill where there was
a fresh spring running into a rock walled bathtub. I’m not sure why the water
was always warm, but it was. I’m sure it couldn’t have had a hot spring coming
into it. So the only thing that I can figure out was the sun warmed the rocks,
and the rocks warmed the water. But I really enjoyed that rock lined bathtub
with the warm water in it. Especially nice because we didn’t have to clean the
tub when we were finished with our baths; the naturally running water just ran
over and down the side, pouring fresh spring water back into that tub.
Our nearest neighbor, Mrs. Yoder, lived about a mile
down the road. Mrs. Yoder was a very nice, widow woman in her seventies. The
first week we were living on the farm Mrs. Yoder walked that mile down the road
to our house. Mrs. Yoder brought a fresh baked apple pie and vegetables she had
raised in her garden.
Among those were bright red, sun ripened tomatoes. They
were the best tomatoes that I had ever eaten my entire five years of living.
Mrs. Yoder told us we could “come on down anytime” and get anything we wanted
out of her vegetable garden. That was a statement that stayed in my mind.
One bright sunny day, I started thinking how good
one of Mrs. Yoder’s sun ripened tomatoes would taste. So, salt shaker from the
kitchen in hand I marched myself down to Mrs. Yoder’s kitchen door.
I knocked on Mrs.
Yoder’s door and when she opened her door I asked her if I could have one of
her pretty red tomatoes.
Mrs. Yoder looked at me, and then behind, around, and down the road behind me. Then Mrs. Yoder looked me square in the face and said, “Child, where’s your Mama?”
I looked into Mrs. Yoder’s kind watery blue eyes, and answered with a mumbled, “She’s at home ma’am.” Mrs. Yoder raised one eyebrow and frowned, “Child, you should not go wandering off on your own like this. Your Momma has had enough sadness with losing that baby sister of yours; when she can’t find you it will hurt her heart very sorely.”
Tears welled up into my eyes; I didn’t want my Momma to be sad. I just wanted a nice juicy tomato from Mrs. Yoder’s garden.
“Child, you can have a tomato; but you get to getting down that road to home just as fast as your legs can carry you. Understand me?” Mrs. Yoder handed me a great big tomato and I knew I would be eating it before I was out of Mrs. Yoder’s sight.
I was right about eating that tomato before I got
home. I licked a place on the tomato added a little salt from the kitchen
shaker, shut my eyes and just enjoyed. Unfortunately for me, that enjoyment lasted
until I got within sight of our house where I could see Ms. Alberta standing
out front with a baby in one hand and a switch in the other.
To this day I believe that delicious home grown, red,
sun ripe tomato was worth the switching I got for leaving without saying
anything to Momma. I’ve never tasted a tomato as good since.