Beech Tree News Network

The month of May comes every year, thank goodness, and with it comes springtime in Kentucky, going barefoot, playing outside again and delicious strawberries around Mother’s Day. What a wonderful treat they were.
Usually we would load in the car with Mama and travel to Herman and Alphie Johnson’s patch where the berries hung in clusters. Or sometimes we would go pick at Laura Clay’s patch. We used the little wooden baskets to pick in – eating a few as we worked. Then we loaded them in the car and probably went to the grocery store to pick up a few things, like sugar, flour, Dream Whip, anything needed to make strawberry pies, shortcakes, or slow cooked strawberry preserves. Usually we picked or bought enough to pack in plastic bags or boxes to store in the freezer, then we could enjoy them in the winter months too.
There would be no way to count the endless number of strawberry pies and shortcakes or the jars of jam that have been made over the years by Mama. Many years have come and gone since those childhood days in Kentucky, but springtime never comes that I don’t remember the strawberry days in May. Thanks Mama for making some wonderful memories.
Happy Mother’s Day to all Mothers.

Mabel Romans Boone, written 1987