Continued: Verses with Picture

From Grandma's Standard bound NOTE BOOK

Feb. 20, 1904

Continued: Verses

 

29.  Up the river and around the end.

My love for you

Will never end.

30.  Love no man not even your brother

If girls must love

Love one another.

31.  Long may you live

Happy may you be

Sitting on the doorstep

Thinking of me.

(This is my favorite. Grandma wrote it in my autograph book when I was about 8 years old. Wish I had taken it a bit more to heart!)

32.  Love many, trust few

And always paddle

your own canoe.

33.  Leaves may wither

Friends may die

They may forget you

but never will I.

34.  Cows like fodder

Sheep like hay.

Girls like hugging

On a very cold day.

35.  When you get old

And cannot see

Put on your specks

And think of me.

36.  When you go to a party

And don't get home till late

Remember it is bedtime

And don't hang on the gate.

37.  Tis sweet to love

But oh, how bitter

To love a girl

And then not get her.

38.  Remember me when far far off

And only half awake

Remember me on your wedding day

And send me a slice of cake.

39.  When you get married

And living at your ease

Remember I am single

And doing as I please.

40.  The taller the tree

The tougher the bark

The taller the girl

The harder to spark.

41.  Love your father. Love your mother.

Love your sister.

Love your Brother.

Love your books and love you toys

But never never love the boys.

     Blind Poets: Homer Assassin, John Milton

42.  If you have nothing
And you lover has nothing
Be not in a hurry to wed
For nothing plus nothing
Makes nothing
And nothing don't chew like bread.

43.  Roses are red
Violets are blue.
Sugar is sweet
And so are you.

44.  The grass is green
The violets blue
Remember me
And I will you.

45.  Where shall we meet love
And when shall it be
I never can live happy
When parted from thee.

(No 46)
47.  When you open this book
And this you see
Close it again and think of me.

48.  When the golden sun is setting
And your mink from care is free
When of absent friends you're thinking

Will you sometimes think of me.

Verses

From Grandma's Standard bound NOTE BOOK

Feb. 20, 1904

Verses

(I know that autograph books were very popular when my Grandma Smith was young. I've seen several of them over the years, even had a couple when I was a kid. I love the many cute 'verses' people chose to put into each other's memory books and class albums. This one seems kind of sad as I read it now.)

21.  Remember me when this you see;

You may see this and not see me.

But if the grave should be my bed

Remember me when I am dead.

(I remember...)

22.  When you see a frog sitting on a tree knock it off

And think of me.

23.  Remember me early
Remember me late

Remember me on your wedding day

And send me a piece of cake.

24.  Our lives have budded on earth

May they blossom in heaven.

25.  When your school days here on earth are parted

The happiest to you given

May you pass away from the schools of earth

And graduate in heaven.

26.  Live to make life grand and noble.

Live to make it grand and true.

Labor to act your own part bravely.

Learn to think and learn to do.

27.  My pen is poor

My ink is pale

My hand shakes

Like a little dogs tale.

28.  Always remember and do not forget

The brown eyed girl

that loves you yet.

    Myrtle Galbreath

Continued "Memory Gems" Feb 20, 1904

From Grandma's Standard bound NOTE BOOK

Continued "Memory Gems" Feb 20, 1904

17. We judge ourselves by whe we think we are capable of doing
While others judge us
By what we have done.  Henry Longfellow

18. Oh what a tangled we we weave
When first we practice to deceive.  Tennyson

19.  I would rather be right than President.  J. A. Garfield

20. Truth crushed to earth shall rise again;
The eternal years of God are hers:
But error wounded withers in pain
and dies amid her worshipers.  Bryant

Grandma's Standard bound NOTE BOOK: Post #1

What wonderful memories I have of my Grandma Smith, a no-nonsense kind of woman who wore a house dress with an apron to wipe her hands on and clunky ‘grandma shoes’. I remember her as incredibly patient and immeasurably kind.

She made oatmeal in a large cast iron skillet in the winter and set it outside the back door for the neighborhood cats so they would have a warm meal on a cold morning.

She baked awesome pies in an oven gadget that set on top of a stove burner (presumably the oven didn’t work), fried crisp golden chicken on Sunday, and made gravy that turned mashed potatoes into love/comfort/happiness on a fork.

Jennetta Balding was born on 16 March, 1887 in the Black Store area of Edwards County. She was one of 12 children and the twin sister of Annetta who married Sam Ahfield and had a large family of her own.

As my mom, Jennetta’s youngest daughter remembers the story, with so many kids at home they took advantage of any opportunity to get out of the house whenever they could. Jennetta stayed with people in their homes and “nursed” them when they were sick, which is just one of the many little connections I have found between Grandma and me.

She met Herman Smith at a community dance, and married on December 19^th, 1908, when she was twenty one. Herman and Jennetta had three daughters, Frieda (Thread), Carrie (Markman) and later, when the older girls were in their teens, Irma (Cowling). They farmed most of their life together. She had huge gardens, and raised chickens and hogs. On Market Day, she took her eggs and cream into to town and “traded” at Stewarts Groceries. During the summer Grandma canned and preserved garden produce for winter use.

She liked to use lye soap and was still making it in a kettle in the back yard when I was a little girl.

Grandma taught me to sew a little by helping me cut some quilt squares and make a quilt for a doll be. When it was ready, she quilted it for me on a treadle sewing machine, and let me work the foot treadle.

How ever ‘rose colored’ my memory is, this is how I see Grandma Smith. I only knew her from a young child’s perspective; she died when I was 19, but had been in a nursing home with severe strokes for several years before that. I always picture her standing in the kitchen, sitting in front of her quilting frame or in the garden with Grandpa.

While helping my mother sort through her things in preparation for a move, we came across an old scrap book of Jennetta’s.  It’s a narrow, brown “Standard bound Note Book” filled with clippings, handwritten recipes and copies of song lyrics and poetry.

The first few pages are records of sales and dated 1875 and 1876. Her name, in many cases written over the sales figures is her maiden name, Jennetta Balding. It looks like the book was only slightly used, and then handed over to Jennetta. After a few pages of sales figures a page is headed March 13, 1904, three days before her 17^th birthday. It reads “My time for sweeping church

1. April 3-1904

2. April 24-1904

3. May 13-1904…”

Perhaps she was given the ledger to keep track of her time when she started sweeping at the church.

The next page is dated Feb 20, 1904 and is titled “Memory Gems”. From there every page is filled top to bottom and front to back with poetry, quotes, song lyrics, recipes and useful information. The last page is dated 1946 and has a recipe for “cold mixed relish” written on it. The pages are also tucked full of clipped recipes, pamphlets and circulars.

This is my reproduction of her scrapbook/cookbook; and my way of reconnecting and staying connected to my Grandma after all the years.