My Garden...of Sorts and Memories of Deo

This is what I found when I went to use my rice vinegar today.

Its a MUSHROOM!

Yep thats right, apparently now I grow mushrooms... yeah.

Thats almost a whole bottle gone to waste. I don't even think I've had it that long... and its vinegar, thats supposed to last forever isn't it?

I only knew that it was a mushroom because when I was little, ha my ma is going to kill me for sharing this, my great grandma Deo used to grow mushrooms in vinegar and then her and my Ma would drink the vinegar after they grew the mushroom and discarded it. I'm not sure what healing quality it was supposed to have or why exactly they drank it. I just remember going into the storage room and smelling vinegar, peeking under the cheese cloth and seeing the big mushroom just floating on top of the vinegar in the big punch bowl. Ha weird.

Deo was awesome. This mushroom business was when my family lived with her and I was just a wee thing. She was always trying weird "health things." She was from Texas and she cooked like Paula Deen, with LOTS of butter! She called us kids "lovey" and though I don't remember her saying "y'all" I remember her saying "you all" a lot. Even before we moved in with her, we went to visit her and she always had candy in the cupboard by the rocking chair. I mostly remember her having those chicken bone candies.

I LOVED hearing her stories about growing up in Texas. Her family would have to hide when Pancho Villa and his gang would come around because her father rode with the Texas Ranger. She had so many cool stories.

She was a published author too. She wrote a children's book that was published in 1969 and a poem that I think was published... I'm actually not sure on the poem. But she had many stories and poems that she wrote that were not published. I remember her writing stories or plays specifically for our family home evenings.

Deo wanted my sister and I to learn to be ladies. She held a class for us and our cousins so we could learn things like how to walk with books on our heads, and drink out of tea cups properly. No joke! It was awesome!

I also remember her having one of those awesome tall phones. You know the really old ones where you have to spin the thing to each number? Yeah it was a fancy tall one right by her bed.

Well I could go on and on about her but I will just say that I love her and I am lucky to have known her as well as I did. And I am grateful for all that she taught me.