Mom's Unique Shell Game

 A post on facebook, prompted this blog entry. It showed several opened plastic Country Crock butter containers, with the caption "Growing up, I never knew if I was opening the butter or leftovers"

This reminded me so much of my dear old Mother, that I just had to tell a story!

Mom was not a hoarder but she did save certain things that other people would just throw away. One of the things on this list was small plastic containers. When the food in the container was used (butter, cottage cheese, cake icing, etc. etc.) the container was washed and put in the cabinet, ready for those small portions of leftovers. Our refrigerator was usually occupied with an array of these containers, with only my mom knowing the contents of each and every one (or so I thought!). 

In the old slight of hand shell game, a pea is put under one of three walnut shells lined up on the table. The short-con operator (the swindler) then shuffles the shells, arranges them again in a row on the table and asked the mark (the one getting swindled) to choose the shell with the pea. Depending on the ability of the con man or the luck of the mark, the right shell is chosen (or not).

One cold winter day, mom had packed my lunch with something hot in my soup thermos, cornbread or crackers for the thermos contents, perhaps a banana; and a plastic cake icing container full of strawberry shortcake. With coffee from my Aladdin Thermos, I was all set for a great lunch and dessert, while warming up in the truck.

I ate all of what mom had packed, saving the container of strawberry shortcake until last; a grand finale of sorts.

When I opened the cake icing container, with my spoon poised in the air, ready to dig into the succulent, sweet, delicious dessert... I saw brown... oblong things... in a brownish gravyish stuff...

It was cold PINTO BEANS!!!

Yep! I had been duped! cheated! played! Hornswoggled! By my own Mother!! Egads!

We all had a good laugh and mom was super embarrassed; when I got home and told her and the family about the "The Brown Bean Swindle!"

We Remember... All

Memorial Day - The day traditionally set aside to mourn our American Soldiers who have fallen in the line of duty. Through the years, this remembrance has expanded to include all those who have passed away.

Every Saturday before Memorial Day, my family, my brother Ralph Riggs and his family, all meet at various cemeteries and decorate the graves of our loved ones (And there is the traditional stop at the CrossRoads Store at Crider to get a candy bar and a Sodee Pop!) We have done this for at least thirty-five years.

There is also another tradition that is observed.

In the southwest corner of Ledbetter Cemetery at Crider, Missouri, there is a little red granite gravestone. In my childhood, there was just a rough stone marking the gravesite and I was told that a black lady was buried there. Through the years, by visiting with my Mom and others, and doing some history research, I have pieced together the story.

Aunt Mime and another un-named black lady were slaves, owned by Turpin Good Scoggin, who lived in the Crider area. Evidently, Aunt Mime became unruly and to punish her, Scoggin set her free. Although this sounds like the best thing that could have happened to her, it was a severe punishment. As a freed slave in the pre-Civil War era, she had to depend on the support of neighbors in the Crider community, to give her support and shelter. There were kind-hearted people that took her in and she was a fixture in the Crider area until she died in 1921.

Although the community took her in, it seems they weren't quite ready to let her be buried among "the white folks". So her grave was relegated to a lonely corner of the Ledbetter Cemetery.

On our yearly visits, we would recount this story and one year, a new red granite stone was found marking Aunt Mime's gravesite. When she was old enough to understand, Claire, Ralph's oldest grandchild heard the stories of the former slave and her heart was touched. The next year when we went to Ledbetter,  Claire and her "Papa" placed some flowers at Aunt Mime's stone.

This tradition continued on Saturday when new flowers (and a couple of cacti) were placed by Claire and Ralph to decorate the stone. In a world that seems to be increasingly dangerous, angry and hostile, it is gestures like this that give me hope and brighten my day.