Grandma Lilly In Her Kitchen

Mrs Lillian, Grandma, Mrs. Lilly, World's Best Cook, Sheriff Dillon Devotee

I have many pictures of my maternal grandmother, but this is my favorite, for it is the only one that I have of her in the kitchen. The lady loved to cook and she was nothing less than a genius when it came to the culinary arts, not the jazzy stuff you see on television, but the real stuff where you take a chicken, some flour, some lard, a few different vegetables, some sugar, tea, and you feed the masses that come to your door.
See that sheet in front of her? That covers a table of food that has already fed the gathered once that day and is waiting on them to get hungry to eat again. As you can tell, the house is old and lacks all the modern conveniences, but it was the house that I most wanted to be in, especially on a Sunday at dinner time, which was what you modern people call lunch.

The whole town of Fort Mill knew my grandmother as Mrs. Lilly or just Grandma. She loved people and she loved it when those people would allow her to cook for them and offer them a place to sit and talk for a spell. First Baptist church did not start until Grandma was in her seat, though my Grandfather never darkened the door. Grandma worked in the cotton mill across from her house until she could work no longer, but she never stopped taking care of her family.

Grandma loved to ride in her car. When her second from the youngest son was killed in Korea, she took her part of the insurance money and bought a new Buick, though she could not drive. Anyone could drive the car so long as they satisfied one condition, she was the front seat passenger. Sometimes, when she just wanted to ride, she would take her pocketbook, go sit in the car, and wait for someone to come out and take her somewhere. She has sat in that car for a couple of hours waiting patiently.

Grandma's other great love later in life was Sheriff Matt Dillon, of Gunsmoke. She did not miss the program for anything. If you were in the house when it was on, you stayed quiet.

Grandma had a great sense of humor and told some rather bawdy jokes now and then. She loved to laugh and tell her stories. She dipped snuff and a spitting can was always close by. She was the best pea and bean sheller in the family and we always went to get her when we had lots of them to shell.

When Grandma gave up house keeping after Grandfather's death, the kitchen table that she had came to our house to replace our old one. Hers was a metal table with a green formica top. I can see it as well today as I could fifty years ago. When we took it into our kitchen I told my mom that it was sad for I feared that I had eaten my last good meal off that table. We laughed, for my mom had inherited her mom's cooking skills.

Today, the two things in my house that I hold the most attachment to are the old cast iron wash pot and the ceramic biscuit bowl that belonged to my Grandma. So long as I am here, they will be also to remind me that whatever I am, I owe so much to this grand old lady.