Poker Perambulation

WHEN the frost is on the punkin and the fodder’s in the shock,
And you hear the kyouck and gobble of the struttin’ turkey-cock,
And the clackin’ of the guineys, and the cluckin’ of the hens,
And the rooster’s hallylooyer as he tiptoes on the fence;
O, it’s then’s the times a feller is a-feelin’ at his best, –James Whitcomb Riley

Today is our second frost warning. Seems to have missed even hitting the shed roof. That means “Injun Summer” is still in the future. Although the local weather men persons have proclaimed it, the actual rule is that it must be a warm spell after the first frost – which hasn’t happened yet. A bit late this year and fodder for the global warmers.

But Otis is in the mood and kitchen brewing up a batch of apple butter. We’ve ‘festivals’ that do it outdoors with huge cast iron wash pots sitting over glowing coals and the smell of apples and spices blending in with the reenactors or craft show crowd. There are orchards around the area too that are pressing real apple cider on two lane state routes near the Amish areas that are close by.

It is a sweet-sour time in reality. The glow of summer has passed and the days are shortening. We locals start spouting about not wanting to live in any area that doesn’t have four seasons. But another saying we’ll be reusing shortly is “Colder than a well digger’s backside.” and that isn’t what most folks look toward with joy.

It – like every other time of year – is a rememberance time. When you hit my age, there is more of that. My grandmother would always clip out the “Injun Summer” graphic that was used every year on the front page of the Chicago Tribune. I didn’t get it then but I do now. It was tradition and that relates to remembering and she had a lot that she was trying to share with three dumb kids that she loved.

There was a story with it that works well with apple butter and you can see it here.   You might want to print it out to share with yours.

It is nice to see Otis and his visiting Mom doing one of the simple acts that creates family remembrances. It might not seem like much to many. We tend to concentrate on our bad beats or remembered hands in poker blogdom. But, years from now, will you remember hitting that one outer or things like Grandma Otis showing you how to make apple butter?

P.S. My mom isn’t around but a jar of her apple butter sits on an honored shelf. It won’t get opened after about 20 years. But, I did open the next to the last one a couple of years ago and it still tasted of great times past.

ADDENDUM:

I use Firefox and an addon called NewsFox for some of my feeds. I also use the normal links for a lot of the regular ones that may not have a feed associated with them or that I’m too lazy to add. It is a handy way I usually start the day and often pick up some of the oddities I look for in creating the addendum section. You might like it. There are online spots you can do the same but this one is working for me and resembles my email setup. Just click on this to see an example:

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 28th, 2007 at 6:32 am and is filed under Journal, Off Topic. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.