The Other Me

 

Sometimes I think there are two of me.  One of me doesn’t cook much.  The other occasionally has these days when something comes over me and I am compelled to do things I have never done before, like cook a turkey or make my mama’s rolls.  This morning it was pickles.  I have never in my life made pickles of any kind.  Today I made pickles.  Whether they are edible pickles or not remains to be seen.

It started with the corn.  I picked a laundry basket full of sweet corn early this morning to “put up” in the freezer.  Thankfully, the hot dry June weather didn’t seem to hurt the corn, or the cucumbers either for that matter.  So I got up early to try to beat the heat and pulled off enough corn to make two batches, I hoped.  As I was pulling corn, I kept almost stepping on cucumbers that were planted right next to the corn.  I hated for them to go to waste, so I picked them, even though I’m not fond of cucumbers at all.  I do like pickles, however, and I think that’s where the other me took over and persuaded me that making pickles would be a worthy thing to do on a hot Fourth of July day. I am sure my mama, if she happened to look down from heaven, was astonished.

It was getting hot when I sat at the picnic table and shucked the corn, which filled two large dishpans I found in the basement. 

I put on my favorite John Prine music on the porch and went to work.  It took about one album worth of music to finish.  It took most of the rest of the day to cut off the corn, cook it and put it in the freezer. I was reminded of what a small amount of corn remains to actually be eaten after you cut it off the cob.  A large laundry basket makes one batch of four packages, in case anyone wonders.

 In between tasks, I hunted a recipe for refrigerator pickles, which seemed like the easiest pickles to make.  The instructions say that they have to sit in the refrigerator for three days before eating them.  So, it will be later in the week before I know if they are edible.  They were pretty simple to make; the hardest part was scrubbing off the sticky residue from heating the vinegar, sugar and salt that was poured over them.  Naturally, I spilled it down the sides of the jar and on the kitchen counter.  I also used up all my sugar and salt and almost all the vinegar.

By 5:30, I was too tired to go to the Fourth of July fireworks event in town.  And I still had to get rid of all those corn cobs, water the tomatoes (see my previous story about that!) and feed the horses.  So, I ate two ears of corn then ended up sitting on the front porch with Scout, Sophie and Bear, enjoying the fireworks in the distance, listening to Willie Nelson’s Picnic on the radio and wondering how much more corn I can pick and what to do with the rest of those cucumbers.  Sophie’s puppies slept through the fireworks and Willie Nelson.

I guess this is the same other me who used to make almost all my own clothes.  I also did crafts.  Today, I hardly recognize that person.  One Christmas, I made a couple of dozen Raggedy Ann dolls to sell for extra Christmas money.  I even made a quilt one time.  I think back on that now and wonder who that person was.  If someone told me now I had to make a Raggedy Ann doll, I would just say “shoot me now.”  I can’t even bring myself to hem up a pair of pants I bought a year ago and still haven’t worn.  I also have a pair of curtains that need to be hemmed before I can hang them.  I’m not sure that will ever happen.  I still have a big box somewhere full of leftover craft supplies.  I kept it because I always thought when I retired, I might take up crafting again.  Hah!  That’s not going to happen unless that other me returns.  If she does, please, someone come and check on me.