Annies Country Pantry

We are nearing the end of a chapter and the beginning of a new one at Annie's Country Pantry. Ann Muller and Ronald Muller have been saving, praying, praying, saving...you get it...whenever you begin something new lots changes, money exchanges hands and most of all Dreams, they do come true.

So, the next few weeks are critical. We are the praying type. We believe in God, more specifically, Jesus Christ. Our barber, "Bob the Barber: asks if we accept Catholic prayers cause those are the type he offers. When we were on Washington Avenue at Annie's Country Pantry Bob the Barber became like family. and so, I answer, yes, we take Catholic prayers!

I want to introduce you to Lena. Lena was my grandmother on my dad's side. When I think of my grandmother of course I think of food, but it is always good, sturdy food, the "Meat and Potatoes" variety. Christmas cookies I never saw my grandmother make, but the tins were always full and ready to be pulled from the bottom cupboard, kept in old tins. If you ask me, I ONLY like crispy cookies, frost Christmas cookies are my favorite, but my Aunt Dorothy says I will never make them right, grandma used real rendered fat, the kind that is hard to find. Now, at 62 I wish, if only one time in my life I had seen my grandmother bake those cookies.

As "young in's" my twin sister Sharon and I pretty much lived at grandma and grampa's, until my grandfather's death, when I was just 8, I remember staying there all the time. We slept in an old fashioned feather bed, the kind you flop into and that sucks you in, holds you tight and warm and the kind that wont let you get out of in the morning. Grandma Lena, she plucked those feathers, it made them more special.

Grandma and grandpa were farmers, me, I say I grew up on the farm, didn't live there really, but every morning at 4am I had the alarm set to run over and be the first one to the barn to feed the cows. I spent every day across the street on the farm, until my aunt would chase us home with the broom. 

My mom and dad worked in the city. Sharon, my twin sister who's real name I guess is "Shordy," we grew up in a much different world than our older siblings. We were raised by my grandparents, mom and dad were always gone, in the "city." We certainly did not have it as bad as our cousins who lived on the farm, they couldn't get away like we could. If our cousins across the street weren't an option we would run down to my Aunt Donna and Uncle Jack's farm and we spent countless hours there. My Aunt Donna was the coolest thing since "sliced bread"!!!! I love here dearly. She is still alive with my uncle Jack. The years of farming and life took their tole, on my aunts and uncles. It was a hard life for them and I cant imagine how they used to survive those lives years before them. Cant imagine the Depression Era.

Sometimes, I felt like farm life was the "Depression." My cousins across the street, it seemed like they lived in poverty. No one left that farm for the city, so if they did not earn it with the sweat of their brow...I suppose they just did not have it. We got toys as kids, a few, but we were "poor" enough to really, really appreciate when Aunt Dorothy made us clothes. My favorite thing I ever got....maybe I will never forget...a paisley shirt, I was 11, got it for that birthday, it makes me cry as I write this and I did not know it would, it actually takes my breath away as I write I'm crying so hard. It was a light grayish-green paisley, cotton shirt, the coolest thing tho, because I was a twin, it was the first time in my life I remember having my own shirt. Why, you ask was that one yours? Oh, that is easy, my Aunt Dorothy embroidered an "A" on the Left breast pocket. So, here is a bit of a secret, now I'm smiling as I write this....Every time I put on one of my shirts that has the "Annie's" Logo on in, yup that is almost all I wear, but there's a special secret it, its because of that paisley grey green shirt and the special feeling I got when I put it on.

I ruined that shirt, dumbest thing I ever did. I don't remember, me and Shordy likely burned it up, that's what we did when we had had it with something, when we were done. I guess my mom couldn't force us to wear clothes that no longer existed, but don't tell mom if you see her in heaven before I get there.....she'd be maaaad!!!! Oh, how did I ruin it, us kids at the country school, we had this big swing we would see who could swing the highest and then we would take turns seeing if we could crawl underneath on the blacktop and not get kicked by the person swinging. I have no idea who ever won those contests....maybe none of us ever claimed victory...but I lost that cool May morning. I crawled underneath alright, but did not know that the concrete had just been coated. Yup, when I stood up, that cool "A" it was just a smeared grey mess. I was crying and ran into the bathroom, took some of those old rough brown paper towels from the dispenser and wet them, them wiped ferociously at them, only it did not work, it made the whole thing worse. A smeared, greasy mess on my shirt with paper towel remnant "crumbs" all over it. I refused to come out of the bathroom, hmmmm, kind of like when Wendle Mackey refused to come out of the tree cause the substitute teach was mad he had a little snake in his desk he caught in the school yard, she told him he had to take it outside and release it, so he did, after he spent a few hours in the big old shchool-house tree at St. Johns Lutheran on 61/2 mile Road. Shordy and I rode our bike's to school everyday or walked. We never had a bus. Since mom worked in town, we had no ride. Shordy always forgot her hat and gloves, and by the time we got to the bar at the tracks, she had frozen, but she never made a point to bring her own. You know, last week I realized, as I was thinking about some of these memories I thought to myself, "Yes, you had to give in and give Shordy your mittens when she begged, or she would tell mom and I'd have gotten in trouble...why? Im not sure why either, just know when Shordy did that "pout" thing she did she got whatever she wanted@!@ But hey, it's on me I guess as I thought about it the other day, cause i guess had I been smart, I'd have brought two pairs, one for her and one for me.....Hey, Im not dumb, just a little slow.....so it took me 50 years of jeering on her for always having to give up my stuff to realize I could have done something different and got what I deserved I guess! :-) 

Well, I did it again, I digressed, I do that more and more now that I'm stranded at home alone with no driver's license any more....sorry, I'll get back to it....My aunt Dorothy, she turned 100 this year. My grandma Lena, Lived to 92. 3 months before her death she was still plugging away in her garden. Now you did it, Im crying again.....Dang it. 

My grandma Lena, I always thought I was getting taller, but now that I have gone thru shrinking 5 inches in the last 2 years with my back, I realize, Grandma Lena, she shrunk too. A lot. 

I just had another memory of Grandma Lena, she wore "over boots," the kind with a zipper and fur on top....I hated them, cause my mom thought they were ok for me and Shordy. I remember in that same year, '74, "snowmobile" boots came out and man did we beg for some to be cool like the other country kids who were more "city" kids than we were had. But to be fair, we wanted the snowmobiles those "city-country" kids had too. Nonetheless, mom never gave into those "cool" boots., If it worked for grandma Lena it should be good enough for us.....

Grandma Lena did not talk much....now, years and years and years later I regret that. I regret she died when I was 23 cause I was not wise enough to ask her about all the things that were important in life I should have asked about. Things I needed to know...I let them pass.....Don't let them pass....some things are more important, to important to not know....way too important to not know. I let them pass......Don't let them pass......Time will steal them forever.....Dont let them pass......annie