Grandma Gailey Made-Do

Grandma Edna Puckett Gailey
with two of her six grandchildren
Linda Kay Stone and Judy Richards

As kids we used to always go to "Seven Mile Park" for picnics. I remember when I was just a little girl the entire family would pack up in the car and drive the few miles south of town for a picnic and an Easter egg hunt. It was a beautiful place-full of rocks to climb and places to hide. There was a view to die for. I remember when I came back home after being married and living away in other states I was disappointed that the view that we had enjoyed was marred by taller trees and bushes, obscuring the wonderful Texas rolling hills that are so beautiful. I thought the least the Texas Department of Highways could do was to preserve that view! Guess I was wrong. You still can't see for miles like you could when I was a child.

Grandma used to pack up boxes with fried chicken, deviled eggs, potato salad, cakes and cupcakes. I don't remember what the picnic basket looked like, but I imagine it was a cardboard box, not a fancy whicker basket.

She made wonderful potato salad and I make it the same way-with pickle relish, celery, onions, pimento, boiled eggs, mayonnaise and mustard mixed into potatoes that have been creamed with milk and butter. Yum!

I hope I expressed to Grandma my gratitude for the food she always prepared for us as kids. She always had something good to eat when we came home from school and on the weekends. She didn't have a lot of money - but neither did a lot of people back in the early 50s. I remember many times when she would send me up to the corner store to buy 1 onion, or a can of tomatoes so she could make her wonderful vegetable soup. She didn't use meat. The soup was a make-do meal that she served with fantastic cornbread. (I still can't make that cornbread like she did.)

Anyway, I was remembering Grandma this morning and how she "made-do" and how we as Americans are learning a little more about that in this particular time in history.

Show your gratitude. Tell your parents and grandparents thank you! I wish I had done that more often.