Beans

I had forgot that I wrote this a few weeks ago and then never ‘posted’ it. So here it is if you’re interested.
I have always maintained that I eat a lot of what my body tells me I should eat. I suppose that is true, to one degree or another, for us all. So It’s not always hamburgers, pizza, steak and eggs (fried in axle grease), ice cream, or potato chips (potato chips, now there’s a food group all by itself), sometimes I do eat vegetables and I do have a diet somewhat south of being a true carnivore. Lately I have taken a liking to soups and especially bean soup or just beans. I’m guessing it’s related to my medical condition and the trouble I have because of it. Beans are easy to digest, I think, and they do help me do what I need to do. Or as you will read below maybe it’s just hereditary. But without giving you more information than you really wanted, let me get to the real point.
I was eating a bowl of Bush’s Best Great Northern beans and a slice of bread for lunch and thought of my dad. My Dad was a true bean eater. I remember having navy beans cooked with a soup bone lots of times growing up. My Dad liked beans and to some degree we needed to eat cheap. Money was tighter than most of us would find now and I guess we had to save money where we could. I grew up on peanut butter sandwiches for lunch and oatmeal or cornmeal mush for breakfast. Don’t get me wrong, I had plenty to eat, it was just cheaper stuff. Anyway Dad liked beans even to the point of eating cold bean sandwiches. And when we would go down to the ‘hills’ to visit family and old friends we went to this one old place where there was always a pot of beans on an old electric burner and I can still see him digging in. Beans, beans, beans!
That gets me to thinking of going to my Uncle Binks place. It was just on this side of the ridge from the ‘bean house’ in the previous paragraph, up at the top of Skeeter Hill. No kidding! Binks was a short, plump guy that wore nothing but ‘Bib’ overalls. He lived in the old Sines family home. At least as far as I know it was the old family home? And Binks was the only Sines relative I remember. I think my sister Sandy remembers an aunt and cousin and she may refute some of this, but it’s what I remember. And even though I have done quite a bit of genealogy on both family trees, it’s a little difficult to sort out. Didn’t ask when I could and now it’s too late. I’m sure a common affliction. And, ‘by the way’, the reason I write some of this stuff. Anyway, the house was relatively small, I only remember one bedroom, a parlor, and a kitchen/dining area. There may have been another small room. It wasn’t much but it was really neat! The parlor was virtually unused and had a big old overstuffed sofa and what I remember as nice stuff all covered with doilies. The kitchen had a coal burning stove as a center piece, a hand operated water pump next to a sink, and a wooden table with benches for seating. No running or hot water but a big kettle on the stove. And as I recall Dad liked a big drink of that cool well water from the pump. I remember being a little skeptical. The bedroom was lined with bookshelves holding every Louie Lamoure, Zane Grey, or any other ‘western’ ever written. That is what Binks did. Read westerns. No TV and I don’t even remember a radio. The kitchen had a bare light bulb hanging from the ceiling. To me it was like two homes. There was the real nice parlor and outside the door on that side of the house was a brick walkway with neat flower beds, two huge pine trees and a combination wood/wire picket fence. I remember peonies all along the walk and by the fence. Then there was the very rustic and utilitarian kitchen side and a porch where you would expect to see two rocking chairs and old folks smoking a pipe. But I really can’t remember the furniture. I do have a visual of maybe just a two or three person bench. Off the porch was an old shed just full of old tools and treasures and I remember playing there a lot. About 50’ up the toward the gravel and cinder road, on an old well worn stone path, just passed the outhouse, no indoor plumbing, was an old, old garage that probably had a model “T” in it that Binks took to town. But I can’t see a car. I just kind of feel it! Weird !! Beyond the shed was the garden. A large garden. I remember lots of potatoes and corn especially. And I remember Binks digging potatoes. Mostly though I remember cheese and bread. Saturdays Uncle Binks made bread in his old coal stove. That was a regular thing when we went to the ‘hills’ on the weekends back in the late 40’s and early 50’s. Fresh baked bread and big hunks of ‘longhorn’ cheese from the old ‘general’ store in New Straitsville, Ohio. The old ‘general’ store had a cool room that was built back into the side of the hill and that’s where they stored big wheels of cheese. Damn!! That was good stuff. Made more so by the years I’m sure. Anyway…………………… I guess that was my Dad’s home. I know that in the 1910 Census he was two years old and the youngest of 6 kids. Interestingly, what I learned from my Dad does not agree with the record. I can’t explain it, but the little that I remember from Dad and Uncle Binks just doesn’t match my genealogy search. But!! That is another story. Stay tuned for another exciting episode of ……………….