Ellis
and Jessie Simmons were
my grandparents, “Granny and Granddaddy”.
They lived in East Palatka at the end of Sleepy Hollow
lane on the St.
John’s River. Their
only neighbors were
Jete and Kaky Jeter. I
am sure Jete was
not his first name, it might have been Marshall.
He wasn’t a Marshall, he was a Jete. Granddaddy and Jete spent
a lot of time
fishing. Kaky and
Granny spent a lot of
time cooking and taking care of things.
Neither
one of the houses were anything special but yet they were very special. Many of their
grandchildren had some of their
fondest childhood memories in and around that house.
Granddaddy had a tractor business out on
Route 17, Allis Chalmers. Granddaddy
had
to quit school when he was in second grade to help out his family. He made sure he got his
education. He
bought the Encyclopedia Britannica and got
up every morning about 3 or 3:30 to read.
He eventually read the entire encyclopedia but kept on
reading and
learning. In the
mid 1960’s as I was in
high school and thinking of what I might study, Granddaddy urged me to
study
computers. I had
never seen one and wasn’t
sure what it was. Granddaddy was an inventor
and loved to
experiment. He
was quite heavy and knew
he needed to get more exercise, so in the mid 60’s, he built
a treadmill. Whatever
the invention was, it usually had a
few tractor parts. He
invented a potato
digger and I believe he had a patent on it.
He also built go-carts, probably with tractor parts again. The grandchildren were the
ones that got to
test them out. Since the house had a well, the water had sulfur in it. He made an aerator. He used more tractor parts. When he built his dock,
once again he used
tractor parts. It
was a long single lane
dock with a covered shed for the boat at the end.
The decking for the walkway was 12 or 15 inch
wide diamond plate with a rickety spindle occasionally to help hold the
equally
rickety handrail. It
didn’t conform to
any OSHA standards or building codes.
Granddaddy used to sing a
song to all of
us. “Rink-tum
dink-tum do dee yoh, yon
kitchy kitchy kitchy com ee yoh. Com
ee
yoh, dor ee yoh, yon kitchy kitchy kitchy com ee yoh. “ The next stanza went into
kangaroo’s and
hippopotamus’.
Throughout my childhood I
spent as much time
at Granny and Granddaddy’s house as I could.
Even though we didn’t live in Palatka, I could
ride the greyhound bus or
the train and be at their house in an hour.
Granddaddy and I would usually get up early to go fishing
or
exploring. On the
best of days, we
motored along close to the edge of the St. John’s River
looking for something
novel. Once we came
to an old
dilapidated dock with most of the boards’ rotten out and the
shed on the dock
was not accessible from the land.
Naturally, we pulled up close and got out.
Inside we found all sorts of bottles.
I was heartbroken that there wasn’t any
hidden treasure. Sometimes
we would
spend time fishing. We
fished with a little
bread ball at the end of the bamboo fishing pole.
We usually caught brim and even though they
were small, Granny would cook them up and we ate them. When we were out in the
river, the manatee
were often there. Granny
got
nervous. She said
the “sea cows will
tump the boat over”. I
didn’t know that
tump was not a word. It
must have been a
combination of bump and turn.
Granny was a good cook, your
typical good ‘southern
‘cook. She
made homemade biscuits that
were so good and the cause of Granddaddy’s wide girth. Granddaddy loved
to eat them smothered in
either honey or gravy. Another
one of
her good dished was Chicken perlo.
`I
spent years looking for a recipe.
Just
recently I noticed in a Charleston
South Carolina recipe book, the recipe for Chicken
Pileau.
That is Granny’s chicken but a southern accent
must have changed Pileau
into Perlo.
Granddaddy was an artist. I believe it was oils that
he used for
painting. Most of
his paintings were
scenery. One of his
very best ones was a
seascape with a small row boat mostly covered with sand and the tide
was
out. He also
painted scenes with a lot
of trees. One of
them had Snuffy Smith
walking down the road.
I learned a lot from
Granny and
Granddaddy. For the
last 40+ years, who
ever went to bed first got tucked in.
I
also learned to take real good care of my teeth because granddaddy
didn’t have
any. Every night he
put his uppers and
lowers in the tea cup and that put the fear into me.
This description of my grandparents makes it seem like I favored my Grandfather, but I loved them equally as much. Granddaddy was involved in more action and Granny was the talker. I wish I could remember all the stories she told me. If I could, this would be a book.
by Pat Rauh
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