For your reading enjoyment, we continue to publish Rambling Vines by the late Marylea Vines as she re-calls events and names of Corning folks from many years ago. We are currently in the year 1992

Half the folks in town were running around Tuesday morning saying, “I knew it… I knew that we were in for some more Winter.” Well, I’m here to tell you it arrived in a big way, Monday night. But it is supposed to start warming up again by the end of the week. Remember though, just because we have some strange, unseasonably warm, weather most of the time, don’t forget about Blackberry Winter… we’re in for another round of cold weather around the 10th of May. It seems like they always have the Junior-Senior Prom at school during Blackberry Winter and all those pretty sleeveless, collarless, sometimes nearly backless, prom dresses had to be covered up by a Winter coat that doesn’t match anything else.

If it keeps up the warm weather, poke salad will be poking its head through the ground one of these days. I like poke salad if it is either mixed with other greens or doctored up with a lot of hot sauce. Of course, my friends accuse me of eating anything so long as can “drown” it in hot sauce. What I am really getting hungry for is some good old wilted lettuce. My favorite way to fix it is to cut up the lettuce, then cut up green onions and radishes, mix it all together then fry up a lot of bacon util it nearly burns, then dump the bacon, hot grease and all on the other stuff and feast. I don’t dare stir up a mess like that for lunch because it makes me so sleepy that I can hardly stay awake.

I had the privilege to attend E. W. Cockran’s birthday dinner last Friday at noon. Folks there were trying to recall how long they had known him. All I know is that I have known the Cockrans for so long that I can’t remember when I didn’t know them! One of the things I remember best is the Christmas that the Eulis Cochran family came over from Success to spend the day with his mother, Mrs. Elizabeth Barnett, who lived near us… Bob Cochran, who is our mayor, was so young that he had a time trying to ride the new bicycle that Santa brought him… he was all over the street, up on the sidewalks, in people’s yards, down in ditches, wobbling all over the place.

Purple martin scouts were seen and heard about town early last week and the martins were here to take up residence by the end of the week… a sure sign that Spring is on its way, I think…. as I look outside at the light snow that is falling.

Milford Hatley was a Courier visitor on Tuesday morning of last week, paying for the Courier subscription of his son, Ronnie Hatley, Jonesboro, who was celebrating a birthday, Mr. and Mrs. Hatley have been sending all their sons The Courier since they grew up and left home: the twins, Jackie lives in Lilbourn, Missouri and Jerry lives in Hayti, Missouri. They also subscribe for her brother, Dariel Denton of Poplar Bluff, as well. The Hatleys have been Courier subscribers for more than 50 years. We appreciate folks like the Hatleys.

If you missed the blooming ornamental pear tree on the North side of McDonald’s parking lot last week, you missed a spectacular treat. Those are the same type of trees as the Pride committee sponsored in the downtown area and, hopefully, in a year or so they will be just as beautiful. The town was beautiful last weekend with all the gorgeous tulip trees in full bloom, red firebushes and yellow forsythia all over the place. Three of my neighbors, Gene Graham, D.L. Burkheart, and Amos Banker even mowed their grass, Gene Kellett made garden… and he just might be out there again when it warms up, planting more lettuce. Speaking of making garden, there is no better sandwich than a couple green onions rolled up in a slice of bread, unless it is a cold biscuit with onion sets. Used to we would rush in from school because we had to help “put out” the garden. Naturally, I would be hungry, so after changing my school clothes, I would grab a couple of cold biscuits and all the time we were putting out onion sets I would be snacking. Of course there was a certain amount of dirt involved, but when a person is hungry, they are hungry.

At our house we have always had to start mowing by the first of April… I well remember getting a new lawnmower from my mom one birthday. We did things like that at our house… one year I gave her a wrought iron post for the front porch for her birthday and one year we got each other half the cost of a brick planter box for Christmas. We needed so many things that it seemed foolish to spend money on something that neither of us really wanted or needed, just because it was a special event.

I’ve got it figured out, the main reason a person never gets too old to learn is because as they get older they gradually begin to forget and have to keep learning things over and over. Take last week as a for instance. I know that I am allergic to fabric dyes and that I am never to wear anything until after it has been laundered, right? So, what ever possessed me to wear some brand new, never laundered socks? Old age, I suppose. I’m paying for my forgetfulness with the bottoms of my feet all broken out and itchy.

Johnny Starnes, Peach Orchard clued me in on a new-found fishing hole where he brought in several nice-size catfish over the weekend… a few more stories like that and I’m outta here!