November/December 2007

n On gardening: "The easiest way to tell the difference between weeds and young plants worth keeping is to pull up everything. If they come up again, they’re weeds."

n On learning: "The human mind should be like a good hotel – open the year round."

n On reliance on others: "We don’t have psychoanalysis here in the hills. We’re considered poor people so we have friends instead."

n On maturing: "A boy becomes a man when he walks around a puddle instead of through it."

n On a woman’s definition of her husband’s retirement: "Twice as much husband on half as much pay."

n On prayer: "It’s perfectly all right to pray for a good harvest, but the Good Lord expects you to keep on hoeing."

n On age: "Old age is like everything else. To make a success of it, you've got to start young."

n On sleep remedy: "Nowadays, there is a lot being said about tranquilizers. But even back in Grandpa’s time there was something to make you sleep. They called it work."

       The tongue-in-cheek, Scot-Irish bluntness can be seen in the story of the granny comforting a sick relative from typhoid. The patient said he was feeling better and expected to be up in a few days. She replied, "Well, you can’t always tell by your feelings. I remember when John Teague had typhoid, he looked about like you do and said the crisis was over and he would be up in a few days, but he was a dead man in 12 hours."