Franklin County, Nebraska

For Another Day

Editor’s note: this column is a continuation of last week’s article concerning Johnny and Donnie Fritson.

A few years ago, Johnny and Donnie moved to J. B. and Emma’s house. Tom and his wife, Marilyn continued to live in the old house until it was damaged in a gas leak explosion. I remember that day…I was so sad for them, but also for myself.

I called quickly to see if all was safe and heard that Marilyn was hurt and had a long road to recovery. I also learned that the house was beyond repair and was demolished a few days later. It hurt to think that I could never go through that door again, but soon I resolved to accept that fact.

In my memory I can always go there, back to those wonderful days of our sons playing in the pool and the swing in the tree. I can always walk around that yard in my mind and see the lily pond, the lawn moved so low and the strawberry patch. I can spend a hot afternoon on the east porch in the swing and look to the east across the cornfield. I can savor the thought of eating creamed fresh peas and radishes from the garden. Donnie and I can still walk out to the chicken house and see the chickens and eat mulberries from a tree, on the way back by the gas tank.

My dad and I would go to the big mulberry tree by the hog lot and pick the biggest berries I ever saw. They were so sweet and we ate until our hands were purple. Dad loved that day and I was happy to share it with him. Just for a minute, we were back pickin’ huckleberries in our beloved West Virginia.

Reminiscing, I can imagine climbing the stairs to the bedrooms and looking out the west window to see the pigs eating below. I can once again see Tom and Tammy’s bedrooms. Donnie kept such a nice clean house. Their home seemed to me, to be under control at all times. Donnie said she cleaned on Saturday.

Back down the stairs I see the fish in the aquarium. The water was as clear as glass and there were pretty black fish, angle fish and blue neons swimming around inside. Into the living room I can go where we sometimes watched television, but I preferred to be in the kitchen.

Donnie had nice stainless steel pans she cooked in and I learned what product to use to keep my aluminum as clean as hers. They had a special refrigerator with a light in the door and the ice and water came out of the door into a glass. I thought this was cool and I wanted one too, but most of all they had a dishwasher and I wanted one so bad. I exchanged with Duane, making homemade bread all the time for a dishwasher. I got it and I was in seventh heaven.

Donnie had a drawer in the cabinet next to the fridge that she kept the homemade bread in and another cabinet drawer held lots of different store bought cookies. My sons loved to eat out of that drawer. There were real candy bars in there too.

As we washed the pots and pans at the sink we looked through cream lace curtains, trimmed in orange, to the back yard toward the trumpet vine that grew on the fence. Donnie never put her pans in the dishwasher for it was hard on the handles.

I can take a memory trip back to that kitchen on a summer Sunday. I can sit at the kitchen table and eat a hearty meal and look toward the porch door and outside to the west. I see a branch on an elm tree that hung down low to give some shade to the house. I remember how it swayed in the hot winds of summer. On one of those tree branches hung a gourd birdhouse. Just outside that west porch door was the cellar where the home canned goods were stored. A quick cooked meal was never a problem to Donnie for down in that cellar was stored the best food. If it was winter or muddy we scraped our feet on a scraper embedded in the cement of the sidewalk.

Winter visits to that house were fun too. My son, Pat remembered the electric train set on the 4 x 8 plywood board, that ran on an oval track at Christmas time. We talked of that just a few months ago. This was Johnny’s toy train set as a child and it was so fascinating to my children.

Johnny and Donnie always went to Axtell to get their live tree. Once I went with them and got one too. They had such a lovely tree in the corner of the living room of that old two story white house. A gas stove standing in the dining room warmed the house inside.

I was with Donnie when I bought my first pair of blue jeans when they first became popular in the early 70’s they had wide legs and a wide waist band; I think she got a pair too. Since that day I have been wearing jeans and will, until I am 80 plus years old. Cotton jeans are the most comfortable things a person can have on.

Donnie and I went to Hastings one day in their pickup and I bought my old green shag carpet for our living room in our old house. I was so happy to have that carpet to cover the big living room of our first country home. The carpet for my kitchen in that home came from J. B. Fritson’s house. Johnny and Donnie helped me lay that carpet. Then, I had two rooms with warm floors. I remember that orange carpet yet and I smile when I think of that day.

Johnny was the one I called when there was a skunk on my back porch of our old house. I didn’t know what to do. He drove all the way down and disposed of it for me.

Watch for the continuation of my memories in next week’s newspaper.

To free, what I am pleased to call to mind. Bert Taylor 1866-1921

Rena Donovan, For Another Day.

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