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.

A sure sign of Fall… freshly made sorghum molasses. That’s what Mrs. Louis (Martha) Ahrent presented to me one day last week. Her husband, Louis, along with his brothers, Edwin and Martin, a cousin, Eugene Bauschilcher, with County Extension Agent Mark Wenzelburger and Jerome Sollis had fired up their sorghum mill during the weekend and made molasses. These fellows have farmed for so long, that they enjoy spending their spare time with farm-related hobbies such as rebuilding and operating antique farm machinery, operating a sawmill, making wooden roofing shingles, making sorghum… I expect any time for them to run off a batch of homemade soap!

Anyway, I got a jar of the sorghum, and it will likely come in handy this Winter when making cookies. Ever try eating sorghum and cornbread? No joking, it is good, try it sometime! However, I don’t want any sorghum and butter mixed together to sop with biscuits. I got burned out on that years ago when I would arrive at the breakfast table half asleep and mixed up a whole plate full of sorghum and butter, eat a few bites and take off for school. Guess what would be at my place at the table when I ran in home, hungry as a bear cub, at noon (we had to go home at noon then or carry our lunch)… that same old plate of sorghum and butter had been kept in the warming closet of the stove all morning and I had to eat it before there was room for anything else. Let me tell you, folks in this day and time spend too much time worrying about it when their children fail to eat a balanced meal three times every day. I practically lived on sorghum and butter all one Winter and I wasn’t ever a sickly child. I got injured a lot but was seldom plain ole sick after I made it through the First and Second grades.

It’s buckeye time. Richard Ermert was by the office last week and informed that the buckeyes were falling underneath the tree in the courtyard. Also, a neighbor, Nova Sandor, who walks a lot, had a handful of buckeyes as she stopped to chat the other evening. In case there is anyone around who doesn’t know about the healing powers of buckeye, let me tell you… If you will carry a buckeye in your pocket all Winter long you won’t ever be very sick, so they say.

I’ve done it again. Last Monday evening I went home from work and spent a couple more hours working hard as a dog. It all started with moving a chair from the bedroom to the living room and ended up with me moving nearly every stick of furniture in the house… further proof that I am kin to my mama. My mom moved furniture so often that my dad used to say he would be afraid to go to bed without turning on the light to see where the bed might be.

Anway, my furniture needs in the Winter are not the same as they are in the Summer as I like to snuggle down in the big old recliner to watch television on those cold Winter nights. The television is seldom turned on in the Summer months. In the Summer I place pieces of furniture over some of the air vents but believe me, none of them are blocked during Winter. After moving chairs from room to room, I started moving a small couch to the back porch and that is where I met my match. There it was half in and half out of the kitchen and wouldn’t budge. Not wanting to spend the night with the back door wide open I called friend Beverly to come to my rescue and she provided that extra push that was needed. Once we got to the porch with the couch, we had to fold the roll-away bed and wrestle it to the storage building, another chore that left us panting like lizards.

I figured every joint would be aching and paining on Tuesday morning, but all was well, except for one small sore spot in my back that has already worked itself out.