I am told that we had the biggest snowfall in many years. While looking out our window, I thought about when I was a little girl and how much I looked forward to getting snow.

When we got a good snow, we would beg Mama to make us some snow cream. At first she would refuse saying that we would get pneumonia and probably die. We begged even more and finally she would give in. But she always reminded us that if we got sick, she could say that we were warned. I don’t remember my brother, sister or me ever getting sick from eating snow cream.

When we lived in Wright Hollow near Dale Ridge, W.B. and I would pull icicles from a bluff and eat them. We never told Mama because we knew she was fuss on us and swear that the icicles would be the cause of our death.

My son, Ralph, asked me how Mama made the snow cream. I think she simply got some clean snow, added milk, vanilla flavoring and a few pinches of sugar. That was our way of having ice cream, and besides the peddler had no means to bring frozen things to our house.

The peddler was our grocery store on a big truck, and sold us things that we could not grow such as flour, coffee, sugar or salt. We traded chickens and eggs to buy most things from him.

The peddler was also our source of local news since we did not have a radio or newspaper. He was an important part of our lives back then.

I have written before how Mama would send my brother, W.B., to meet the peddler by riding our old mule. One day the mule decided to get down and wallow on the ground. W.B. jumped off but not in time to keep the mule from crushing some chickens he was taking to trade with the peddler. He came back home crying knowing how important those chickens were to us getting to buy groceries.

It turned out to be a good thing. We got to eat chicken three times a day for nearly a week. Today, people probably never think twice about going into a grocery store and picking out whatever they need. Wonder how they would do if they had to swap chickens or eggs for groceries?

I appreciate modern conveniences, but I sometimes wish that life was a little simpler like it was when we lived in Wright Hollow.

My grandson, Randy Vaughn, visited me and then we went to see Clara Mae Hawkins, a longtime neighbor and friend who also lives at NHC. I am so proud of Randy because of his Christian faith and his concern for others. He is active in Memorial Baptist Church on Dale Ridge. I tell Randy that he should be a preacher.

He was so good to his other grandparents while they were alive. Robert and Lorene Driver lived here at NHC before their passing. They were wonderful people.

Danny and Diane Evans are the proud grandparents of a baby boy born to Nathan and Allie Evans of Cookeville. He weighed six pounds and six ounces. Mother and baby are doing well.

My roommate, Elaise Estes, celebrated her 86th birthday. Her sister, Dinah Cripps and husband, Phillip, brought her some birthday treats. Other family members also helped Mrs. Estes celebrate. Ralph and June Vaughn also came to see us on her birthday and said they have spiritually adopted Mrs. Estes.