Young Arnon's Letter, and Other Thoughts

Diana got me rolling on this post when she sent me a wonderful letter from her then eleven-year-old Dad to his father. I had been sitting at the computer, attempting to type up Great, Great Grandma Cordelia Taylor's daily jottings about chores, etc. from 1892 and it could be tough going with her handwriting and abbreviations. I was at one spot that I knew had to be wrong; what else could it be based on the word before and after it? Get the light and turn it up. Hmmm, think like I was back in time.

So, when the computer dinged that I had an email, I was ready to take a break and check it out.

“Going through lots of old stuff I came across this letter that Dad had written to his father--spelling and punctuation are Dad’s not mine! "

South Byron, NY
April 8, 1931

Dear Daddy,
I got your letter you sent me this morning. You can have all the parsnips and vegetable oyestors you want because we have not eaten any. I guess they are all right. The sap has not stopped running yet but it is getting sour. The hens are laying good, we have not got below six eggs since you have bin gone. The wood has held out good. I have not burned it as fast as I could. Harold does not walk yet but pretty near though. I asked mama and she said go chase yourself (about you coming home Saturday night)

We went down to Mrs. Barbers for dinner she had just baked bread this morning and I ate seven or eight biscuits. Did you read about the little boy (age 13) save 18 children, only five died. We went up to Mrs Haskons (The Hotel woman) and she gave us each a ice-cream cone. (all together there was four of us.)

Mama says we can not take our play house because it would cost us around $50 to move it. She said we could get another one or go without one. It depended upon the us when we got down there, (we are pretty old for a play-house.) Something awful has happened to Ruth. Sunday night she opened that bottle of (Bajah Sandrich Spread) and Monday morning she could not find it. She says it is just like losing a playmate prettynear. I told her she had hought to have a reward of five cents if any body could find it. It rained a little tonight not hardly any though I liked the letter you wrote me. Mr Kicks brother’s wife died down to Byron. I helped Mr and Mrs. Rick this after noon. Mr. Rick is going to cut my hair Thursday or Friday. I can not think of anythink else so I will close.

Your son
Arnon Taylor

P.S. Do you think you will get here for supper Saturday night. We will wait for you. Lucille still sucks her finger, I bit it.

Diana finished by asking: “I was trying to decide if Lucille was sucking her finger because it had been bitten or if she just sucked her finger and Dad bit it? Did Ruth ever find her missing Sandrich Spread?”

Well, to be truthful, I almost fell out of my chair when I opened this email. I was back in early to late spring in 1892 and the twins Lloyd and Floyd—Bryant’s boys-- were a few months from being born. I was reading scrawled family tidbits like:

Feb. 15th: Wash a few things, and also iron—lest I be worse. Chest & side very painful but hope for relief soon. Am quiet and do not talk. Make onion sirup.

I thought to myself—Did I read this wrong—who has ever heard of onion syrup? However--Onion Syrup (thank you internet) is a healing mixture of onions and honey used by ‘our grandmothers as an old recipe for coughs’. Okay, I must have read that right. Onward to the next day’s writing!

Later in March, Cordelia writes “Boil ham, make sirup, cook taters and onions and stew apples whole quarters. “ Then, in April : “Cut & pack a crock of ham. Very nice. David & Maggie Kerr come to dinner, and all night. Have churning and other work. Visit as best we can. “ A few weeks later, “Take up the dreaded job of making beeswax—glad to begin—gladder to end. Cough does not like to give up. Hope on and ever. "

I love that Cordelia is so human--she loves ironing instead of washing and she apparently loathes making beeswax! Also, she always seems to be sick. But, then I come to a tough one to read. I re-read it and turn up the light.

“Cold & freezing, but wash with D. T. (husband’s) help, and so get on nicely. Cook veg-oysters. Work on sheet and fancy work for a change from much mending. Cough is bad.”

Nahhh, whoever heard of veg-oysters. But, dictionary.com worked on onion syrup, so I give it a try. Hah! Only asian recipes that clearly are NOT what Cordelia had in mind.

Then, I read Diana’s letter, and almost fall out of my chair-- They exist!

NOW I know that vegetable oysters are the root of a plant more commonly called ‘salsify’ or ‘purple goat’s ear’ and are ‘excellent when cooked’; clearly, young Arnon did not agree with this cooking website. But, if you are interested and look, you too can find recipes for creaming or frying or scalloping these root vegetables.

Did Ruth find her ‘sandrich spread’, and did Arnon get another play house ( I think we know the answer to that—he built one as soon as he got big enough), what happened to the 18 children who survived the fire, and did Cordelia’s cough ever get better (I’m guessing that since she died years from then, the answer was yes)?

Cordelia, like many of her time and place, passionately and truly placed her whole Self in the hands of the Lord; she wrote of Him in every one of her daily jottings. She would not find my questioning veg-oysters and Arnon’s letter a coincidence—even such a item of little importance, or that Diana, who admitted to having found this letter a while ago, took this exact moment to email me. Cordelia and G.K.Chesterton would agree wholeheartedly on Chesterton’s quote: “Coincidences are spiritual puns.” Now, about this next sentence of Cordelia’s….

Picture One:The Taylors in early 1931--a few months before Arnon wrote the letter

Picture Two: Vegetable Oysters!