Mom (Aunt CB) and I packed up sandwiches and
brownies and drove down to LeRoy, New York in June to visit Evelyn
Taylor. Her husband, Bryant, was always one of Mom's favorite cousins
and she has missed him greatly since he died 19 years ago. His
parents were Floyd (son of BW and Emma Carson Taylor) and Goldie.
Evelyn happily greeted us and we settled down in her
living room to catch up on news. Actually, I think I had only met
Evelyn and Bryant once before, more than 40 years ago. They had just
come back from a stint in Australia and attended the wedding of "that
girl who didn't change her name when she got married."
"That
would be me," I told her.
Evelyn is in her 90s now
and so inspiring with all that she is doing! As readers of this blog
know, she writes wonderful stories about her earlier life with Bryant
and their three kids, Lance, Pam and Mitch. On this visit, I learned
that she is still part of a writing group that meets frequently.
She had set a beautiful table for lunch, with lush
roses in the middle and matching dishes, beautiful linens, and lovely
serving bowls. As we ate and chatted, I asked about the collection of
graters that covered one whole wall of her kitchen. That's when we
learned that she is in the midst of writing a book about kitchen
graters, with a prospective publishing date for this fall. It will
include pictures, recipes, and special chapters about graters for
nutmeg, cheese, sauerkraut and soap. To be honest, I had never
imagined graters for sauerkraut and soap!
We were
admiring the silverware, so Evelyn disappeared down the hall and
searched in a closet. When she came back, she placed before us four
small spoons.
Three of them, she said, were "coin
silver." I had to look that up, and learned from Ask.com that it
is "silverware produced in colonial America up until just after
the Civil War. European coins were melted down and cut into flatware
and serveware." They felt much lighter than usual silverware,
almost like aluminum.
One had the initials "BW"
on it. We assumed this was for Bryant's grandfather, BW (Bryant
Waller Taylor). We wondered whether that might have been his baby
spoon. Another had the initials "LT," which we thought was
probably for Leon Taylor, BW's son and Bryant's and Mom's uncle. We
couldn't make out the initials on the third spoon. These second and
third spoons were tiny, possibly intended as salt spoons.
The
fourth spoon was "newer" and more ornate, with the dates
"1852-1902" engraved on the handle. This, Evelyn said, was
a spoon commemorating the 50th wedding anniversary of Daniel Taylor
and Cordelia Waller Taylor, parents of BW. So, altogether, between
the spoons and those of us at the table, we represented five
generations of the Taylor family!
After lunch, when we
re-settled in the living room, we talked some more about Mom's
cousin, Bryant. We laughed and laughed when Evelyn told us that, for
a second job, Bryant drove a schoolbus in the mornings to take
children to kindergarten. He was a wonderfully outgoing person who
charmed the kids with songs and funny sayings. Adults still come up
to her and burst into one of his songs in particular, Evelyn told us,
the words of which are:
I had a little chicken
And he
wouldn't lay an egg
So I poured hot water up and down his leg.
The
little chicken hollered
And the little chicken begged.
And then
the gosh-darn chicken laid a hard-boiled egg!
